Climate Citizens’ Assemblies: Politicians Rarely Implement Recommendations
2026-10-28 A research team at Leuphana University Lüneburg examined 488 recommendations from six climate citizens’ assemblies in Western Europe. The results were published in Nature Climate Change: Two thirds of the proposals were more ambitious than the policy in place at the time. Yet their impact on political decisions remained rare.
More than 300 climate citizens’ assemblies are registered worldwide. In these assemblies, randomly selected citizens deliberate on a political question. Their recommendations are not binding. The study shows: “It is more the exception than the rule that assembly recommendations actually change politicians’ decisions,” explains Dr. Janosch Pfeffer. “Nonetheless, it is quite remarkable that some recommendations do lead to more ambitious climate policy – for example, by helping a ministry of environment prevail against a ministry of economy,” the political scientist adds. He conducted the study as part of his doctoral research at the Institute of Sustainability Governance.
Political Support Is Crucial
The study covered five national citizens’ assemblies in Germany, France, Austria, Scotland and the United Kingdom, as well as one state-level assembly in Berlin.
At the federal level in Germany, in Scotland and in the United Kingdom, no recommendation influenced political decisions. In Austria, one proposal did so; in Berlin, two. In France, however, about a third of the recommendations had an impact on political decisions.
The authors of the study attribute the strong influence in France primarily to political backing from above and to exceptionally high public pressure: “In France, the climate citizens’ assembly emerged after the Yellow Vest protests. It was subsequently convened on the initiative of President Macron. He promised a great deal, which generated considerable attention,” explains Janosch Pfeffer. In other countries, comparable political backing was lacking.
Students Become Co-Authors of the Study
What makes this study special: almost ten master’s and bachelor’s students were given the opportunity to conduct research in an international study. Each student examined their own case using a shared research design. They are co-authors of the publication.