Using Citizen Space to complement a Climate Assembly
The challenge
In 2019, Camden Council faced a critical question: how could they develop a meaningful, borough-wide response to the climate crisis that would genuinely reflect the priorities and lived experiences of their diverse community?
Like every local authority in the UK, Camden needed to think seriously about climate change and their role in addressing it. But they recognised that top-down policy-making wouldn't be enough. The climate crisis affects everyone differently, and any effective response would need to draw on the knowledge, concerns, and ideas of residents themselves.
Camden wanted to go beyond traditional consultation. They needed depth of engagement as well as breadth of reach – combining quantitative and qualitative methods in a multi-stage process that would move from initial idea-gathering through to detailed policy development. Most importantly, they needed to ensure that the voices shaping their Climate Action Plan truly reflected the diversity of the borough – from different backgrounds, ages, incomes, and experiences.
The challenge was ambitious: to create the UK's first Citizens' Assembly on the climate crisis, and to use it as the foundation for a five-year Climate Action Plan developed in genuine partnership with the community.
The approach
Camden began with something unprecedented: the UK's first Citizens' Assembly on the climate crisis.
Residents with a broad range of experiences and backgrounds, who closely reflected the demographics of the borough, came together over three days to learn about climate change and shape a new Climate Action Plan for Camden. The Assembly members heard from experts, deliberated together, and developed recommendations based on both evidence and their lived experience.
The Citizens' Assembly concluded with 17 key recommendations across four main themes: people, spaces, buildings, and organisations. These recommendations were taken forward to a full Council meeting, where the Council committed to "take all the action it can to make Camden net zero carbon by 2030" and to "deliver on the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly."
But Camden didn't stop there. They wanted to ensure both depth and breadth of engagement.
Following the Assembly's recommendations, the Council produced a draft Climate Action Plan – an 11-page document that brought the citizens' proposals to life as borough-wide policies and community-led actions. This draft then needed to be opened up for wider consultation.
Against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, Camden ran a six-week online consultation using Citizen Space, the next-generation citizen engagement platform from Delib. The Council also arranged meetings with community groups, Citizens' Assembly members, and those unable to use the online platform.
The consultation was published on Camden's Citizen Space hub, making it easy for any resident to find and participate. The survey itself was well-presented, with plenty of information in plain English and a clear, easy-to-follow format. Crucially, the full proposed plan was available both as a downloadable document and embedded within the survey, meaning participants had easy access to all the information at the point of response – perfect for ensuring informed, considered feedback.
The results
Three months after the consultation closed, Camden's Cabinet reviewed and approved the Climate Action Plan 2020-2025: a five-year programme of projects and activities created in collaboration with the people and organisations of Camden.
The plan delivered remarkable results:
- Over £35 million invested in climate action across the borough between 2020-2025
- Borough-wide emissions reduced by 52% since 2005, with a 15.5% reduction since 2020 alone
- Council emissions reduced by 64.5% since 2010 through energy efficiency upgrades, renewable energy installations, and fleet greening
- Over £440,000 awarded through Camden Climate Funds to more than 90 community projects
- 5,751 trees planted across the borough
- Healthy School Streets expanded from just 4 in 2019 to 32 covering 36 schools by 2025
- Segregated cycleway length trebled, with over 560 electric vehicle charging points installed
The community-led approach sparked impressive grassroots action. Projects like Power Up North London installed community solar on schools, LifeafterHummus expanded surplus food supermarkets, and circular economy "sharing spaces" opened on housing estates. The Somers Town Future Neighbourhood programme demonstrated how climate action could improve daily life for residents through skills training, food growing, and community-led greening.
We have turned the citizens’ proposals into borough-wide policies and community-led action in this Climate Action Plan. This Action Plan represents the culmination of this work, and defines the first of two five year plans for how we will move towards zero carbon and address the crisis.
Revisiting the approach: Building on success
By 2024-2025, as Camden prepared their second Climate Action Plan for 2026-2030, they faced new challenges. The borough was experiencing tangible climate impacts – record-breaking heatwaves, devastating floods, and rising inequality. The cost-of-living crisis meant residents needed climate action that improved their daily lives, not just reduced emissions.
Once again, Camden placed community engagement at the heart of their planning.
Between November 2024 and May 2025, they ran an extensive engagement programme reaching over 280 residents, businesses, and organisations. This included targeted conversations with those most vulnerable to climate impacts – older people, people with learning disabilities, children, and rough sleepers. They held business workshops, youth summits with 70 students, and in April 2025, a Climate Community Action Day that brought together 55 residents – including original Citizens' Assembly members – to review progress and shape the new plan.
Citizen Space remained central to the process, providing a transparent platform for publishing information and ensuring accessibility throughout the consultation period.
The resulting Climate Action Plan 2026-2030 reflects the evolution in Camden's thinking, shaped by community feedback. While zero carbon ambition remains, the plan now balances emissions reduction with building resilience to climate impacts. It includes seven priority areas, 40 specific outcomes, and a clear commitment to social justice – recognising that those most affected by climate impacts often contributed least to the problem.
As Councillor Harrison noted in the new plan's foreword:
"I said in the Foreword to the first Climate Action Plan that we would honour and sustain the participatory approach to climate action that the Citizens' Assembly established, and I am proud to say that this second Climate Action Plan has been built on similarly strong foundations."
Camden's journey demonstrates that meaningful climate action doesn't have to be top-down. By starting with the UK's first climate Citizens' Assembly and maintaining that commitment to community engagement – supported by tools like Citizen Space that ensure accessibility and transparency – Camden has created climate plans that truly belong to the people they serve. From groundbreaking deliberative democracy in 2019 to comprehensive community engagement in 2024-2025, Camden continues to show how local authorities can respond to the climate crisis with both ambition and genuine partnership with their communities.
Delib is a govtech leader specialising in consultation and engagement, trusted by over 600 government organisations worldwide, including major planning projects. Since 2004, we've been building secure, accessible digital platforms to make participation simpler, fairer, and more inclusive. Our flagship product, Citizen Space, was built in collaboration with the UK government and has supported more than 11 million responses across over 110,000 democratic activities.