Public Participation
The Aarhus Convention and its Protocol on PRTRs empower people with the rights to access information, participate in decision-making in environmental matters and to seek justice. They are the only legally binding global instruments on environmental democracy.
>> https://unece.org/environmental-policy-1/public-participation
Across Mastodon there's considerable interest in Citizens' Assemblies, so here's a new report from the Institute of Government, setting out clearly what they are and how they work.
If this is an idea whose time has (finally) come, then we need to be clear about what they entail & the political commitments required to both bring them about & make them work.
Its not rocket science but neither will it be easy, even if its worth it
De Gruyter Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies (2023) #OpenAccess#Book by M. Reuchamps, J. Vrydagh and Y Welp (eds.).
"Citizens’ Assemblies (CAs) are flourishing around the world. Quite often composed of randomly selected citizens, CAs, arguably, come as a possible answer to contemporary democratic challenges. Democracies worldwide are indeed confronted with a series of disruptive phenomena such as a widespread perception of distrust and growing polarization as well as low performance. Many actors seek to reinvigorate democracy with citizen participation and deliberation. CAs are expected to have the potential to meet this twofold objective."