Oxford City Council has opened registration for members of the public to observe the Oxford Citizens Assembly on Climate Change.
The citizens assembly is by invitation only and is not open to the public.
However, in order to ensure transparency and following high public interest in participation in the assembly, a small number of places has been made available for members of the public to attend the proceedings as observers on both weekends.
The citizens assembly will take place at Said Business school on the weekends of 28-29 September and 19-20 October.
How to register to observe the assembly
Members of the public who want to register to observe the assembly should email their name, postcode and the date they wish to attend to citizensassembly@oxford.gov.uk with the subject line ‘Assembly observer’. Observers must be living in the city of Oxford.
Selecting observers
The council will randomly select observers from people who register their interest before 11:59pm on Sunday 22 September.
In order to ensure that participants feel free to ask questions and express their views within a safe space, observers will be unable to join tables to listen to discussion and deliberations as this can change how participants engage with the process.
How to follow the assembly
All of the speaker presentations will be filmed and broadcast through the council’s social media and all materials will be uploaded to the citizens assembly web page during each weekend.
About the Oxford Citizens Assembly on Climate Change
In January, councillors unanimously declared a climate emergency and agreed to create a citizens assembly in Oxford to help consider new carbon targets and additional measures to reduce emissions.
The citizens assembly involves a randomly-selected representative sample of Oxford residents and is the first citizens assembly in the UK created to consider climate change.
During the two weekends of the assembly participants will learn about climate change and explore different options to cut carbon emissions through a combination of presentations from experts and facilitated workshops.
The assembly will consider measures to reduce Oxford’s carbon emissions to net zero and, as part of this, measures that reduce the council’s own carbon footprint to net zero by 2030.
An independent advisory group will provide governance and oversight. This comprises councillors from all parties and a Conservative party representative, representatives from local industry and Oxford-based environment and democracy experts.
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