As part of the climate action series, this event aims to bring to light initiatives showing how citizens around the world are catalyzing climate action, pushing out of “business-as-usual”, and adding a transformative impetus to the political agenda. The event will deep-dive into the concept of public participation with a goal of better understanding how citizens’ actions can complement and influence the multilateral processes such as the COPs or government-led actions. We define public participation as “any process that involves the public in problem-solving or decision-making and that uses public input to make better decisions”.
Citizens around the world have become a driving force to push for climate ambition and are contributing their own knowledge, wisdom and creativity to challenge experts, policy makers and institutions. Many see civic engagement as a powerful approach to reframe the very process of participation – including citizens’ significance in policy and decision-making – to shape top-down initiatives and propose alternatives. This event aims to learn from case studies of citizen-led climate action initiatives around the world and reflect on the diverse angles and participation approaches which work towards policy changes to keep the 1.5° alive. We want to give an idea of the variety and evolution of collective mobilization for climate advocacy and understand how citizens’ actions complement and influence multilateral processes such as the COPs or government-led actions within the institution. We want to assess the impact of climate-related civic engagement in the last 10 years and understand why, despite so many hurdles, citizens keep going with multiple forms of engagement to fight the climate crisis.
We do not want to instill division. Instead, we wish to promote cooperation by creating an inclusive forum for a variety of stakeholders to express their views. The event intends to empower participants as agents of change and inspire them to act, whether it be individual steps to collective mobilization. As such, this gathering is also organized as part of another series of events to celebrate the 25 Years of the Geneva Environment Network – the pivotal platform of international Geneva dedicated to enhancing collaboration among stakeholders in the fight against the triple planetary crisis – exploring and highlighting frameworks and partnerships that can strengthen environmental governance and inspire action across all levels.
Participants are warmly invited to join the event in Geneva in room XVII. It will also be livestreamed on the platform We Don’t Have Time and remote participants are invited to register through the following page: https://www.wedonthavetime.org/events/climate-solutions-to-keep-1-5
