How are citizens around the world thinking about climate change and energy transitions?
On June 6, 2015, the World Wide Views on Climate and Energy convened 97 forums around the world, where participants were selected to reflect the demographic diversity of their country or region. Selected citizens attended a daylong meeting, starting at dawn in the Pacific, and continuing until dusk in the Americas. At the meetings, attendees considered the global impacts of a changing climate and a quickly evolving energy system to provide recommendations for national policymakers at the United Nations.
PROJECT SNAPSHOT
- Location: Saint Paul, Minnesota
Scope: Worldwide
History: June 6, 2015
Citizen Jury Length: 1 day
No. of Participants: 70
Targeted Participants: Twin Cities metro public
Recruitment: Random selection
Target Outcome: Worldwide report
Partners & Funders
World Wide Views on Climate and Energy is led by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, the French National Commission for Public Debate, the Danish Board of Technology Foundation, the French Government via Missions Publiques, in coordination with local host sites around the world.
We coordinated the discussion in Minnesota, where project sponsors included the Science Museum of Minnesota, LIFE: Linked Institutions for Future Earth at the University of Minnesota, Fresh Energy, District Energy St Paul, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, Kid Wind Project, Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, Xcel Energy, and Macalester College.
Approach
At the discussion in Saint Paul, Minnesota, we convened a diverse group of 70 Twin Cities residents to learn and deliberate about the Earth’s changing climate. Residents from all walks of life, living in Hennepin, Ramsey, Carver, Dakota, Washington, Scott, and Anoka counties, participated in the event. Participants were selected to reflect the demographics of the Twin Cities metro area and were politically, socioeconomically, and racially diverse.
We had our World Wide Views participants consider the following information about Minnesota’s climate: average temperature rises in Minnesota, increased heat advisories and excessive heat warnings, increased snow and rain, extreme snow and rain storms, lake ice melt and snow cover, and incidences of lyme disease and west nile virus.
In Saint Paul, attendees were concerned with the impact of climate change to the local food and water supply, loss of species, severe storms, farming hardships, and more.
View the full list of climate and energy concerns
We also asked participants about the actions they’d like to see to address changes in our climate, from a personal to a federal level, and heard suggestion such as:
- Better public transit
- Incentives from the government to reduce carbon emissions
- Education and outreach about reducing your impact
- Business and government investment in green energy
See the full list of climate and energy recommendations
Results from each site (other U.S. sites include Boston, MA; Fort Collins, CO; and Phoenix, AZ) were compiled and presented at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December, 2015.
The point of the day was not to achieve consensus, and the group members did not necessarily leave agreeing with each other. But they did engage in respectful and meaningful dialogue, and certainly left better informed and ready to consider climate issues in more depth than beforehand.
-Paul Moss, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Climate Adaptation Coordinator
Outcomes
We’re excited about the unique international contribution that Minneapolis-St. Paul residents made and will continue to make through the World Wide Views! Twin Citizens joined their voices in a chorus of over 10,000 across the globe to offer a truly representative perspective to decision makers at the United Nations leading up to the 2015 COP21 climate negotiations.
Responses from each site were aggregated and analyzed by the World Wide Views Alliance and other partners, which were shared with policymakers and elected officials around the world. In the US, we shared citizen responses directly with State Department officials participating in COP21 negotiations.