Civic Sanskriti: Hope from the extraordinary power of ordinary people
Civic Sanskriti: What is extraordinary about the declaration made on Day 1 of COP26, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, was that it is from a set of ordinary people
PUNE A declaration was made on Day 1 of COP26, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference. What is extraordinary is that the declaration is from a set of ordinary human beings, members of the first Global Citizens’ Assembly. They were joined by Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland and Vanessa Nakate, youth activist from Africa.
As shared in the column in September, the Global Citizens’ Assembly for COP26 is composed of one hundred people who together are an accurate snapshot of the world’s population by gender, age, geography, education, and attitude to climate change. The Assembly members were selected by a global lottery, meaning that anyone on earth could have been chosen.
Global assembly process
The Global assembly members deliberated through October 2021, in over 30 languages, each supported by a community host with online conferencing facilities.
They shared their lived experiences of climate change, gaining knowledge about climate change and the global COP processes. They shared views and hopes for how humanity should address the climate and ecological crises we face. They prepared the declaration by deliberating and voting on each sentence, giving reasons for their choice.
People’s Declaration
The ‘People’s Declaration for the Sustainable Future of Planet Earth’ presented by the Global Assembly to world leaders at the COP26 climate conference, says ecocide should be “firmly enforced alongside existing environmental protection laws”.
The assembly defines ecocide as: “Unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.” It could make some governments, corporations, and individuals guilty of an international crime!
The Global Assembly resolved to endorse the Paris agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The assembly resolved that: “The (Paris) agreement has to be strictly enforced and monitored by the United Nations, in collaboration with the relevant actors at all levels of governance.”
But the assembly says mitigation should be equitable. “Developed countries should assist developing countries in building up autonomous capabilities for climate action, particularly in financial and technological terms,” the declaration says.
The declaration presented by the assembly members on November 1 is specifically for COP26. The Assembly’s final statement, to be published in March 2022, will contain a broader set of statements providing a full response to the framing question: how can humanity address the climate and ecological crisis fairly and effectively?
Support for Global Assembly
The UN secretary general António Guterres and COP26 president Alok Sharma have made statements supporting the Global Assembly.
“The Global Citizens’ Assembly for COP26 is a practical way of showing how we can accelerate action through solidarity and people power,”said Guterres.
COP26 is branded as “an inclusive COP” after the Covid-19 restrictions. The Global Assembly process shows one of the best examples of inclusion of ordinary people. It also reflects the principles of action for climate empowerment, an integral element of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Paris agreement.
Expectation
The citizens’ proposals are ambitious, and politicians may find the ambition hard to meet, constrained as they are by traditional politics. But citizens’ assemblies around the world are putting forth proposals that are practical and commensurate with the challenge.
Rich Wilson, co-founder of the Global Assembly, speaking to BBC News on the eve of COP26, said, “Success would be if government leaders match and meet the citizens’ proposals. The expectation is that the world leaders would enter into dialogue with the citizens’ assembly, acknowledging citizens as key actors in the future of managing climate and in global governance on an ongoing basis.”
Future
The Global Assembly will become a new piece of international governance infrastructure, sitting alongside the UN, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) , and others as a place for citizens to have a direct place in decision making.
Global Assembly member Mulki Devi, from Katihar, Bihar, shared that, “We have been facing crop losses in recent years due to climate change. As a member of the Global Assembly, I learned a lot about climate change. Now I want to form a women’s group in my village so we can understand more and work together.”
Kunal Jaiswal, cluster coordinator for the eighteen assembly members and community hosts in India, said, “The co-creation process of the Global Assembly is equitable, flexible and inclusive. I am hopeful that it will help us all to work and move together to clarify and achieve our common goals.”
The one hundred people who are the members of the first assembly on climate change are not permanent members. Other ordinary people, again selected by lottery, would convene as a Global Assembly in the future on other global issues. The number of members may even go up to one thousand.
The Global Assembly is about ordinary people having a say in global decision-making. National climate assemblies and community assemblies can help take these processes much closer to people. India’s rural areas have their Gram Sabha, which is already an inclusive decision-making structure that people can and should use for climate empowerment.
With such mechanisms, everyone on earth has a chance to have a say – because they are a human being. As Rich Wilson says, “It’s about time that citizens were invited to the table.”
Read the Global Assembly declaration and get guidance to run your community assembly at globalassembly.org
Sanskriti Menon is senior programme director, Centre for Environment Education. She writes on urban sustainability and participatory governance. Views are personal. She can be reached at civic.sanskriti@gmail.com