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Citizen Infrastructure

Scotland's Climate Assembly: the children's process (2020–2021)

Scotland’s Climate Assembly broke new ground in an easily-missed way: it was the first citizens’ assembly to directly involve children under 16. Because the adult assembly’s minimum age was 16, a parallel children’s process was built alongside it — run by the Children’s Parliament — so that younger children weren’t left out of a national conversation about the world they’ll inherit.

At a glance

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Process typeChildren’s process running parallel to a citizens’ assembly
When2020–2021
WhereScotland
Run byThe Children’s Parliament, alongside Scotland’s Climate Assembly (adult members aged 16+)
ParticipantsJust over 100 children, under 16, from across Scotland
The questionHow should Scotland tackle climate change, fairly?
OutputThe children’s own findings and recommendations, shared with the adult assembly

What happened

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Just over a hundred children from across Scotland spent around five months learning the facts about climate change and developing their own views on what should be done — a deliberative journey deliberately paralleling the adult assembly’s, with touchpoints to share their learning and their recommendations across the two processes.

Inputs → outputs

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In: child-led research and learning, expert input, age-appropriate facilitation.

Out: the children’s findings and recommendations, presented alongside the adult assembly’s.

Impact

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It set the template for involving under-16s in a national climate assembly, and is widely cited as a first of its kind — evidence that children can be a structured part of serious national deliberation rather than an afterthought.

How it went

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A pioneering parallel model: children weren’t tokens or a photo opportunity but a designed, supported part of the country’s climate deliberation — the approach now spreading through children & young people’s assemblies.

Sources

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