The Future is Climate
Country: Spain
Lead organisation: Demos Lab
Short Description:
The Climate emergency is a paramount concern for young people in Spain, but are we engaging them in adaptation actions, do they participate in climate action solutions?
The Future is Climate is a citizen science and representative deliberative process formed by two deliberative bodies working together: the Climate Metaforum (40 randomly selected young people from all over Spain) and the Climate Advisory Council (20 climate scientists and experts). The aim is to foster sustained engagement from young people on climate action by creating participation mechanisms and to close the gap between scientists and young people by establishing ongoing dialogues. Participants receive expert training, collect data from their own communities on obstacles to climate action, and engage in consensus-building sessions to generate recommendations for policymakers.
Unlike traditional citizen science projects rooted in the natural sciences, FIC is a citizen science project in the realm of social and political science and participatory research. Young people in our Metaforum are active co-researchers that in order to engage in the discussions need to gather data, rely on the Climate Advisor Council and reach informed decisions. Therefore, our Metaforum co-produces knowledge about climate preferences and solutions that advances political science and social studies.
The aim is to foster sustained engagement from young people on climate action by creating participation mechanisms and to close the gap between scientists and young people by establishing ongoing dialogues.
Our initiative tackles two relevant fields for climate change adaptation:
(1) environmental education, as young people receive training from leading experts, collect their own data on climate action obstacles in their territories to support deliberations and consensus-building and become ambassadors,
(2) environmental governance, as the project includes an ongoing advocacy phase to push for policy changes and establish permanent institutionalized deliberative bodies. Climate change adaptation requires strong citizen engagement and participation, and we will make it happen.
Objectives & Goals:
A citizen participation initiative focused on understanding the main obstacles holding back climate action in Spain, in order to grapple with the complexity of the matter and find common ground by bringing out society’s collective intelligence.
The climate crisis will affect younger generations longer, yet their involvement in shaping climate adaptation strategies remains limited. The Future is Climate creates a structured space for young people to meaningfully engage with climate policy, not as passive recipients of decisions but as co-creators of solutions.
At its core, the project recognizes that building climate resilience is not only a technical challenge but a democratic one. It requires participatory governance, trust in institutions, and the recognition of young people as both stakeholders and knowledge holders.
