Climate Assembly – University of Copenhagen

Read the recommendations of the Climate Assembly here:

We are facing a green transition that requires everyone to be ambitious and contribute. All sectors and systems need to be rethought if we want to reach national and international climate goals. This also applies to the University of Copenhagen, which has a goal of reducing the university's CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 (compared to 2018 figures) - and maybe even more than that. Social Sciences must also contribute to this goal.

As a faculty of social sciences, there is a huge potential in experimenting with different forms of participation and involvement in the green transition, and at the same time, democratic forms of involvement are a research area for Social Sciences.
Both nationally and internationally, there is a growing wave of so-called deliberative methods as an alternative to traditional citizen involvement, which typically takes place through written consultations and public meetings.

Citizens' assemblies and citizen panels, where mixed groups of citizens participate in a long-term process with facilitated discussions and presentations to make recommendations for solving a specific problem, show promising results - both in terms of concrete recommendations to decision-makers, but also in terms of the democratic process and the citizens' experience of being able to actively contribute to the solutions.

We want to test this at Social Sciences. Because we need to involve the campus population in the prioritisation and decision-making, and because we believe that constructively facilitated discussions between students and staff can provide new perspectives on how Social Sciences can contribute to society's green transition.

All students and staff at the Faculty of Social Sciences were invited to sign up and help prioritise and recommend how the Faculty of Social Sciences should work with climate and sustainability.

Meeting dates

1st session: Tuesday 10 October 16:30-21:00
2nd session: Wednesday 25 October at 16:30-21:00
3rd session: Thursday 9 November 16:00-21:00
4th session: Wednesday 29 November 16:00-21:00

Open meeting for all interested parties: Tuesday 21 November, 18.30-20:30

Launch and presentation of recommendations: 18 January 2024 at 16-17:30 in Festsalen.

What is a 'climate collection'?
The climate collection follows the method used in so-called citizen collections. It is a method of citizen involvement that is used to have a thorough dialogue with a group of citizens about difficult issues.

In a citizens' assembly, 36 representatively selected citizens work on a number of themes and possible solutions to a complex issue and make recommendations to decision-makers.

We organise the climate assembly in collaboration with the company "We Do Democracy".

Organisation
The climate assembly follows the OECD's principles for organisation to ensure, among other things, impartiality and a process that follows international standards. "We do Democracy" is responsible for the climate assembly here at SAMF.

Faculty of Social Sciences

Read the recommendations of the Climate Assembly here:

Meeting dates

Impact Group

Expert group

Core question and mandate