12 Months, 1 Question: September 2021

Saving the planet from climate catastrophe demands not only urgent action, but also sustainable solutions. Can democracy take over the task of providing fast, collective and long lasting solutions to the climate crisis?

In the recent years we can observe not only that citizens across the globe are strongly engaging in the environmental decision making, but also creating new ways of democratic participation such as citizens’ assemblies, green parties, green networks etc. The public’s awareness of the climate crisis seems to develop faster than the institutional responses to it.

In September we will be discussing recent trends for democratising global environmental politics and flipping the question posed by the 9th WFD “Can democracy save the environment” into “Can the environmental crisis save democracy?”