id: oxford-citizens-climate-assembly
title: Oxford Citizens' Climate Assembly
description: >-
  A specific citizens' assembly model piloted by the newDemocracy
  Foundation and Oxford City Council, in which a stratified random sample
  of residents deliberates on climate policy and reports recommendations
  to council. Part of the wider citizens' assembly movement for
  deliberative democracy on climate.
source: Oxford City Council / Oxford City Council
source_url: https://www.oxford.gov.uk/citizens-assembly-climate-change
tags: [citizens-assembly, climate, sortition, local-government]
forked_from: null
image: null
steps:
  - headline: Recruit by sortition
    description: >-
      A stratified random sample of around 40 Oxford residents is recruited
      to reflect the city's demographics on age, gender, ethnicity, and
      deprivation.
  - headline: Learn over multiple weekends
    description: >-
      The assembly meets over two or more weekends, hearing from climate
      experts, stakeholders, and each other, with time to question and
      deliberate.
  - headline: Deliberate in facilitated small groups
    description: >-
      Members deliberate in small facilitated groups, working through
      trade-offs and drafting recommendations, with all voices
      supported.
  - headline: Vote on recommendations
    description: >-
      The assembly votes on each recommendation. Recommendations that pass
      are reported with the level of support and dissent noted.
  - headline: Report and council response
    description: >-
      The assembly reports to the council, which commits to respond to
      each recommendation — accept, reject, or adapt — within a set time.
outcome: >-
  A representative body of residents produces considered climate
  recommendations, and the council is bound to respond publicly to each.
practice: >-
  The council's commitment to respond is what gives the assembly weight.
  Without it, the assembly becomes consultation theatre. Sortition, not
  self-selection, is the legitimacy.