Citizens' Assembly on Climate Change and Biodiversity
Working together to become one of London’s most sustainable boroughs, join us on our journey.
What is a Citizens’ Assembly?
A Citizens’ Assembly is a group of people who are brought together to learn about and discuss an issue or issues and reach conclusions about what they think should happen.
Governments and parliaments around the world are increasingly using citizens' assemblies in their work. The assemblies enable decision makers to understand people's informed and considered preferences on issues.
They are used for a diverse group of people to voice their opinions.
Citizens' Assembly members are selected at random, to represent the community.
The people who attend learn and discuss issues together. They then make recommendations about what should happen and how things should change.
In this section:
Barnet’s Citizens’ Assembly
In June 2022, the Environment and Climate Change Committee agreed to deliver a citizens' assembly.
Barnet Citizens’ Assembly brought together 60 randomly selected residents aged 12-90, between February and May 2023 to develop recommendations in response to the question:
"Barnet has declared a climate emergency. What more can we do together to make Barnet more sustainable, now and in the future?"
The assembly had 2 groups:
- 40 residents aged 18 and over participated in a Citizens’ assembly (30 hours)
- 20 residents aged 12 to 17 participated in a young people’s assembly (18 hours).
The two groups came together at key points to share their experiences, ideas and recommendations.
Themes explored by the Assembly were based on the council’s sustainability commitments
Participants developed recommendations across these themes and decided which recommendations should be a priority for action. An additional theme of learning, communication and partnerships was added.
Recommendations were developed following opportunities to share experiences and learn about climate change and sustainability in Barnet and beyond, aided by presentations and interactive activities.
Throughout the Citizens’ Assembly process we held a number of ‘Show and Share’ sessions. These were open for anyone to attend to hear about what had taken place at the most recent sessions. These were led by the lead facilitator from TPXImpact.
The recommendations
The 2 Assemblies produced this list of 20 priority recommendations. The Council Cabinet accepted these recommendations completely on 26 June 2024.
Waste and sustainable consumption
1. Encourage and educate Barnet residents on how to reduce the amount of food waste.
2. Improve waste management through easier recycling and by addressing fly tipping.
Learning, communication and partnerships
3. Educate children and young people on sustainability and climate change through curriculum delivery and after school activities.
4. Integrate courses on climate change, sustainability and green skills across schools, businesses and apprenticeships. This should be available through online courses, local career speakers at schools and work experience opportunities that enable people to develop practical skills such as horticulture.
5. Target education and communication using a wide range of channels that are accessible and appropriate to all diverse communities.
6. Create different campaigns and raise awareness across social media with concise and direct videos that are comedic and relatable created by everyone, including influencers & policymakers.
Nature and biodiversity
7. Identify unused spaces and infrastructure across the borough (for example; fields, old railway tracks, green walkways) to develop biodiverse green spaces and cycling paths for partnership between council and local community volunteers.
8. Commit to planting more trees in existing and new green spaces to promote biodiversity and wildlife.
9. Encourage more school gardens, so that everyone has access to green spaces, and use the school gardens to grow food to use in school meals.
10. Encourage and support local farming for fruits which will help create support for veganism and reduce the carbon emission for shipping.
11. Use parks to promote local businesses through weekly markets and fairs.
Travel
12. Have an integrated sustainable transport plan for the borough.
13. Develop a strategy to make roads safe for active travel, with an emphasis on cycle lanes.
14. Move towards more accessible (must be accessible to all people including disabled people), frequent and cheaper electric bus routes for people to use across Barnet.
15. Encourage investment in green, public transport to improve the environment, safety and well-being.
16. Provide schools with subsidised bikes for students to use for journeys in and around schools.
17. Properly invest in electric vehicles, encourage people to see the benefits and help with payment plans.
Housing, buildings and renewable energy
18. Incorporate green and sustainable design processes in all new builds and infrastructure.
19. Retrofit council properties and provide grants and subsidies for people in private housing to make buildings net zero.
20. Make housing more sustainable by installing solar panels and providing subsidies to improve appliances.
Council response
In November 2024, we responded to the recommendations. It shows how we have acepted them and how we will incorporate them into future work.
Download our full response (PDF, 1.2Mb)
Middlesex University was an independent evaluator of the process on our behalf. Dowload the full report of their findings (PDF, 500 Kb)
Community action groups
To help put the recommendations into practice, we set up Community Action Groups. We themed these around the recommendations from the assembly.
In January 2024 we invited residents and members of community groups to the following action groups:
- Housing and energy
- Transport
- Waste, sustainable consumption and air quality
- Learning, communication and partnerships
- Inter faith
The groups met between January and July 2024 to deliver joint actions between the community and the council.
Young people
The Young people’s assembly showed enthusiasm to get involved in a social media campaign. This which led us to create ‘Go Green this Christmas’. A 10 day countdown of useful tips to be more sustainable during the Christmas period.
Young people are showing an interest in career opportunities in environment and sustainability. So, we put together a ‘Work Experience Day’ where Barnet Council officers gave an overview of working for a local authority.