March sees the launch of Sweden's first national citizens' council on climate change. During the spring, 60 randomly selected people will meet on nine occasions to discuss and make proposals on how Sweden can achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. The first meeting took place on 9-10 March in Stockholm.
The members of the citizens' council will learn about research, discuss solutions and develop proposals for climate policy measures for Sweden. A group of experts and researchers will support them, and at the end of May the council will present their proposals. The overall goal of the project is to contribute to the climate policy debate.
The members of the Citizens' Council have been randomly selected to represent Swedish society. When people with different perspectives and experiences meet in this way, and are given sufficient time and knowledge, there is a good chance of arriving at well-founded proposals and sophisticated recommendations. This is shown by previous experience of citizens' councils held in Finland and France, among other countries. The method has been used around the world, but this is the first time that a citizens' council on climate change at national level has been held in Sweden.
The Citizens' Council is part of the FAIRTRANS research programme. The project includes our partner Lund University. Other partners include Stockholm University, University of Gävle, Uppsala University and IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.
Read more on the FAIRTRANS website here, and about Lund University's role in the project here.