Is democracy an inconvenient constraint on climate action or an essential condition for solving it?
We cannot solve the climate problem by treating it as an isolated technical problem. We will need to address it by engaging with people’s lived realities, something that cannot be done by science alone, especially without democratic legitimacy. Join this panel event, hosted by the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes. Please note the early morning start time.
Thursday, April 23, 2026
6:00 a.m. Arizona time (9:00 a.m. EDT)
Hybrid: ASU DC Center and via Zoom
- Drawing on transatlantic experience and two decades of participatory innovation, the discussion will explore:
- The original ambition of closing the democratic gap in global climate governance
- The evolving tension between legitimacy and speed in participatory processes
- The shift from climate as a technical problem to climate as a human welfare and development problem
- Competing governance logics: technocratic urgency versus democratic engagement
- The implications of rising populism, authoritarian tendencies, and declining trust in institutions
Ultimately, the conversation will ask whether the more urgent crisis is not only climate change, but a crisis of confidence in institutions, and whether closing democratic gaps is a necessary condition for rebuilding that confidence and enabling collective action.
