Citizens' Climate Convention, France

The Citizens' Climate Convention is an unprecedented democratic initiative born after the Yellow Vests crisis. Spurred on by the "Gilets citoyens" collective and mandated by the President of the Republic, the citizens' convention brought together 150 citizens chosen by lot and constituted as a citizens' assembly, to formulate proposals to combat climate change. Its mandate is to define measures to achieve a reduction of at least 40% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in a spirit of social justice.

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How can democracy deliver on environmental justice, Belgium

Since 2006, the European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP) serves as a platform for dialogue and exchange between the European political foundations, civil society organisations, active in the fields of democracy support and development cooperation, and the institutions of the European Union. The session will focus on the interlinkages between democracy and climate action, tackling the often-heard argument that democratic systems cannot act fast enough to address environmental degradation – very much in contrast to authoritarian systems that, allegedly, can impose top-down environmental protection. Special consideration will be given to innovative ways how local authorities and CSOs can take action on their own, circumventing national governments that may not be willing to increase ambition in the combat against climate change. As such, the event will bring different stakeholders together and highlight the critical importance of working with civil society, local authorities and political as actors of democratic participation, that can jointly shape climate policies.

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We are Suffocating (Gavigudet), Georgia

(Hors Concours)

We are Suffocating (Gavigudet) is a local civic movement that started in the spring of 2018 with the goal of improving the air quality in Rustavi, Georgia. Rustavi is an industrial city where we have to breath bad or terrible quality air 280 days out of the year on average, because the vast majority of manufacturing sites don't abide by the air protection requirements. We believe that it is all thanks to social engagement, backing from our donors, and our own drive that we have accomplished the following three milestones so far:

• A large proportion of the population has come to understand this major problem in our city, which is that the air is so polluted. Their activism has led to the issue being added to the government's agenda;
• Gavigudet was part of the development of the “2020-2022 Action Plan for Improving Atmospheric Air Quality in Rustavi”, which the government ratified in October of 2020 (and we remain active in monitoring its implementation);
• The Gavigudet movement had demanded legal changes for air quality, becoming part of the legal discussions on that topic, and those changes were implemented by parliament on March 2, 2021 (coming into effect on June 1, 2021).

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XR GS Participative Democracy, Germany

XR GS PartDem is contributing to Extinction Rebellion’s Third Demand on Citizens’ Assemblies by supporting the creation of a worldwide network of XR and non-XR groups in order to efficiently share experiences and best practices on Citizens’ & Peoples’ Assemblies: With this we aim to nurture the growth of deliberative participatory democracy globally. About 70 people from 25 countries in all continents are members of XR GS PartDem, with a small but active coordination crew of 5 people. We are facilitating events at all levels by providing impartial training, facilitation, materials, and assistance for everyone to run their own assemblies while also contributing to other local, national and global assemblies in various forms. Through co-creative collaboration, we strive to evolve these democratic concepts for ensuring transparency and the independence of processes & outcomes to amplify the voices of citizens

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