Warwick People's Inquiry into Climate Change
The Inquiry was on a slightly smaller scale than the People's Assemblies championed by Extinction Rebellion. It had 30 participants, selected by a process called stratified sortition. In stratified sortition, letters of invitation are sent to a large number of randomly chosen individuals. Those who respond positively are grouped according to standard demographic indicators (area, age, gender, income level, ethnicity, degree of concern about climate change) and a random selection is made from each group, with the number of people from each group adjusted so that the final selection reflects the demographics of the district.
The Inquiry was managed by two facilitators from Shared Future, helped by an Oversight Panel recruited locally from council officials, recognised experts in the topics of concern, and campaigners.
The Inquiry sought to answer the question “What do we need to do in Warwick District to help address climate change by 2030?” It met seven times between November 2019 and January of 2020, and released its recommendations in February 2021. Recordings of the sessions, which contain briefings on Climate Science, Local Emissions, Housing, Transport etc, are available on YouTube via the WDC website, likewise a recording of the February 2021 Launch Event for its conclusions.