Milan Permanent Citizens' Assembly on Climate

A deliberative democracy body made up of randomly selected citizens to contribute to Milan’s Air and Climate Plan

Committente: AMAT – Agency for Mobility, Environment, and Territory of Milan

Period: 2022 – in progress

In February 2022, the City of Milan adopted the Air and Climate Plan (Piano Aria e Clima – PAC), a strategic tool to protect health and the environment aimed at reducing air pollution and responding to the climate emergency. The plan comprises a package of 49 actions. One of these actions involves the establishment of the Permanent Citizens’ Assembly on Climate (Action 5.1.4), a civic participation body consisting of a representative sample of Milanese citizens selected by lot. This assembly is renewed annually and will accompany the implementation of the PAC throughout its duration (until 2030) in close collaboration with the municipal administration.
Milan’s Assembly differs from other deliberative participation bodies in that it continuously and permanently accompanies the implementation phase of the policy cycle. The recommendations on which the Assembly deliberates, with a two-thirds majority of voters, are examined and adopted each year by the City Offices in the manner deemed most appropriate and concretely contribute to the implementation of the actions included in the PAC.

Our role

On behalf of AMAT – Agency for Mobility, Environment, and Territory, Poliedra supports the departments and councilors of the City of Milan for the design, management, and facilitation of the Assembly, specifically by:

Designing the deliberative body, its governance, its functioning and deliberative mechanisms, as well as preparing supporting formal documentation (Guidelines, Participation Pact, etc.);
Conducting annual activities preparatory to the activation of the Assembly for the following year: methodological support for the lottery process and selection of the citizen sample; onboarding of selected citizens;
Developing and delivering a training package for participants on the topics under discussion in the Assembly;

Organizing and facilitating plenary meetings and working groups of the Assembly, coordinating with the involved municipal technicians and providing support for the preparation of reports;
Supporting the public presentation of the Permanent Assembly, communicating the initiative, and setting up the dedicated process on the municipal platform for digital participation, Milano Partecipa;
Annually evaluating the work done and its impacts, and setting up the monitoring framework of the participatory institution.

Activities

The Permanent Assembly officially started on December 3, 2022, with its first plenary meeting. For the first pilot annual cycle of activities, it worked in seven thematic groups, producing a package of 10 proposals on which the City Administration expressed itself in 2024 with a formal response regarding their acceptance and subsequent implementation.
The work of the Assembly then resumed, entering “full operation” with the second annual cycle. In 2024, eight full-day plenary meetings were scheduled, with training sessions and group work on topics such as mobility, air quality, car and parking management; extreme events and risk communication; changes in lifestyles and sustainable behaviors; sustainability of city times and schedules; equity and sustainability in access to energy.
Participants collaborated to jointly produce recommendations, active citizenship initiatives, and supplementary proposals in addition to those PAC Actions considered mature enough to gather feedback and ideas from citizens.
The participatory process includes the participation of technicians from the City of Milan and external experts and stakeholders whose task is to provide citizens with all the necessary information to understand the scientific, technical, and social implications of problems related to air quality and climate change and possible solutions to work on.

The conduct of the participatory process is also entrusted to facilitators from Poliedra and AMAT, who handle methodological aspects to ensure the involvement of all participants in a pleasant, inclusive, and respectful manner, as well as fostering effective and sincere dialogue to collectively achieve the Assembly’s objectives.
In October 2024, the plenary Assembly will vote to approve the 2024 Annual Report, which, as in 2023, will include all the recommendations, initiatives, and proposals that have gained the consensus of two-thirds of the participants.

Results

The main outcome of each annual cycle of the Permanent Assembly is the Annual Work Report, presented to the City by the citizens at the end of each year of activity (read the 2023 Annual Work Report here).
In 2023, the 10 proposals approved by the Assembly were all accepted by the City Administration, sometimes with specific notes highlighted in the Response Dossier to the 2023 Annual Work Report, a formal document in which the City annually acknowledges the outcomes of the process.
The 10 proposals produced in 2023 are as follows: Photo reflective paints, Communication on adaptation issues, One-Stop-Shop, Communication of the “100 Tips for Living in the City” Handbook, RiparaMi – Repair workshops in schools, RiusaMi – Mapping of reuse locations, The “50 Tips for Sustainable Eating” Handbook for everyone, Idea contest for the 30 km/h city, Milan in 30 minutes – Public transport tailored to the new needs of the 30 km/h city, GiraMi in sharing.
Additionally, a game for children and families dedicated to sustainability was created in a participatory manner and later became one of the official tools of Milano Cambia Aria, the program with which the City implements the PAC Actions dedicated to communication, education, and citizen engagement.
In October 2024, a new series of recommendations, initiatives, and supplementary proposals were delivered, both on new topics and those complementary to those already addressed. The 2024 Annual Work Report is published on Milano Cambia Aria website.