FAQs

What is a Citizen’s Assembly?

A Citizens Assembly is when a group of citizens come together to deliberate upon a particular issue (or multiple issues) of local, national or international importance. These citizens are randomly selected to reflect a population on a range of demographic characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity etc). Citizens’ assemblies give members of the public the time and opportunity to learn about and discuss a topic, before reaching conclusions. The purpose is to study the options available and to propose answers to questions through rational and reasoned discussion as well as by directly questioning experts.

Why is Lambeth running a Citizens’ Assembly?

Lambeth Council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and have committed to become carbon neutral by 2030 across the emissions they have control over. However, most emissions come from the rest of borough – from our homes, businesses, and other organisations. The Assembly is being convened by the Council, but independently run by Traverse, to bring residents together to hear from climate experts, practitioner and people impacted by climate change. Residents can then deliberate climate solutions, the trade-offs involved before developing recommendations for the borough at large: the residents, organisations and other services.

What will be discussed at Lambeth’s Citizens’ Assembly?

There are three phases to the citizens assembly. The first is to learn about climate change, the second is to learn about what is happening locally and the third is to decide upon what recommendations should be taken forward. The participants will be discussing, and developing solutions to, the question:

‘We are facing a climate crisis. How can we work together in Lambeth to address climate change and its causes fairly, effectively and quickly?’

Residents will hear evidence from experts as well as the evidence submitted in 2020 on the Climate Action Common Place site.

When is the Citizens’ Assembly?

The Citizens’ Assembly was originally going to be held at the end of last year. Due to the pandemic, we migrated online. It will now be held from 25th May – 3rd July when 50 of Lambeth’s residents, selected to represent the borough on a range of demographic characteristics, will engage in a Citizens Assembly on Climate Change. This will be held online over a 6-week period.

Who is involved in the Citizens’ Assembly?

The assembly is independent from the Council and is being organised by expert facilitators, Traverse. To ensure recommendations are developed into a borough-wide plan and acted on, the Assembly is also overseen by a ‘Steering Group’ made up of organisations in the borough who will commit to act on the borough-wide recommendations, such as the Brixton BID, Guys and St Thomas’, TfL and Lambeth Youth Council.

How are participants chosen?

50 of Lambeth’s residents were selected. Assembly participants reflect the borough on a range of demographic characteristics, including gender, age, ethnicity, attitudes towards climate and disability. They were selected independently by the Sortition Foundation, a not-for-profit company dedicated to promoting fair, transparent, inclusive and effective deliberative assemblies.

Why is the selection process important?

We want Lambeth’s Citizens’ Assembly to have the highest level of legitimacy with randomly selected participants. The reason we select people like this to take part in a discussion is to help make this kind of process as legitimate as possible. If you take a group of people who broadly reflect the diversity of their community, give them time to hear well-sourced information about a complex topic like climate change and facilitate a discussion about the issues and the possible ways forward with each other, then this is a very legitimate and effective way to make decisions that affect everyone.

There are several benefits. With a lot of debates that happen right now for example in politics or on social media, the focus can be about soundbites or speaking mainly to our own bubbles or tribes of people. This kind of process on the other hand is about taking time to find out what's really going on, understanding different points of view, and working together to find a way forward that seems reasonable to everybody, even if we don't always agree. When we have a diverse group of people in the room, with different experiences and different ways of thinking, we are more likely to come to a well considered way forward than if everyone has similar backgrounds and experience.

Can I attend the Citizens’ Assembly?

Every resident and member of staff will be able to engage live with the process on Common Place. Unfortunately only participants of the assembly can attend. Although there will be some sessions where it is possible to have public representatives present and members of the council.

What happens after the Citizens’ Assembly?

The final session is on 3rd July, this is when all participants come together to reflect upon the stories they have heard and the evidence presented over the previous six weeks. Considering all of the evidence, they will then decide what recommendations to take forward which mean that Lambeth as a whole borough can reach Net Zero by 2030. These recommendations will then be used to form the basis of a Climate Action Plan for the whole borough.

What is Net Zero?

Net zero refers to a state in which the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal out of the atmosphere. The term net zero is important because – for CO2 at least – this is the state at which global warming stops.