When, how and why does citizens’ engagement with climate change shape laws and policies? The case of the French Climate Assembly

Citizens’ engagement with climate action and the energy transition is increasingly recognized as essential given the scale of the democratic choices they entail, the need for civic expertise, and the importance of public support to their success. Initiatives to foster public participation and democratic deliberation have flourished across Europe in recent years, both at national and EU levels, in particular in the form of Citizens’ Climate Assemblies. However the existing literature has tended to focus on their design and operation, more than on their long-term legislative and policy impact. This paper contributes to addressing this gap by asking: to what extent, when and why have they driven (or failed to drive) policy change? It focuses on the critical case of the French Climate Assembly (2019-2020). While President Macron had promised that the Convention’s 149 recommendations would be adopted ‘without filter’ by Parliament and government, its policy outcomes have remained highly contested. We analyse the trajectory of a set of carefully selected policy proposals, using detailed process tracing, to assess the extent of their (full or partial) inclusion within subsequent legislative and regulatory texts. Using systematic comparisons, we then aim to explain why some proposals have been more successful than others, looking at a range of explanatory factors, including: the nature of policy issues; type of legislative/regulatory acts required; EU policy context; stakeholder interests. Empirically, the paper complements the growing literature on Climate Assemblies. Theoretically, it proposes a new framework to understand if, when and why deliberative outcomes influence policies.