Berlin was the first German federal state to set up a citizens' council on climate protection in 2022. 100 Berliners selected at random by lot were invited on behalf of the entire city to talk to each other about the pressing issues of climate protection. The aim of the Berlin Climate Citizens' Council was to incorporate various perspectives of the local population into the shaping of Berlin's climate protection policy.

Berlin has set itself ambitious climate protection goals: our city should be climate-neutral by 2045 at the latest, and climate-damaging CO₂ emissions should be almost halved by 2030. This will have an impact on how we move around in Berlin, how we build and live, how we consume energy and other consumer goods. In short, climate protection affects us all. 

Only if the people in this city support Berlin's climate protection goals, necessary measures can be implemented. For this reason, the Senate and the Berlin House of Representatives decided to test a new form of citizen participation. The aim was to find out which climate protection measures are supported and where Berliners believe adjustments need to be made.

The civic initiative Klimaneustart Berlin brought the idea of a citizens' climate council to the Berlin House of Representatives in autumn 2020. Following an official hearing, the members of parliament officially recommended that the Berlin Senate implement a citizens' council on climate protection in April 2021. At the beginning of February 2022, the Senate Department responsible for climate protection, together with the service providers Nexus Institute and Institute For Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V. (IASS), gave the go-ahead for the draw for participants. 

The 100 members of the Berlin Climate Citizens' Council met for the first time on 26 April 2022. In a total of nine meetings until the end of June, they discussed the future of the capital's climate protection policy on behalf of all Berliners and formulated recommendations for policymakers.

The committee was composed like a mini-Berlin. The members come from all twelve districts and are between 17 and 84 years old. A quarter of them have a migration background, half are women. The participants were selected in an elaborate selection process, first by lot via the population register and then according to representative criteria. The selection process aimed to achieve the best possible representation of the Berlin population and ensure that people who are otherwise less actively involved in political processes also had their say.

Everyday scenarios were developed in the fields of mobility, buildings and energy as a basis for the discussions in the Berlin Climate Citizens' Council. These are stories of everyday situations in which important climate protection measures have been implemented. In an open-topic session, participants were also able to propose their own topics for discussion. Information was provided and discussed on the circular economy, sustainable consumption and nutrition and the production of electric vehicles. While being advised by recognised and independent experts, the participants developed measures in working groups, which were then voted on, reformulated or rejected by the plenum. As a result of the discussions, the council agreed upon 4 guiding principles and 47 recommendations. The council presented its agreed recommendations to the Senator for Climate Protection at the council's closing event on 30 June 2022 in the form of a citizens' report. 

The recommendations are intended to clarify which measures Berlin's citizens are willing to support for climate protection and how the measures can be designed in a fair and community-centred manner. Four guiding principles precede the recommendations. They summarise that climate protection should have top priority, i.e. be implemented swiftly, decisively and in a socially just manner. Energy and resource requirements must be reduced and advice and information provided. Adaptation to the consequences of climate change should also be guaranteed. These guiding principles all met with a very high level of approval in the Berlin Climate Citizens' Council (at least over 94 per cent). These are followed by 47 specific recommendations in the areas of buildings, mobility, energy, consumption and urban greenery. These include, for example, the topics of ticket prices and transport safety, energy-efficient building refurbishment and the socially equitable distribution of costs, as well as reducing food waste and more zero waste measures. The demand for an expansion of public transport was met with a very high approval rate of 99 percent.

The Berlin Climate Citizens' Council was financed by budget funds from the City of Berlin.

Nexus Institute (Berlin), Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V. (Potsdam) and Klima-Mitbestimmung JETZT e.V. (Cologne) organized and implemented the Council.

Recognised and independent experts introduced the topic sessions and advised the participants on the various issues. A meeting between participants and members of the Berlin House of Representatives was also organized, enabling a direct exchange with the political parties.

The council’s report underlined the desire for an ambitious climate policy in Berlin, including clear, but also socially just and citizen-centred regulations. It made clear that Berliners are concerned about the issue of mobility and that many appear to be prepared to make changes to their everyday lives. In their recommendations, the participants are firmly in favour of faster climate protection measures, but also in favour of greater involvement of the population and clear rules for reducing CO₂ emissions in the capital. In the vote, the majority of the recommendations received high approval ratings.

Timing was a central factor for the successful uptake of the citizens’ proposals. Had the update of the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Programme not taken place parallel to the citizen council, there would not have been an equal momentum for the Senate to take up their recommendations. In its official statement, the Senate stressed that the impetus from urban society provides the necessary tailwind for rapid and consistent implementation.

Hence, the citizen council was largely successful, as 42 of their 47 recommendations made by citizens were fully or partially taken into account in the update of the Berlin Energy and Climate Programme. Further proposals from the Berlin Climate Citizens' Council are to be pursued elsewhere, e.g. as part of the Berlin Food Strategy or the Berlin Zero Waste Strategy.

The challenge at the start of the project (as with all citizens‘ councils) was to recruit as representative a group of participants as possible and to motivate and bind them closely to the citizens’ council in order to secure continuous attendance. This was ensured during the process through low-threshold communication, technical and language support and building trust with the team. As result, the participation rate throughout the process was high and there was only a small proportion of attrition of participants.

The Berlin Climate Citizens’ Council can serve as a model for other cities or regions that pursue similar goals and find similar conditions.

Main success factor were the structured two-stage selection process of participants, citizen-centred communication (everyday examples) and the timely implementation parallel to the BEK process for relevance of the result.

Interest of officials from other cities is high to replicate the format. One example is the city of Stuttgart, which organized a similar climate citizen council in 2023.

In 2024, a replicate of the Berlin Climate Citizens’ Council with the target group of migrants – the “New Berliners Council” – was initiated. This council was made up of randomly selected people who have moved to Berlin from the Arab world, Iran and Ukraine in the last 10 years. The new Berliners were asked the same questions as the participants of the Berlin Climate Citizens’ Council in 2022. Their proposed solutions for sustainable mobility in Berlin differed slightly from the proposals of the Climate Citizens’ Council.

https://www.berlin.de/sen/uvk/klimaschutz/klimaschutz-in-der-umsetzung/bek-2030-umsetzung-2022-bis-2026/klimabuergerinnenrat/