On June 6, beginning at dawn in the Pacific Islands and ending at dusk in the West Coast of the United States, citizens around the world will take part in the largest ever public consultation on climate change and energy.
This unique World Wide Views Day is in support of an ambitious new, universal climate change agreement that the nations of the world will conclude under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris, in December.
Organisers Make Final Preparations to Bring the Voice of the People to the Paris Climate Agreement
Meanwhile, on April 13 and 14 in Paris, national organisations in the World Wide Views Alliance will meet at the European Space Agency HQ to discuss and continue their preparations for the main event.
On the day itself, June 6, groups of hundreds of citizens reflecting the demographic diversity of their countries will attend day-long meetings to discuss climate change and energy issues, express their views and make up their minds about what they want their governments to do to ensure a sustainable future.
Results to Give Policy Makers Unique Insights into Citizens Views
The results from the global event will be ready in June, giving everyone from policy makers to businesses, from civic leaders to investors a unique and timely insight into the views of citizens worldwide on the key issues that governments need to address in order to reach an effective new climate change agreement.
The results from World Wide Views will also be presented at the Paris COP21 UNFCCC climate change conference.
“We are very excited that the World Wide Views on Climate and Energy is being organised and happy to collaborate with such an important initiative. Bringing forward the views and the voices of citizens from across the globe can only contribute to a positive new universal climate agreement in Paris in December. In supporting this unique and novel approach, we believe we are also making an important contribution to Article 6 of the Convention as
it relates to education and public awareness,” says Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Managing Citizen Participation on a Global Scale
All the citizen meetings will be organised in an identical way in order to make the results comparable.
The results will be published immediately on a web platform as they are collected throughout the day. They will then be presented and distributed to the negotiating teams and shared with other policy makers and stakeholders not only at COP21 but importantly at key events leading up to the Paris conference.
This is the third time that partners in the World Wide Views Alliance have organised a global citizen consultation, but World Wide Views on Climate and Energy is on track to be the largest ever. Partners around the world are still signing up and over 50 countries are expected to participate.
The initiative has received France’s official COP21 label, and French President François Hollande praised it in his yearly speech to the French constitutional bodies, last January.
The project is initiated by the Danish Board of Technology Foundation, Missions Publiques, the UNFCCC Secretariat and the French National Commission for Public Debate in partnership with World Wide Views.
The project is funded by the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (MEDDE), 14 French Regions and the City of Paris, the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP), GDF Suez, the Presidency of the French National Assembly, the German Federal Environment Agency, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), the Fondation de France, and the EE-LV group of the French Senate.
