"End of the world" problem in the face of the "end of the month"? Decision makers on deliberative climate change innovation

The paper contributes to explaining the motivations of decision-makers in reaching for innovative tools of deliberative democracy (citizens' assemblies, CA) to solve pressing problems of the climate crisis and environmental protection. The research presented here is qualitative in nature and includes an analysis of deliberative processes that were conducted between 2018 and 2021 in major Polish cities. Based on in-depth interviews with decision-makers, the research shows that, on the one hand, they want to reach for deliberative innovations primarily for problems related to the climate crisis, because these are controversial issues that divide society and are difficult for party politics. On the other hand, explaining the choice of a particular CA topic (which was mostly narrow and low-key, and was often indirectly related to the climate crisis), they advocate the low controversiality of deliberative topics (e.g., urban planting). The data prove that while on the surface these motives seem contradictory, the opposite is true. Decision-makers mostly aim to make CA topics controversial sensu largo, but non-controversial sensu stricto. Their goal is to find a topic that would have national (or even global) importance and be part of a broad public debate, but at the same time would be convenient (non-conflicting) for the city government and close to the residents, and the proposed recommendations would be relatively easy to implement. The following topics and recommendations of the CAs are analyzed: (1) Heavy rains in the city and adapting to climate change (Gdansk, 2016); (2) Methods of improvement of air quality in the city (Gdansk, 2017); (3) What should we do to breathe clean air in Lublin? (Lublin, 2018); (4) Green areas in our city (Łódź, 2020); (5) How to improve transport around Wrocław, considering life quality and climate protection? (Wrocław 2020); (6) How to increase energy effectiveness in Warsaw and the share of renewable energy sources in the city energy balance? (Warsaw, 2020); (7) How can Krakow and its residents limit energy consumption and increase energy consumption from renewable sources? (Krakow, 2021); (8) How can Poznań authorities counteract and adapt to climate change and the climate crisis? (Poznań, 2021). Environmental protection, although it is one of the tasks of Polish cities, is not a key area of current local intervention, instead, it is located in the group of strategic, long-term problems. This topic, although of significant global importance, from the point of view of local decision-makers is located between "the end of the world" and "the end of the month." Residents are less interested than the end of the world in having to pay their bills at the end of the month, for example, for heating. The article provides data on selected topics along with revealing the motives of decision-makers. In addition, it analyzes the developed recommendations from the point of view of the climate change problem and allows answering the question under which political conditions deliberative innovations can contribute to solving climate change problems.