“Act now on the climate emergency”. This is the title of the first simulation of the assembly of the citizens of Trento, which took place at MUSE on the day of Thursday 20 June 2024.
Those who participated were 50 citizens of Trento drawn by lot, gathered together for the before the three days of formation and deliberation regarding the process of decarbonisation of the city of Trento.
The Trento city council, following interventions by the Trentino group Extinction Rebellionon 6 April 2022 it had approved a motion for the establishment of the instrument of Citizens’ Assemblies for fight the climate emergency. Although a timetable had been put on paper, the city assemblies have not yet been established by the Municipality; however, thanks to collaboration with MUSEthe project of simulating the assembly of citizens was born, which also involves the Municipality itself and the University of Trento.
Following the institutional greetings of the councillor Giulia Casonato and the teacher Louisa Parks It intervened Francesca Cassara on behalf of Extinction Rebellion Trentino who declared: “Climate and ecological crisis means social and economic crisis, but also democratic crisis. We are already seeing the effects of this in the decline in voter turnout at every level and in the rise of authoritarian and anti-democratic ideologies that feed on people’s fears. As Extinction Rebellion we demand it passes from a representative system to a truly participatory one, through the instrument of Citizens’ Assemblies. These Assemblies, if they had deliberative power, could allow citizens to develop public policies, suggest them and show the way to elected officials to find shared solutions to address and mitigate the climate and ecological crisis. However, this one in Trento is just a simulation, and it is not enough for us. However, we are aware that this is an important step. An experiment to be treated with great seriousness in order to effectively evaluate the tool of the assemblies and be able to continue using it in the future.”
In the autumn they will be presented to all citizens results of the Assemblywith the aim of providing the Municipal Administration of Trento with the elements for evaluate in the near futurethe establishment of a permanent Assembly of citizens on the climate.
You can consult the program and updates of the simulation at the following link: https://www.muse.it/simulationassessedeicittadini/.
