Citizens’ Assemblies and the Climate Emergency: Lessons for Design to Enhance Climate Action

This report examines the design and political conditions necessary for climate assemblies to effectively enhance climate action, noting that their impact varies by scale and is often hindered by the inherent complexity and polarization of climate issues.

• The influence of climate assemblies on climate action varies by scale, with more significant impacts observed at the local level compared to the national level.
• Climate assemblies often face challenges rooted in the nature of climate change itself, such as the urgency of the issue, the scale of required system changes, social complexity, and polarized public debate.
• Many climate assemblies have been limited by overly broad remits, insufficient time and resources, a lack of data regarding social impacts, and weak connections to the general public.
• While typically conducted as one-off events, there are advantages to institutionalizing climate assemblies within decision-making processes to better address climate change.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Citizens’ Assemblies and the Climate Emergency: Lessons for Design to Enhance Climate Action. https://www.wri.org/research/citizens-assemblies-and-climate-emergency-lessons-design-enhance-climate-action

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Citizens’ Assemblies and the Climate Emergency: Lessons for Design to Enhance Climate Action. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/citizens-assemblies-and-climate-emergency-lessons-design-enhance-climate-action.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Citizens’ Assemblies and the Climate Emergency: Lessons for Design to Enhance Climate Action |url=https://www.wri.org/research/citizens-assemblies-and-climate-emergency-lessons-design-enhance-climate-action |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendcitizens, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Citizens’ Assemblies and the Climate Emergency: Lessons for Design to Enhance Climate Action}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/citizens-assemblies-and-climate-emergency-lessons-design-enhance-climate-action}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }