In English

Citizens' Assembly 2024

Read about what the citizens' assembley has done, from the first meeting in April to the reunion in December - and the result!

We wanted to take advantage of commitment and create good conditions for those who live in Gothenburg to be involved in environmental and climate work. Can such a commitment become a driving force for accelerating sustainable development? We hoped so!

Therefore, we invited 7000 residents of Gothenburg to participate. After that 180 people registered their interest, and of those, 30 people were screened out and finally they met during three Saturdays in the spring of 2024.

Citizens' Assembly, what is it?

Citizens' Assembly is a method that the City of Gothenburg, as the first Swedish municipality, tested in the spring of 2024. The method is about a citizens' assembly where a group of people meet to discuss an issue in depth.  In this particular citizens' assembly, the question that the group discussed was: How can the citizens of Gothenburg become more involved in the city's environmental and climate work?

It was about investigating how the City of Gothenburg can take advantage of the commitment that exists among the citizens of Gothenburg. It was also about how the city as an organization can create good conditions for everyone who lives in Gothenburg to participate in the environmental and climate work.

Read more on the page Citizens' assembly for participation in environmental and climate issues (in Swedish)

This is what the Citizens' Assembly has done

• Met experts, discussed and came up with ideas
• Learned about the environmental and climate challenges that exist on a local and global level
• Learned about the importance of engagement and deliberative methods to strengthen democracy
• Learned more about how the City of Gothenburg and other actors in society are taking on these challenges
• Developed recommendations on environmental and climate-related solutions and how to become involved in environmental and climate work in the city to the city's elected representatives

Three meetings in the spring of 2024

The Citizens' assembly has met on three occasions in the spring of 2024:

• Saturday 13 April at 10.00-16.30
• Saturday 4 May at 10.00-16.30
• Saturday 1 June at 10.00-16.30

This is how the Citizens' Assembly worked

Phase 1: Learning and joint acquisition of knowledge

Various experts and knowledge bearers were invited to give short inspirational presentations. Their areas of knowledge are presented in a booklet. There were several different themes related to participation in the environmental and climate transition.

Here you can read the text booklet on which the knowledge acquisition is based:

Knowledge booklet in Swedish

Knowledge booklet in English

Phase 2: Discussion — deliberation

At each meeting, the group members discussed the theme of the Citizens' Assembly.

Phase 3: Recommendations and decisions

At the end of the process, the Assembly made recommendations to the political committees concerned. The recommendations were important contributions to the City of Gothenburg's further development with the citizen’s participation and influence in environmental and climate work.

The work was carried out in special so-called "session designs" that were adapted during the process. The recommendations were made through voting or consensus methods, i.e. the whole group is in complete agreement.

The last thing that happened in the process was that the recommendations were ceremoniously handed over to the politicians. The recommendations were then taken into account in the working progress for the budget 2025 for the City of Gothenburg.

Participants in the citizens' assembly

The participants were selected based on a representative sample that reflects the Gothenburg community. In addition, extra focus was placed on resident groups that the City of Gothenburg otherwise rarely reaches, and here help was drawn from analysis data from other dialogues conducted by the City of Gothenburg. For this reason, in the actual distribution of invitations, a slight predominance was made in the target group of young men with a low educational background.

Citizens' assembly's recommendations 2024

Here you will find the recommendations made by the assembly (in Swedish)

Politicians who attended on Saturday 1 June

The politicians who attended the assembley’s closing ceremony and received the recommendations were:

• Karin Pleijel, (MP), (at that time) Chair of the Environment and Climate Committee
• Hanan Balbaki, (S), First Vice Chairman, Environment and Climate Committee
• Tomas Holst, (D), Second Vice Chairman, Environment and Climate Committee
• Jesper Berglund, (V), Chairman, Committee for Democracy and Citizen Service
• Jonas Svensson, (MP), First Vice Chairman, Committee for Democracy and Citizen Service
• Björn Jedvert, (L), Second Vice Chairman, Committee for Democracy and Citizen Service

Reunion for the participants

On December 5, the citizens' council had a reunion. There, the participants met with elected representatives and officials to find out how the citizens' council’s recommendations now are handled by the municipality's administrations and municipal companies.

Several of the council's proposals have led to assignments in the city's budget for 2025. The City Council has set aside SEK 1.4 million for the City of Gothenburg to develop the work with Citizens' Assembly for Gothenburg's environmental and climate transition. The city will also strengthen communication on the environment and climate issues in various ways.

Here is the budget to take part in:
Budget for the City of Gothenburg 2025 (in Swedish)

The assembly’s members also took part in a compilation of concrete environmental initiatives that the city is making and where several have been highlighted thanks to the recommendations. Here is the summary to read:
Collected comments from the City of Gothenburg on the citizens' assembly's recommendations (in Swedish)

Evaluation report

Part of the work of testing the Citizens' Assembly method has been to compile all the experiences and lessons learned in a report. The report is a contribution to the continued work of refining the working method for future use and to adapt the method to the needs and conditions of the City of Gothenburg.

You can read the report here:
Report - Experiences and lessons learned from a test of the method of citizen councils in the environment and climate transition (in Swedish)

Film about the citizens' council

The film is in Swedish. English subtitles are available. Press T on the player.

More information

The newspaper Vårt Göteborg has published several articles about the work of the citizens' council and the City of Gothenburg has published press releases (in Swedish).

10 December 2024:
Citizens' recommendations become budget investments in 2025 (Vårt Göteborg) (in Swedish)

4 December 2024:
Citizens' assembly becomes budget investments in 2025 (Mynewsdesk.com) (in Swedish)

4 June 2024:
The Citizens' assembly has handed over its recommendations (Vårt Göteborg) (in Swedish)

30 May 2024:
On Saturday, the citizens' assembly submits its environmental and climate recommendations to Gothenburg's politicians (Mynewsdesk.com) (in Swedish)

April 24, 2024:
The City of Gothenburg's Citizens' assembly has started work (Vårt Göteborg) (in Swedish)

26 January 2024:
The City of Gothenburg tests citizen councils (Vårt Göteborg) (in Swedish)

January 26, 2024 - Gothenburg tests citizens' assembly for participation in the climate issue (Mynewsdesk.com) (in Swedish)

Questions and concerns?

Welcome to contact us:

E-post: medborgarrad@miljo.goteborg.se