In February 2022, the Municipality of Milan adopted the Air and Climate Plan – PAC, a strategic tool for protecting health and the environment aimed at reducing air pollution and responding to the climate emergency, consisting of a package of 49 actions. One of these includes the activation of the Permanent Citizens Assembly on Climate (Action 5.1.4), a deliberative civic participation body composed of a representative sample of Milanese citizens selected by lottery, which is renewed every year and which will accompany the implementation of the PAC for its entire duration (i.e. until 2030) in close relationship with the Municipal Administration.

The Permanent Assembly officially started on December 3, 2022 with its first plenary meeting. For the first annual pilot cycle of activities, it worked in seven thematic groups producing a package of 10 proposals on which the Municipal Administration expressed itself with a formal act in 2024.

The work of the Assembly has therefore started again for the new year, entering “into operation” with its second cycle. In 2024, eight plenary meetings lasting one day were scheduled and the participants worked on: mobility and air quality – car and parking management, extreme events and risk communication, behavioral change and sustainable lifestyle, sustainability of city times and schedules, equity and sustainability in access to energy.

The role of Poliedra

Poliedra, commissioned by AMAT – Milan Agency for Mobility, Environment and Territory, supports the Directorates and Departments of the Municipality of Milan involved, for the design, management and facilitation of the Assembly, namely for:

• the design and definition of its governance, its functioning and the deliberative mechanism and the finalization of the formal supporting documentation (Guidelines, Participation Agreement, …);
• the implementation of the preparatory activities for the start of the Assembly: methodological support to the process of drawing and selecting the sample of citizens; onboarding of the selected citizens;
• the development and delivery of the training package for the participants on the topics of the Assembly’s work;
• the organization and facilitation of the plenary meetings and working groups of the Assembly, the coordination with the involved municipal technicians and the support for the preparation of the reporting;
• the support to the public presentation of the Permanent Assembly, the communication of the initiative and the set-up of the process dedicated to it on the municipal platform for digital participation Milano Partecipa;
• the evaluation of the work done and its impacts, and the preparation of the monitoring system for the new participatory institution.

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