Introductory meeting

First session of the Citizen's Forum on Climate Change | 27th October, 2020

Beginning with an exercising of the imagination, we were asked to envisage the world/Isle of Man 50 years from now, and describe it in three words, resulting in the word map below, the most common descriptions being clean, prosperous, green, secure and healthy. Do you have any other words you would add? I was surprised at properous and security being so high, but I think that is because of my own perspective on life, and it is really useful to know that other value them very highly.

Image above: The word map created from the words shared by members of the forum on what the Isle of Man should look like in 50 years. Courtesy of the Transformation Team.

Moving on, we were asked how the forum could be most useful to us, what is most important to us moving forwards. Common themes were:

- Our ideas being listened to and acted upon

- Having respect for one another despite differing opinions

- It be a place to share knowledge

- For our time not to be wasted

Overall, the feel of the room is that most are advocating for action on climate change, so long as that comes alongside prosperity and long term economic planning. Many feel that implementing changes in regards to climate change allows us to achieve some of those earlier imaginings - a clean, green, healthy and secure Isle of Man. Everybody in the forum is advocating for a better quality of life for those who live here. The openness of the transformation team to allow the members of the forum to dictate the direction and structure the forum takes is refreshing and a great decentralisation of power. Their passion and commitment to the fact that the views discussed in the forum will directly impact both implementation of current plans, and directions for future research and decisions is also a good beginning, and gives me some hope that the forum will not be used (at least by the transformation team) as simply a tick box exercise. I truly believe that those who have pushed for the forum to exist believe in its power to make changes.

Issues

However, that does not mean that I think the forum is perfect. Firstly, there is no defined accountability. Other than the interest of the transformation team, there is nothing binding in the decisions made by the forum, and there is no requirement to implement the decisions or feed them into the Climate Change Action Plan or Climate Change Bill. Though I have no doubt the transformation team will include many of the decisions made in the action plan, getting them into legislation is more difficult. Ralph and Jane have promised to bring the suggestions to the transformation board, but they are just two on a board made up of several other political members and civil servants. My concern is that the board will use the forum to justify decisions they are happy with, and simply ignore suggestions they do not like (such as, say, a decision against the extraction of hydrocarbons in Manx waters). As suggestions must go through the board before they reach Tynwald, those that don’t go through cannot be debated on by Tynwald, meaning there is no accountability and no binding agreements of the political members to the decisions of the citizens forum. In a true citizens assembly, the decisions are binding to the government, and must be acted upon - this is not the case here.

Image above: How the decisions of the Forum lead into the policy making decisions. Courtesy of Sarah Mercer.

In relation to this issue is the lack of understanding (currently) about whether the outcome of the citizens forum will be a series of decisions, or whether it is simply a place to discuss. If decisions are required, a valid and just system of voting needs to be implemented and understood by the members. If it is a place to just discuss, then how do the transformation team or Ralph and Jane know what ideas to take to their respective teams/board? I think these questions are likely to be answered in the next meeting, but I would like to raise them here as they directly link to the issue of accountability and binding results.

Additionally, the proportion of stakeholder representatives to individual members is quite significant (1/3rd stakeholder, 2/3rds individuals), and half of those individuals were applicants, not randomly selected. To really have a true representation of the views of the Manx people, all 36 members should have been randomly selected from the electoral role. It is also as of yet unclear how the 12 stakeholder groups were selected, though again I am sure there are answers at the other end of an email, or to be found out at the next meeting.

Thoughts so far?

Overall, the Climate Change Citizens forum is a fantastic chance for direct involvement in policy changes on the biggest issue facing us for the next few decades, if not longer. A healthy democracy is about increasing transparency and accessibility, and the forum is a huge step in the right direction. Anyone interested in politics or change should be keeping an eye on its progress and success or failure. We have a lot to learn, and though there are issues and questions I have no doubt these will be answered over the coming months. I look forward to the discussions with both the members of the forum and the transformation team. If you have any questions or would like to find out more about the forum (from an individual applicant’s perspective), please get in touch.