Making deliberative mini-publics count during a climate emergency: Lessons from the Devon Climate Assembly

Over the past few years, many governments, local and national, have reached for deliberative mini-publics (e.g. climate assemblies) in a bid to gain insights into what an informed public would prioritise and countenance in terms of responses to the climate emergency. Yet climate assemblies are time consuming, requiring much planning, organisation, running time, and a complex array of expertise. When embedded in bureaucratic procedures, they can be protracted affairs. The speed with which changes are required may weigh against arguments for the use of deliberative mini publics, yet the gravity of the situation means that the actions taken need to have sufficient impact, which entails ensuring key stakeholders and relevant communities are brought along in the process, whilst also balancing other priorities. This paper considers what contribution deliberative mini-publics can make in addressing climate governance and policy formulation at local government level, using evidence from the Devon Climate Assembly. The research findings are the outcome of a multi-stakeholder, mixed method evaluation, comprising interview and survey data which includes the perspectives of assembly commissioners, participants, facilitators and other local stakeholders from public, private and civil society sectors. Far from creating knee-jerk policy, the case study suggests that climate assemblies provide an opportunity to develop carefully considered policy with a social mandate, after local citizens have grappled with difficult choices and considered the trade-offs involved. Yet the value of these processes is constrained by critical issues such as the extent to which local policy makers have sufficient influence over wider issues, the coordination of other local planning processes at different tiers of governance, the inclusion of voices from all sectors, balancing the need for sufficient time with local demands for action, and the scope of topics selected for discussion.