Below is an abstract for my presentation at Urban Transition 2024 Conference (Nov 5-7, Barcelona, Spain):

The need for systemic transitions to achieve sustainability has become increasingly evident, necessitating bottom-up solutions that address real local needs and incorporate citizen participation within the framework of current democratic regimes where citizens enjoy freedom of choice. One innovative approach to this challenge is climate assemblies, which have gained traction in countries like France and the UK, and are now spreading to cities globally. These assemblies, characterized by the random selection of citizens to create “minipublics” that can effectively capture citizens’ perspectives on climate change through deliberation.

These assemblies, however, has been adopted at the nation-wide and city-wide levels.  In exploring community-level solutions for climate change, the framework of climate assemblies may also be useful to encourage behavioral changes. This study focuses on a climate assembly at the Urawa-Misono neighborhood in Saitama, Japan, a suburban area developed since 2007 and notable for its predominantly young family demographic. To represent the community accurately, 18 individuals were selected based on age, gender, and home address balance. Over the course of three meetings, participants received inputs from experts and deliberated on local solutions for mitigation and adaptation.

The primary outcome of this initiative was the promotion of practical solutions to integrate the climate agenda within the community through methods such as gamification. These solutions were mostly pragmatic rather than technically complex, aiming to nudge residents towards more sustainable behaviors. The presentation will also include an analysis of the similarities and differences between this initiative and other climate assemblies in Japan, alongside a survey of participant post-meeting feedbacks.

By examining this case study, the presentation aims to shed light on how local, community-driven climate assembly can be effectively implemented and sustained, contributing to the broader goal of achieving systemic sustainability transitions through participatory democracy.