Assembly Recommendations, Legislative Engagement, Next Steps, And Art!

The first WA Climate Assembly has concluded! The feedback from Assembly members was uniformly positive.  They were excited about having engaged in this project together and learned a great deal about climate change and mitigation options. A big shout out to the coordinating team for having done an amazing job!

We have a first cut of the recommendations endorsed by at least 80% of Assembly members!  In the days ahead, we will be able to share a more detailed report on the strength of support for each recommendation, and a crosswalk between the recommendations and specific pieces of legislation currently pending before the legislature.  But even before then, feel free to cite this level of support if you are communicating with legislators around specific issues.

You will also be interested to learn that last month, the League of Women Voters, Sen. Marko Liias, Sen. Judy Warnick, Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, Rep. Jake Fey, Rep. Cindy Ryu, Rep. Tom Dent, Rep. Alex Ramel, and Rep. Kirsten Harris-Talley joined PVOC in co-sponsoring a well-attended presentation for legislators on the Assembly. (Many thanks to Johanna Lundahl who did the lion’s share of the heavy lifting!) As well as endorsements from the co-sponsors, the agenda included:

• An introduction to climate assemblies by Laura Berry of the Climate Mobilization project
• A report on the WA Climate Assembly by Mike Chang of Cascadia Consulting
• A discussion of the role a climate assembly played in the UK, by Darren Jones, UK Parliament
• A report by a team of academics who have been evaluating our Assembly

The Assembly Coordinating Team will be hosting a second presentation later this month to discuss the Assembly’s recommendations.  When that happens, you will be able to learn all about it here.

What’s next for People’s Voice on Climate?   Three things:

1. Working to educate legislators on the content and significance of the Assembly recommendations.  (Feel free to join us in this.)
2. Preparing a report on the process of initiating the Assembly, successes, and opportunities for improvement.
3. Looking ahead:  How can PVOC best support climate mitigation and deliberative democracy?

We’d love to hear your thoughts about any of these undertakings.

Finally, we’re pleased to share some amazing graphic recordings of the Assembly presentations done by Anne@thedoodlebiz