We need to talk about climate (assemblies): Graham Smith in conversation with Canning Malkin

Canning Malkin
What was your inspiration for writing this book? What are you trying to address?

Graham Smith
The book was a chance for me to try to make sense of the relatively recent emergence of climate assemblies. The inspiration is the work that we’ve been doing with the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA) over the last three years, plus a longer history of my own research, practice and activism in this area.

Canning
You systematise in detail many recent climate assemblies, particularly European ones. What is something that you found striking about these processes, from having this overview?

Graham
The most striking for me is that we know pretty well how to bring citizens together in a way that is meaningful, in order that they can generate robust recommendations. What we fail to do is embed that within our political systems. It always surprises me that so much effort has gone into running an assembly and so little effort into actually getting ready to receive the recommendations. That’s a design project, and a political project in its own right, and that’s been really neglected.

We know how to run a good climate assembly. What we don’t know is how to land it well.

The same is true for thinking about how to affect public discourse. Very often assemblies haven’t got the media and communication strategy needed to do that.

So, the thing that I’ve learned is that we know how to run a good climate assembly. What we don’t know is how to land it well.

Canning
And who is your target audience for this book? Practitioners, facilitators, potential commissioners? Who did you have in mind when writing it?

Graham
The book is aimed at people who have an interest in climate assemblies, and that could be public officials, civil society advocates, practitioners. It’s written purposely to be a fairly quick, accessible read. I hope I’ve written it in a way that for those people who are new to climate assemblies, it’s a useful introduction. And for those who are quite familiar with it, there’s some provocations they will find interesting, about where I think assembly practice might be going and what I think the limits and possibilities are.

Canning
In the book you identify four areas that you think will enhance the impact of climate assemblies: getting the remit right, designing follow-up, stakeholder involvement, and public communication and engagement. Do you think that there’s any one or combination of these that is either most difficult to get right or most often overlooked?

Graham
I think they’re all difficult in different ways. Maybe most challenging is the broader public engagement. A media communications person said to me, “just because you find it interesting, it doesn’t mean anyone else will.” That was really helpful to be reminded of.

We need to think about how to get assemblies into everyday conversations.

I think we don’t know how to message climate assemblies well. We’ve got to think carefully about how we talk about them. We need to think about how to get assemblies into everyday conversations. There’s this whole communication and cultural reproduction needed for it to become something that people are interested in and familiar with. That’s going to be a real challenge.

Canning
Do you have any single takeaway from the book? Or was there any one guiding purpose that took you through the process of writing it?

Graham
I think that there is no single recipe for the best climate assembly. There’s not a single pattern everybody should follow; no two are the same. But I think what’s essential for any assembly is the development of an impact strategy, and that impact strategy being a fundamental part of what is done from the very start of the process. That is, for me, the big lesson that is too often overlooked, whether we’re talking about permanent assemblies that are now emerging, processes run by civil society, or some of the more radical ideas that are out there from activists looking to create alternative spaces through assemblies. It isn’t just about getting the citizens together, it’s thinking about how we design this to have impact. Otherwise, we’re just playing around . We’re facing a climate crisis. We’re facing a nature crisis. We’re facing a democratic crisis. So, if we’re not thinking about how we impact on that, then we’re doing a disservice to those people who are participating.

And I guess the other key takeaway is please share the book!

We Need To Talk About Climate: How Citizens’ Assemblies Can Help Us Solve The Climate Crisis is available free and open access.

About the Authors

Graham Smith is Professor of Politics at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster and Chair of the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA).

Canning Malkin is the research coordinator at Iswe Foundation. She has published reports for GloCAN on transnational deliberative processes, agenda-setting best practices and privately-commissioned deliberations on AI.