A citizens’ assembly is a recognised deliberative research methodology where a randomly selected group of citizens come together to debate an issue. The process is often used to understand citizens’ views on topics which are complex, controversial or have constitutional implications. A citizens’ assembly is often described as a “mini-public” - a representative group of citizens who deliberate, advise and sometimes decide on the outcome of a policy issue.
Assemblies often follow a three stage process: Learning, Deliberation and Decision Making. In the first stage, the group hears evidence from a range of experts on the topic. In the second stage, the participants discuss the evidence they have been presented with and how this has informed their opinion of the topic. In the final stage, participants consider their preferences on the topic and the Assembly forms a set of conclusions.
Some examples of Citizens Assemblies include: the permanent Irish Citizens’ Assembly, the UK Assembly on Climate Change, the British Colombia Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform and the 2021 Global Assembly.
More information available at:
A citizen’s assembly has been officially identified by HMG as a key form of deliberative research. The Government makes regular use of deliberative research projects to create policy recommendations on similarly complex topics, including food, climate change and leaving the EU but has no plans to run such a process for trade. The Trade Justice Movement and Queen Mary, University of London have secured funding to run as Assembly looking to answer the question, “How should the UK government respond to the climate crisis through trade policy?”
Trade rules are wide-ranging, and have an impact on how governments are able to address climate change. The UK government is negotiating trade agreements which according to their own projections will increase carbon emissions. The March 2023 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reiterated the urgency with which climate change action is needed and that governments are still not doing enough This points to an urgent need for public discussion about the government's competing priorities around trade and climate.
Given the complexity of the issue, a citizens’ assembly is the best way to meaningfully engage the public on this issue whilst providing them with the opportunity to develop and share their own views. A key aim of the Assembly is to generate actionable policy recommendations that reflect public priorities for trade and climate change; this will require participants to evaluate evidence from a range of experts in order to understand the inherent trade-offs and identify practical solutions. Second, for these recommendations to be implemented by policymakers; this will require an inclusive process that is well respected and transparent. Both of these aims are facilitated by running the Assembly process.
Since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, there has been a substantial volume of primary research carried out looking at UK citizens' view of Brexit and their attitudes towards the UK’s future trade policy. But there has not been a focused research on the UK population’s view on the relationship between trade policy and the environment.
This background briefing summarises a review of the available literature that touches on UK public attitudes to the relationship between trade and the environment and climate change in particular.
To read our briefing paper, please click here.
The process by which participants will be selected to take part in the Trade and Climate Assembly is a method called sortition. We are working with the Sortition Foundation in the recruitment phase of the project who are specialists in this methodology. The aim of sortition is to end up with a group of people who are broadly representative of the nation or region that the Assembly reflects, but for people to be selected at random in order for all individuals to have the same chance of participation. This ensures that no particular group is either under or over represented, and for there to be as diverse a group of people in the discussions as possible.