There are few who question that the greatest challenge facing the world is how we deliver actions which will fairly mitigate the rapidly changing climate. This is not an issue for one industry, geography or level of government. The changing climate will take action by us all to solve.  Such an existential threat makes it an important topic for OGP members to consider as a focus for action plans. They provide an opportunity for each jurisdiction to set out how it will drive the change using open government principles.  

With the OGP Local Circle on Climate Action, we created a space for local and national governments and civil society organizations to take action and work collaboratively to develop inclusive and transparent strategies that involve the public effectively. Climate action is growing in OGP. In 2021, 16 local members included climate commitments. On April 13th, we started the ball rolling when 45 people from 12 different countries gathered online for our inaugural meeting. At this meeting we heard perspectives from three OGP members: Buenos Aires, Scotland and Estonia.  

Here are four takeaways you may have missed:

1. Engaging citizens in monitoring climate policy matters. Javier Irigaray (General Director of Institutional Quality and Open Government Buenos Aires, Argentina) presented Buenos Aires’ approach to collaboration processes for advancing the city’s Framework of the Race to Zero. We learned how the city has focused on transparent access to information and engaging citizens in monitoring progress.  To do this, they have co-created a platform to share information about the local Climate Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... as well as open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici..., with the aim of gathering collective intelligence and empowering citizens to monitor progress.
2. Engagement can take multiple shapes. We heard about Scotland’s public engagement strategy, which gives people information about the climate emergency and government action, with the objective of finding ways to directly involve citizens in activities such as the recent Climate Assembly. Matt Grady and Tessa Ferry (from the Climate Change, Climate Directorate in Scottish Government) also reflected on the importance of bringing marginalized communities into climate conversations, ramping up civil society and public participation (see climate change) and funding projects like climate assemblies ahead of milestone events like COP26.
3. Directly involving young people in climate discussion can lead to developing solutions. Teele Pehk (Process Designer, Green Tiger Foundation) shared an example of Estonia’s recent Citizens Assembly, which led to the development of a few recommendations sent to the President of Estonia.  
4. Organizations at local and national level will be crucial to fight climate change. Jesse Worker (Senior Associate, Climate Governance and Rights, Project Manager, The Access Initiative, World Resources Institute) provided vital links to resources and guidance from WRI’s experience working alongside business, individuals and environmental & civic organizations on how to take climate action effectively.

You can find the recording of the presentations from this meeting below and on the webpage here. It ended with breakout discussions, where participants noted the importance of generating spaces to share lessons learned and successful strategy implementation and reinforced the need for skill development workshops.

The next meeting of the OGP Local Circle on Climate Action will take place by mid-June. Check the website or join us on Slack for updates on this and other upcoming events.