On June 21 and 22, 2023 the CLIMAS project held its 1st Consortium Meeting in Vilnius. During the meeting, several topics were discussed regarding the project’s status, planning for upcoming events, future steps to take, and how to ensure ethics and integrity in all project activities.
Specifically, the Work Package 2 session by the Institute for Advanced Studies focused on past Climate assembly cases and the identification of barriers and facilitators of climate citizen participation. This session was followed by a discussion on the co-creation of the Climate change citizens engagements Toolbox for regional and local entities, guided by Technovative Solutions, leader of Work Package 3. In the session held by cambiaMO, participants discussed the testing of the Toolbox in real deliberative Climate Assemblies and Living Labs using a world café setting (i.e. with groups of people discussing at several small tables the most pressing matters, such as the testing of the Climate Assemblies set-up and facilitation, or the evaluation and validation of the toolbox), which is part of the work that will be carried out in Work Package 4. After that, in Work Package 5, VILNIUS TECH addressed the ultimate goal of elaborating recommendations for policy makers.
During the session organised by Work Package 6 led by Deep Blue, participants reflected on how to improve consortium meetings and create a positive and conducive environment, such as promoting active listening and mutual understanding. Afterwards, an exercise was conducted by Deep Blue as an online ice-breaker activity among consortium members. Each person was invited to anonymously share on a Miro board what made them feel safe and in control, situations where they feel insecure, and challenges they intend to face for growth and learning. Some of the shared experiences included activities like meditation, surfing, being in nature, writing and reading as well as situations that cause insecurity, such as speaking in front of a big audience or in a foreign language. This exercise allowed consortium members to better understand their own comfort zones and areas for growth.
The following session, which was part of Work Package 6 and organised by EIP focused on collecting partners’ opinions on how to better engage stakeholders, especially those belonging to local institutions and decision makers, through a dot-voting exercise on flip boards. This exercise allowed all partners to reflect on which products, activities and training materials could better create such stakeholder groups’ commitment to the CLIMAS research activities and raise interest on the potential impact of Climate Assemblies in their regions.
In the coming months, the project will move into its core phase, starting the co-creation of tools in the four Living Labs in the pilot sites. Among the upcoming scheduled events, don’t miss the third CLIMAS workshop “Value-based problem deliberation at work” next 26 September, 11:30-12:30 CET, which is the last one of a series of workshops focusing on the identification of bottlenecks, barriers and drivers for deliberation in Climate Assemblies. To join the event, please register using this link.
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