Two hundred twenty citizens took seats at the table where climate policy is discussed. The Climate Citizens' Assembly, a standing body for public deliberation on climate, held its inaugural ceremony at the Korea Science and Technology Center in Seoul on the 16th and officially launched. The ceremony was hosted by the Presidential Commission on National Climate Crisis Response. It means that public deliberation, which until now had ended as a one-off event, has entered a framework that runs on a standing basis.
The 220-member citizen panel includes teenagers, people with disabilities, older adults, and members of multicultural families. These are people who feel the effects of the climate problem first while being pushed to the back of the discussion table. The Prime Minister's Office said panel members were selected with consideration of both demographic factors and willingness to participate.
The panel will not take up agenda items right away. The sequence is to receive expert training on climate policies close to daily life, then choose topics and propose policies through discussion and deliberation. The government has set a policy of reviewing and voting on the recommendations produced this way as agenda items of the Presidential Commission on National Climate Crisis Response. The panel will also take part in major decision-making processes, including the setting of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
At the ceremony, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok defined the Climate Citizens' Assembly as a climate governance model in which citizens participate as agents in both the formation and the implementation of policy, and said he would provide support so that the proposals are reflected in policy. Kang Kum-sil, Ambassador for Global Climate and Environment, proposed "Green First" in her congratulatory address. The Prime Minister's Office introduced the body as the world's first standing citizens' deliberative body on climate at the national level. How it differs from cases abroad remains to be examined.
Having citizens evaluate, after the fact, plans drawn up by experts and officials has long been the practice. Rather than anyone's fault, it is closer to the result of the threshold for discussion rising in areas that require technical review. Addressing problems encountered in daily life, such as heating and cooling bills, public transportation, and waste disposal, requires the language of the people who live through that daily life.
For the system to take hold, what matters is how the first term plays out. This panel's term of activity is set through the end of this year, and the climate commission has announced plans to rotate panel members periodically. How many new members will be selected and how often has not been determined. How much of the recommendations get carried into policy will shape the next cohort's willingness to take part.
Experience accumulated at the local level is also worth consulting. Gwangmyeong City created the first dedicated climate department among local governments in September 2018, and at a "2050 Carbon Neutral City Declaration Ceremony" in July 2023 it presented six strategies and 100 tasks. In November of the same year it introduced a greenhouse gas reduction-aware budgeting system. It followed with a record of cutting 37,232 tons out of a 40,120-ton reduction target, reaching 92.8%.
What sentences the deliberation running through the end of the year will be summed up in rests in the panel's hands. Watching that discussion is itself one form of participation. It is worth looking up on your city hall's website how far the climate ordinance and reduction plan in your own neighborhood have come. The table where 220 people sit will widen someday, and the preparation to speak then builds from now.
