Borgerinitiativet Direkte Demokrati – Democracy Direct

Proposal for the creation of a Climate Council in Silkeborg Municipality.

Background: The civil service as a method “Citizens’ is the Danish translation of” Citizens Assembly “, which covers a mixed bag of methodical ways to get a nicely large collection of citizens to authenticate and vote on recommendations on how a community challenge is to handled. There are some traits that go again in this method area, and the Danish climate belt is planned within that framework: 1) The citizens are found through lot. The climate distribution is extracted with Statistics Denmark according to the same principles used in representative surveys. There are some who believe that citizens should be subject to “bourgeois ombuds” so that they are forced to participate when they are extracted, but it has never been practiced. What commonly happens is that a large pool citizens are extracted randomly and representative and that those who report themselves have chosen to participate. So there is both an element of coincidence and an element of “self-selection”. 2) The civil service is nicely large. You often hear that there must be approx. 100 citizens. In practice, citizens are conducted with participation of 25-150 citizens. Both in the EU and globally works with ideas about Citizens assemblies with several thousand participants. There are thus great variation in the number of participants.

In Silkeborg Municipality, the creation of a civil Climate Council is proposed. The number of participants reflects the size of the municipality (100,000) and constitutes Thus, approx. 1/2 promille of the municipality’s population. The participants are selected by drawing among the residents of the age group 12 years +++ the draw takes place through extraction of the Join Register or via Statistics Denmark implemented as representative Selection according to the principles of questionnaire studies. Participation in the bourgeitation starts at the 12th year. The reasons for this is that from this age it is possible to handle abstract thinking and thus understand the meaning and consequences of the choices taken. There is no age limit for participation. Participants must have permanent residence in Silkeborg Municipality. It is voluntary to participate in the work of the citizens, which is why a gross group, which ensures the opportunity to reach the participant 50. No compensation / diet is granted by participation. The collections of the citizens takes place physically. (The citizen house) Meals are provided.

3) The Climate Council holds many and long meetings. In the Danish citizen relationship, phase 1 corresponds to April for just over three weekends, and another weekends are expected in the autumn phase 2. There are some who swear for five weekends (~ 75 hours), others believe that minimum must be 100 hours (~ 7 weekends), but there are also Examples down to eg. One weekend + five evening meetings (~ 40 hours). 4) There must be a political mandate. This, as a definitable minimum, means that it must be political decision makers who have put it in progress. They should also promise to listen carefully to the civicization, considering their suggestions thoroughly, and, decent, also giving the citizens a feedback on how to use, or does not use its proposal. It is a live discussion, whether politicians should promote the recommendation of the citizenship, but in practice it has never happened that it has been promised and that the promise has been held. In the Danish civics, much is done to make sure that the recommendations are supported with arguments because deep understanding of the recommendations promotes politicians’ willingness to take them. 5) The corporate process must be transparent. It often happens through websites where the process is reported, expert statements, results, etc. be put forward. Evaluations and consequential research are often associated.

In Silkeborg Municipality: The municipal council (city council) decides, no later than the end of September 2022, to go forward with the project (and any other civicing) The Climate Council meets in semi-annual sessions through the call for three weekend collections in The spring period and one weekend in the autumn (starting in the first quarter 2023). In the spring collection, work is based on the current status of climate efforts in the municipality, followed by professional inputs, assessments and discussions of which recommendations the Climate council is proposing. The proposals are recorded and processed by the city Council at the latest at the city council’s June meeting. No later than the end of September, a joint evaluation meeting is held between the Climate Council and the city council.

Silkeborg Municipality creates and drives a website and possibly. A Facebook page, which helps to make the corporate process and results available to the municipality’s residents.

6) The facilitation must be made with arm length. It must be an independent “third party” that collaborates directly with the civil service to ensure against political interference in its work. 7) The civil service must receive the necessary amount of information. It often means in practice that an information material is provided, which is correct and balanced, by various experts have had it for review. In addition, the citizens often get an overwhelming lot of oral presentation from experts and stakeholders. 8) The civil service works through dialogue. In practice through alternating plenary and group work. The rather large production of texts takes place in a number of smaller groups, each of which is responsible for a theme / subject area, and who are agreed on their own text. The group gets feedback from other groups / plenum and ultimately comes the time of truth when it turns out whether the group’s proposal can collect majority throughout the civil service. 9) The content is prioritized and written by the citizens themselves. There is a great deal of difference in how free theme has been for the citizens. Sometimes a sharp defined theme – such as Acceptance of abortion in Ireland. Other times it is very open, such as. The climate array here in Denmark. But no matter how sharp the boundary is, the citizens who themselves decide what they want to write about what they will conclude, and it is also the bivalve’s subgroups who write the texts that eventually be voted.

In Silkeborg Municipality: The weekend sessions are carried out in a collaboration between the civil and external 3rd party (arm’s length principle). 3. The party participants have and disclose professional knowledge to the bourgeitation and facilitate the settlement of the sessions. Necessary financial resources are marketed in budget 2023. Agreements with 3rd party participants are publicly offered. The civil service and 3rd party participants are given the necessary information that is true and sufficiently in-depth and properly balanced, and the civil service is also provided with oral presentations from experts and local stakeholders invited by the civil service. The civil service even organizes its work process. The civil service works dialogoriented and draws up itself its conclusions directly available, the city council for treatment (most recently the Junime) and the result are sent for evaluation at the Community meeting in the autumn. What conclusions submitted to the city council are determined by general majority decisions. The autumn meeting is led by an external conductor who has in-depth knowledge of the processed process and adequate professional knowledge of the conclusions transmitted. The point indices are downloaded from Lars Klüver: climate borning – status and perspective. http://www.nytfokus.nu/ kwm / 8/6/22