FAQ - Citizens' Climate Assembly

Q: What is a citizens’ assembly?

A: A citizens’ assembly is a group of people who come together to learn about and discuss an issue or issues and reach conclusions about what they think should happen.

A citizens’ assembly is usually made up of between 40 and 150 people, who are chosen to accurately reflect the wider population or community. The assembly members learn more about a subject and hear balanced expertise and experiences on the issue. They then hold structured conversations on specific questions, supported by trained facilitators, and work together to reach sensible conclusions about what they think should happen. Citizens’ assemblies like this one have been used across the world - when given the space, evidence and time, everyday people can help tackle tough challenges and deliver sensible ways forward.

Q: What is the Southampton Citizens’ Climate Assembly?

A: The Southampton Citizens’ Climate Assembly aimed to bring together 40 local residents, who are chosen to accurately reflect our wider community. These residents looked at climate change and transport in our city, hearing balanced expertise and experiences about the issues. Theythen held structured, focused conversations, supported by trained facilitators, to work together to reach sensible conclusions about what to do. These conclusions form a key input to Southampton City Council’s work.

Q: Why was the Southampton Citizens’ Climate Assembly set up?

A: Southampton City Council is committed to addressing the challenges presented by climate change and has set ambitious net zero targets. We have also committed to work together with local residents and businesses to figure out how best to achieve these goals. A big part of this effort relates to how we travel around our city - transport represents nearly a third of the city’s emissions and, unlike other sources, these emissions have not gone down in recent years. So, the Southampton Citizens’ Climate Assembly explored questions about climate change and transport in our city.

Q: When and where is the Southampton Citizens’ Climate Assembly happening?

A: The Southampton Climate Citizens’ Assembly took place during November and December 2023. Weekend 1 was two full days in person on 4th and 5th November. Weekend 2 was a half day that took place online on 25th November. Weekend 3 was another full two days in person over the weekend of 2nd and 3rd December. The in-person weekends took place at the Southampton Civic Centre.

Q: Who are the assembly members? How were they chosen?

A: The assembly members were made up of 40 Southampton residents from many different walks of life. Together they reflect the Southampton population in terms of areas such as their age, gender, ethnicity, whether or not they have a disability, and where they live in Southampton.

We used a process known as a ‘sortition’ to select the assembly members. This is the gold standard internationally for how to recruit for citizens’ assemblies. The process starts by sending 8.000 letters to addresses in Southampton that are selected without bias from the Royal Mail’s postcode database. This gives everyone with an address in Southampton an equal chance of receiving an invite to take part.

Q: Are assembly members being paid for their time?

A: For attending all five days of the assembly participants received a total of £340 to, in a small way, recognise the time they have given up to take part in the process. This is also essential to ensure the assembly is accessible, and attractive to, a wide range of people, making it possible to select people to take part who together reflect the population of Southampton in terms of areas such as their age, gender, ethnicity, whether or not they have a disability, and where they live in Southampton. This is standard practice for citizens’ assemblies in the UK and internationally. We pay this compensation for participants’ time in the form of direct bank transfer or vouchers. If participants are concerned that this may impact on their financial circumstances they are advised to seek independent advice; e.g. from a benefits advisor.

Q: What will happen to the Southampton Citizens’ Climate Assembly recommendations?

A: The assembly’s recommendations is detailed in full in a report that was made public on the 8th March 2024. This report was presented to the council, who formally responded to its content, and are using it to inform their own decision making. The council will also share the recommendations with businesses, communities and other key stakeholders in the city, encouraging them to consider the recommendations and use them to guide their own decisions.

Q: How can people other than assembly members get involved?

A: The assembly has now completed its reccomnedations. You can read about them in the Southampton Citizens’ Climate Assembly Final report.

Q: Who is funding this citizens’ assembly and how much does it cost?

A: The Southampton Citizens’ Climate Assembly was funded by the council and the University of Southampton, with additional funding from Oxford University. The total costs were £172,000. This is a unique and enhanced citizens’ assembly process where the Universities of Southampton and Oxford contributed to the costs and the process to help better understand how assemblies can have positive impacts for councils and their residents. The University of Southampton was the largest contributor (67%), followed by the council (23%) and the University of Oxford (10%). The University of Southampton also contributed time to the assembly's work in kind and without payment.

Q: Why are two universities providing funding?

A: The University of Southampton provided funding for this assembly as part of their research into how innovations in public participation restore and sustain democracy as part of the Rebooting Democracy project. The University of Oxford provided a small amount of funding through a British Academy Fellowship scheme which is exploring how innovations in Citizens’ Assemblies can increase their impact.

Q: Who ran the assembly?

A: The council, University of Southampton and University of Oxford worked with two organisations on the delivery of the assembly itself:

Involve is the UK’s leading public participation charity. They work to build a vibrant democracy, with people at the heart of decision making. They lead the delivery of the citizens’ assembly, ensuring that it was independent and well run. Amongst other projects, Involve have run many high profile climate assemblies across the UK, at both a local and national level.
The Sortition Foundation is a not-for-profit company that promotes the use of randomly selected groups of people in decision-making. It was responsible for recruiting 40 assembly members to accurately reflect our wider community.