Scotland's Climate Assembly - process, impact and assembly member experience: research report

1. Introduction

1.1 About this report

This report presents findings from independent research into Scotland’s Climate Assembly^[13]. The research has been conducted by Scottish Government Social Researchers working in collaboration with an academic researcher from Newcastle University.

The research investigates:

• Assembly process including organisation, remit and evidence.
• Assembly member experience including participation, learning and climate attitudes.
• Assembly member and public support for the Assembly and its recommendations.
• impact of the Assembly on climate change debate and policy in Scotland.
• outcomes for members including climate action and civic attitudes and participation.

1.2 Scotland’s Climate Assembly

Citizens’ assemblies bring together a group of individuals, recruited through random and stratified selection to broadly represent the wider population with respect to key demographics, and in some assemblies, views on the issue under consideration. The assembly deliberates on information provided by experts, which leads to the production of a set of recommendations with the aim to inform decision making^[14].

Scotland’s Climate Assembly is Scotland’s first citizens’ assembly concerned with climate change, and the first national climate assembly to be conducted entirely online (due to the Covid-19 pandemic).

The Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019 required Scottish Ministers to establish a citizens’ assembly to exercise functions including^[15]:

• consider how to prevent or minimise, or remedy or mitigate the effects of, climate change.
• make recommendations on measures proposed to achieve the emissions reduction targets.
• make recommendations about such other matters in relation to climate change.

Under the Act, the Assembly was required to set out its recommendations in a report laid before the Scottish Parliament, with a copy sent to the Scottish Ministers. Ministers were required, within 6 months of receiving the report, to publish a statement setting out how they intend to respond to the recommendations.

There were several groups involved in organising and delivering the Assembly: the Stewarding Group, the Secretariat, the Design Team, and the Evidence Group^[16]. The Climate Change Act also required that there should be two Convenors independent of Scottish Ministers and the Scottish Parliament. The roles of these groups are outlined in Table 1.1 below.

Table 1.1 Groups involved in the organisation and delivery of Scotland’s Climate Assembly

The Stewarding Group had 22 members with expertise across different sectors and includes representatives of all political parties represented in the Scottish Parliament, experts in deliberative processes including civil servants, climate activists, representatives of young people, and individuals working in key sectors including business, transport, housing, agriculture, and the oil and gas industry. The role of the Stewarding Group has focused on providing advice and guidance in all aspects of the Assembly as well as ensuring balance and legitimacy throughout.

The Secretariat was established to function independently of the Scottish Government and was largely staffed by civil servants on secondment. The role of the Secretariat has focused on the organisation and running of the Assembly, supporting the administrative functions and providing the framework for experts to develop the process and evidence. The Scottish Government’s Domestic Climate Change Division provides a sponsorship function to the Secretariat.

The two Convenors were appointed by the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform with a remit to amplify and support the voices of Scotland’s Climate Assembly members, acting as their champion.

The Design and Facilitation Team was a collaboration between Involve and DemSoc, both public participation practitioner organisations with a record of organising citizens’ assemblies, with Involve as the lead partner. They focused on designing the Assembly structure and programme. The lead facilitators from Involve and DemSoc managed a team who facilitated breakout sessions with small groups of members.

The Evidence Group comprised 9 members, covering a range of expertise and perspectives on climate change. They were tasked with ensuring that the evidence presented to Assembly members was balanced, accurate and comprehensive. Evidence Group members presented evidence and together with the Secretariat selected other speakers to present additional evidence.

The Assembly involved 106 members of the public^[17] who were selected to be broadly representative of Scotland’s population with respect to demographics and attitudes about climate change.

These individuals were brought together^[18] over seven weekends^[19] between November 2020 and March 2021 to deliberate and address the question agreed by the Stewarding Group: How should Scotland change to tackle the climate emergency in an effective and fair way?

According to the Arrangements for the Administration and Operation of Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland: Scotland’s Climate Assembly^[20], within the remit of the legislation, members of the Assembly would be able to shape the Assembly’s agenda, with expert support.

Assembly members learned about climate change from the Evidence Group and a range of expert informants and advocates, selected by the Evidence Group and the Secretariat. These speakers included climate change scientists and practitioners. Informants were considered by the Secretariat and Evidence Group to be more ‘neutral’ speakers while advocates were encouraged to explicitly take a position. However, there is an argument that there are no “neutral” ways of communicating about climate change^[21].

For three of the seven weekends, the Assembly members split into three separate topic streams: Diet, Land Use & Lifestyle; Homes & Communities; and Travel & Work. Each stream explored four key questions, as shown in Figure 1.1. The members came back together for the last two weekends in mixed stream groups^[22].

Assembly members received a gift of £200 after each weekend in which they participated.

The Assembly produced an interim report, which was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 24 March 2021. This included a Statement of Ambition and 16 goals. A full Assembly report^[23] was laid in the Scottish Parliament on 23 June 2021, and includes the Statement of Ambition, 16 goals and 81 associated recommendations with supporting statements.

The full Assembly report also included 42 Calls to Action from Children’s Parliament^[24].

As per the Climate Change Act, the Scottish Government was required to respond by 23 December 2021. Their response was published on 16 December 2021^[25].

An eighth Assembly weekend meeting was held in February 2022 to discuss the Scottish Government response.

For the purposes of this research, Weekend 8 is regarded as a follow-up meeting and not part of the main Assembly.

1.3 About the research

Independent research was conducted into the Assembly. The research team comprised Scottish Government Social Researchers and an academic researcher from Newcastle University. Some analysis was conducted by a researcher from Edinburgh University, and some research and analytical support was also commissioned (see Appendix 1 for details).

1.3.1 Research objectives

The research had five main objectives:

1) to support learning and continuous improvement in the delivery of the Assembly whilst in process.

2) to evaluate the success of the Assembly as a deliberative process^[26], identifying key factors affecting its quality.

3) to assess the impact of the Assembly on climate change debate and policy in Scotland.

4) to contribute to cumulative learning in Scottish Government about the effective use of citizens’ assemblies and other deliberative approaches, in the specific context of the manifesto commitment to holding citizens’ assemblies.

5) to contribute to international evidence and learning on use of deliberative approaches for engaging citizens in government policy development, particularly on climate change, and in the specific context of Scotland.

A set of research questions were developed to guide the research in meeting these objectives (see Appendix 1).

This report focusses on presenting evidence related to Objectives 2 to 5.

1.3.2 Methodology

The research used a mixed methods^[27] approach to analyse and integrate a range of different types of data. Data sources analysed for this report include:

• online member surveys, conducted prior to Assembly starting and after each Weekend meeting.
• non-participant observation of Assembly small group discussions.
• audio recordings of Assembly small group discussions.
• qualitative semi-structured interviews and a qualitative survey with 18 people involved in organising and delivering the Assembly, including members of the Secretariat, Design and Facilitation Team, Stewarding Group and Evidence Group. These interviews were conducted after the Assembly ended.
• population survey by Deltapoll with representative sample of 1917 adults in Scotland, conducted 29 July-14 August 2021.
• evidence presentations from the Assembly.
• the Assembly report.
• secondary data on climate and civic attitudes.
• Scottish Government policy documents.
• media coverage.

To support continuous improvement as detailed in Objective 1, the research team produced data briefings after each Assembly weekend based on observational and member survey data. This feedback was used by the Assembly organisers to provide a readout of members’ views and experiences, to highlight what was working well and what was working less well to inform changes and improvements in delivery.

For further details on the methodology see Appendix 1.

1.3.3 Scope and limitations

This report presents findings of research across a range of areas. However, providing an in-depth detailed evaluation of all aspects of the governance arrangements and organisational elements is outwith the scope of this research, due to reasons of capacity.

The member surveys were completed by around two thirds of members. Therefore, the results presented in this report should be regarded as indicative only of the views of all Assembly members. The final Assembly meeting, Weekend 8, held in February 2022 was attended by only 73 members, of whom 70% completed the member survey. These survey results in particular are treated with caution in this report.

Further details of research limitations are included in Appendix 1.

1.3.4 Presenting findings

The Member survey closed questions were mostly statements with five different levels of agreement and disagreement. Results have been aggregated in this report as follows:

‘tend to (dis)agree’ and ‘strongly (dis)agree’ = ‘(dis)agree’

‘quite helpful and ‘very helpful = ‘helpful’

‘(dis)satisfied’ and ‘very (dis)satisfied’ = ‘(dis)satisfied’

The results are summarised in the report with data tables provided in a separate Annex to this report.

As not all respondents to the Assembly member surveys answered the open questions, quotes from members are included for illustrative purposes and to provide nuance. With each quote, information is provided on which weekend survey the comment was made (e.g. WE1 for Weekend 1 post-Assembly survey). The quantitative survey findings are also supplemented with qualitative vignettes of four members’ experiences, charting different types of journeys through the Assembly. Pseudonyms have been used for the vignettes, and quotes have been anonymised. Where data exists, members’ views have been compared with results of the Deltapoll population survey and other secondary data.

In this report, interviewees and survey respondents from the Stewarding Group, the Secretariat, the Design team and the Evidence Group are collectively referred to ‘Organising members’ to protect anonymity, although in some instances where appropriate, Evidence Group membership is identified.

Throughout the report, a simple broad scale is used to describe the rough proportion of research participants giving a certain view or response:

all = everyone in the sample

most / a majority = more than half of the sample

some / a minority = less than half but more than ‘a few’

a few = two to five (depending on sample size)

one = one person

strong support = 75% and above

majority support = 50-75%

In the figures and tables, member surveys are summarised as e.g. WE1 (Weekend 1).

1.3.4 Report structure

This report is structured into 5 subsequent chapters.

Chapter 2 presents findings relating to the organisation of the Assembly focussing on governance, the process to determine the remit and framing of the Assembly, the Assembly design, and the evidence presented to members. The implications of key findings are discussed in Chapter 6 Conclusions.

Chapter 3 explores the Assembly members’ experiences of participating in the Assembly including their learning, climate attitudes and outcomes.

Chapter 4 considers Assembly member and public support for the Assembly and its outputs, and for citizens’ assemblies in general.

Chapter 5 assesses the impact of the Assembly on government climate policy and public debate

Chapter 6 concludes the report with discussion of key factors affecting the quality of the Assembly, and the impact of the Assembly on government policy and public debate in Scotland. It identifies key considerations for citizens’ assemblies in general, online assemblies, assemblies in Scotland, and climate assemblies. Finally, suggestions for further research, for this Assembly and more generally, are offered.