Voice of the People, Future of the Planet: Are democratic innovations reshaping environmental decision-making?

The role of deliberation provided by democratic innovations (DIs) in contributing to solutions for the climate crisis has recently gained traction, pulled by the growing interest around the integration of national climate assemblies in the context of climate governance, (Elstub et al., 2021; Davies, et al. 2021). However, unlike prior evaluations which mostly focused on their internal designs, a crucial, yet less examined issue is their embedding within current political and policy frameworks (Boswell, et al. 2022). Aiming to that less explored debate, the paper’s contribution is twofold; to map the intersection between DIs and environmental sustainability by categorising their environmental dimensions with a geographical focus on Europe; and to understand the influence of DIs on specific environmental policy and governance issues, namely, tangible impact on decision-making processes. Our findings are based on an extensive historical review carried out under the EU-funded project "INCITE-DEM Inclusive Citizenship in a World in Transformation: Co-Designing for Democracy", resulting in a collection of 345 articles, coded to analyse different types of DIs, and their relation to environmental dimensions and supported by interviews with internationally acknowledged scholars. In addressing the first objective, findings reveal strong association of DIs with Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Climate Action), underlining their crucial role in climate-related deliberations and strong involvement with other goals like Clean Energy (SDG7), while identifying gaps in addressing goals like Clean Water (SDG6) and Life Below Water (SDG14). For the second objective, the data suggests that DIs significantly affect public perception and policy agenda-setting, but shortcomings remain in ensuring effective translation of outcomes into actionable policies. In sum, the study highlights the increasing influence of environmental dimensions on the processes of DIs, notably, the transformative potential of DMPs in reshaping policy and governance. But also stresses the importance of avoiding the naive belief that these processes are universally applicable as deliberation is not a cure-all to tackle the climate crisis (Devaney, et al. 2020).