The simulation ofAssembly of citizens of Trento, the innovative tool for bottom-up democratic participation on energy, public green spaces and mobility enters its operational phase. Last night, from 6pm to 10pm in the Big Void of MUSE, the first plenary meeting with the 50 citizens of Trento, drawn by lot, who have joined the proposal for direct participation in the debate on the climate crisis. The initiative, promoted by MUSE – Science Museum and the Municipality of Trento with the participation of the University of Trento and Extinction Rebellion Trentino Südtirol, and the patronage of the Authority for Local Participation of the Autonomous Province of Trento, follows the experiences already conducted in Italy in Florence, Milan and Bologna. In the next meetings, scheduled for 27 and 29 June 2024, we will delve into the merits of the issues to provide a possible solution to the decarbonisation of the city.
In March the registry office of the Municipality of Trento had sent, drawing lots from among all those registered and those registered in the capital, 2,000 invitation letters to a representative sample of citizens. In April 118 citizensto whom the letter had been delivered, had expressed their willingness to participate in the experiment and, among them, again by lot, the 50 people who today make up the Trento Assembly. Yesterday, at MUSE, the first official session of the new bottom-up organization was held. The project combines three aspects: the desire to innovate the reaction to the ongoing environmental crisis, to promote new methods of active and effective civic participation and to re-interpret public spaces – such as museums – into places of pleasant and constructive meeting and discussion .
To welcome the Assembly, Patrizia Famà and Massimo Bernardirespectively director and director of the Public Programs and Research Offices of MUSE, who underlined how: “Today we cannot improve the situation on climate change alone. It is important to do this collectively with new ideas and requests. Museums, places of inclusion and participation, must put themselves at the service of citizens and cannot be inactive on these great challenges. Today you allow us to be a museum that provides a public service: the data and evidence that we produce with the effort of scientific research, and which help us to make informed and structured choices, in fact, they make no sense if there is no social debate.”
The councilor for the green transition, digital innovation and participation of the Municipality of Trento Giulia Casonato It reaffirmed: “we need to create alliances between public bodies and citizens, politics and movements. This project gives us the opportunity to look each other in the face and discuss and responds to the need to intercept people who are usually unable to participate in public debate. In fact, we need to intercept the opinions, enthusiasm and skills of as many people as possible, with the aim of making Trento more sustainable, fair and inclusive. For us and for future generations.”
Also welcoming Louisa Parks of the School of International Studies of the University of Trento, which together with its research team will take care of the evaluation of the experiment, and Francesca Cassarà of the association Extinction Rebellionwhich leveraged the urgency of moving from simulation to the establishment of a permanent Assembly.
The Assembly then got underway with the help of professional facilitators and facilitators who wanted to first investigate the expectations of citizens from this initiative, with thematic tables and inspirational images, and then start a series of training meetings organized by the technicians of the Municipality of Trento, APPA and the mediators and MUSE mediators on what is meant both in terms of terminology and scientific content for climate change, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, opening a focus on the Plan adopted by the municipality of Trento to deal with the ecological transition.
During the evening, the experiences of active citizenship of the country were also presented Youth Parliament to the Alpine Convention and of Trentino Climate Network.
The aim of the initiative is to test whether aPermanent Assembly of Citizens on Climate it could become a useful participation tool for the definition of strategies and policies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change for the Municipality of Trento.
The next meetings
Thursday 27 June 2024, from 6pm to 10pm
Opening of specific working groups on mobility, energy and greenery management.
Saturday 29 June 2024, from 10am to 4pm
Deliberative process for the formulation of a document for the Municipality of Trento.
October – November 2024
The process will close with a public event at MUSE to return the experience with the participants, the representatives of other Italian cities who have experienced the Citizens’ Assemblies and the municipal administration of Trento.
The final product of Assembly Simulation work will be a Work Report, containing proposals and recommendations for the municipal administration regarding the implementation of the Action Plan for Sustainable Energy and Climate (SEAP), with particular attention to the actions linked to the decarbonisation path of the city of Trento. Since this is a Simulation the report will only have consultative value, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the Assembly process itself. The 2024 project intends to provide the Municipal Administration of Trento with the elements to evaluate theestablishment of a permanent citizens’ assembly on climate.
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