Placing the Convention: an outlier amongst climate assemblies?

The French Citizens’ Convention for the Climate is at the leading edge of what the OECD terms the “deliberative wave”. While it has strong family resemblance to other climate assemblies, this can mask significant differences. By comparing the Convention with the other five national climate assemblies that had completed their work by the end of 2021, the singularity of the phenomenon of climate assemblies is challenged. Through this comparison, it becomes clear that aspects of the commissioning, governance, design and impact of the Convention make it distinguishable from other climate assemblies. It is an “outlier” in social scientific terms. And this outlier status may play an important role in unsettling established principles of DMP practice.