Climate Citizens' Assemblies #4: Depolarizing climate change

How can Citizens’ Assemblies help us move beyond political deadlock and could they broaden public support for climate policies?

Countries are ‘nowhere close to the level of action needed to fight global warming’, according to a recent UN climate action report. At the same time, climate change also proves to be a threat to our democracies, as it deepens inequality, fuels civil unrest and leads to political deadlock. If it is so difficult for representative democracies to reach agreement on insufficient climate measures, and if even these mild measures lead to this much civil unrest, what will happen if measures need to get more rigid? Climate change won’t wait for us, so how do we break through this political deadlock and gain more public support for effective climate policies? Can Citizens’ Assemblies offer a model to help reduce the level of polarization around climate change. And if so, how?