World Wide Views on Global Warming

Led by the Danish Board of Technology, World Wide Views on Global Warming (2009) is considered the first in-depth global citizen consultancy on climate change. WWViews established a model for the future inclusion of the world’s citizens in global policymaking. The novel and practical project design made it potentially possible for all nations on the planet to take part and to produce comparable results that can be clearly communicated to policymakers.

World Wide Views on Global Warming involved roughly 4,000 citizens in 38 countries spanning six continents. The citizens gathered in their respective nations to deliberate about the core issues at stake in the December 2009 United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen, December 2009. They received balanced information about climate change, discussed with fellow citizens and expressed their own views. They did so in daylong meetings on September 26, 2009.

Learn more at www.wwviews.org and view the summary video and project report here. In this report, the results of WWViews are summarized in 9 policy recommendations. Along with the expert analysis behind these statements, you will also find an in-depth explanation of how the WWViews project was carried out.

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As markets, technologies and environmental issues become increasingly global in scale, so does policymaking. In this new reality, the distance between citizens and policymakers increases, thereby diminishing the citizens’ sense of ownership in decision-making. This creates a need for new initiatives to bridge the widening democratic gap.

Citizens have to live with the consequences of climate policies. Their views should therefore be taken into consideration. Policies determined through international climate negotiations will mean that citizens will have to invest in new technology, develop new consumer patterns, modify their houses and even their livelihoods. They are more likely to accept and implement such policies if they have been consulted and listened to first.

Until now, no systematic and in-depth global citizen consultancy on climate change has been organized. WWViews fills this void and establishes a model for the future inclusion of the world’s citizens in global policymaking. The novel and practical project design makes it potentially possible for all nations on Earth to take part and to produce comparable results that can be clearly communicated to policymakers.

World Wide Views on Global Warming involved roughly 4,000 citizens in 38 countries spanning six continents. The citizens gathered in their respective nations to deliberate about the core issues at stake in the December 2009 UN negotiations on climate change. They received balanced information about climate change, discussed with fellow citizens and expressed their own views. They did so in daylong meetings on September 26, 2009.

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