New study
How Citizen Participation Can Strengthen Climate Policy
A recent study commissioned by the Robert Bosch Stiftung explores how climate policy can be shaped to be more equitable and socially just. At the heart of this approach lies citizen participation.
Climate protection is a task for society as a whole. Public discourse often emphasizes the individual responsibility of citizens to adopt sustainable lifestyles. Yet, the ability to do so is significantly shaped by political frameworks. Framing climate action as a choice between personal responsibility and political obligation is a false dichotomy. Effective and socially just climate policy can only succeed when structural conditions and individual actions are interwoven.
This is where participatory formats come into play: citizen assemblies, referenda, and other forms of engagement serve as crucial bridges between policy and practice. They help integrate top-down regulations with bottom-up implementation.
Participation Builds Trust and Understanding
More and more people turn to social media for information—platforms that often reduce complex issues to polarizing soundbites. Yet climate change and sustainability are inherently complex. That’s why it’s essential to create spaces for informed dialogue. Citizen participation processes offer a powerful opportunity to deepen public understanding of these complexities.
Randomly selected citizen assemblies, in particular, bring together diverse segments of society—many of whom have little contact with political decision-making in their daily lives. These forums enable meaningful discussions about the range of options and trade-offs involved in climate policy. They also help strengthen democracy by revealing blind spots and potential conflicts early on, incorporating the lived realities of people on the ground.
Citizen participation formats are used at all levels — from local to global — but they are especially impactful at the municipal level, where policies directly affect people’s lives. However, national frameworks shape the scope for local implementation and acceptance. Therefore, participatory processes should also be strengthened at the federal level to ensure they resonate locally and reflect real-life conditions.
Designing Participation in Climate Policy
A new study by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and Klimamitbestimmung e.V. outlines various approaches to embedding participation in climate governance. For instance, key processes such as the development of climate protection programs under the Climate Protection Act could be enhanced through early and targeted citizen involvement.
The study also recommends establishing a central federal coordination office to manage the added complexity of cross-sectoral and multi-level participation. Well-integrated participatory procedures, it argues, can play a crucial role in overcoming polarization and fostering constructive dialogue.
On July 1, 2025, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, in collaboration with Klimamitbestimmung e.V., publishes the feasibility study “Moving Forward Together – Deliberative Participation in Climate Policy.” The study offers practical recommendations on how citizens and key stakeholders can be meaningfully involved in future climate legislation.
At its core, participation offers a way to strengthen national climate policy by incorporating the voices and experiences of local communities. While climate goals and strategies may seem abstract, their success — or failure — is determined in people’s everyday lives. To create climate policies that are not only effective but also broadly supported, we must take into account the diversity of lived experiences.
"Past experiences show that government accountability and clear rules for handling recommendations are essential. The missed opportunity to act on the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on 'Nutrition in Transition' left many committed participants feeling disillusioned. "
Quote from
A Bridge Between Policy and People
One thing is clear: reducing emissions is essential for climate protection. There are many ways to achieve this, and they must be carefully weighed and implemented with broad public support. Tailoring support measures— such as subsidies for e-mobility or heating system upgrades — to people’s actual needs would be a major step forward. After all, not everyone has the same capacity to act. Financial, legal, and administrative barriers often stand in the way. For example, tenants typically cannot decide on installing EV charging stations or replacing heating systems.
At the same time, public awareness of the urgency of climate action must be strengthened to increase acceptance of necessary changes. The study shows that involving citizens and stakeholders can boost support for climate measures — especially when the process is transparent and open-ended.
In this way, citizen participation serves as a vital bridge in the climate policy toolkit. It helps mediate between entrenched positions by fostering a deeper understanding of complexity. And it leads to better policy outcomes when real-life conditions are taken into account. This paves the way for a climate policy that is not only effective but also widely embraced — ensuring a sustainable future for all.
