By Natalie Curd, Climate Programme Manager at London Borough of Camden.
In 2019, Camden Council hosted the UK’s first Citizens’ Assembly on the climate crisis and laid the foundation for a community-shaped Climate Action Plan, built around the seventeen resident-led recommendations for how we should tackle the climate crisis. Since then, over the past five years, we have continued to embed public engagement at the heart of our climate programme—creating a ‘golden thread’ that connects residents’ voices to real policy and action.
As we look ahead to the 2026–2030 Climate Action Plan (CAP), Camden’s story offers a compelling case for why sustained, inclusive engagement is not just valuable but essential for local climate action.
Where It All Began
The original Citizens’ Assembly was a turning point. It demonstrated that residents, when given the time, space and support, could grapple with complex climate issues and co-create meaningful solutions. The resulting CAP was not just a council document—it was a community vision of what they wanted the borough to be, and it has led to impressive levels of community-led action and leadership from third sector organisations such as Think & Do, Lifeafterhummus and Power Up North London.
It was recognised that one-off engagement wasn’t enough; in fact, an Assembly recommendation was to set up a panel of residents to help scrutinise, review and advise on the progress of our climate work. The Council committed to this ongoing engagement through a Climate Citizens’ Panel. Key contributions of the Panel to the climate programme included supporting the design of a public information campaign to encourage residents to take steps to reduce their emissions, contributing to cycle lane proposals, and how to increase uptake of the Council’s Camden Climate Fund.
Now, residents are helping us to shape the next CAP.
What We Set Out to Do
We wanted to maintain the golden thread of engagement through the next five years of climate action, keep residents at the centre of decision-making, and co-design a new plan that reflects the lived experiences, priorities and ideas of Camden’s diverse communities. This meant going beyond the usual voices and reaching those most affected by climate change—young people, residents in flood- and heat-prone areas, and those facing social and economic vulnerabilities.
To achieve this, we designed a two-stage engagement process:
- Stage One: Place-based engagement—community conversations—as well as a Young Person Summit, trialling a new interactive immersive engagement tool, Strategy Rooms, and an online engagement platform to understand how life has changed for Camden’s community in the last five years.
- Stage Two: A Community Climate Action Day to revisit the original Assembly recommendations and generate new ideas and priorities based on what we learnt during our earlier engagement activities.
You can find out more about what we did and what we learnt by watching this video:
The Impact of Continued Engagement
This sustained approach has had a significant impact. It has:
- Built trust: Residents see that their voices matter—the feedback received from taking part in the engagement has been overwhelmingly positive.
- Improved policy relevance: Engagement has surfaced new priorities that are now being embedded in the next CAP.
- Broadened participation: By using informal and multiple formats, Camden has reached groups who might not attend more formal consultations.
Perhaps most importantly, it has shifted the culture of climate action in Camden—from something the Council does, to something the whole community owns.
Key Learnings and Challenges
Of course, this journey hasn’t been without its challenges. Sustained engagement activities require dedicated resources and sufficient time to plan, carry out the activities and analyse the information the engagement activities gather. Externally, reaching the most underrepresented groups remains challenging.
Some key takeaways for other councils include:
- Start with what’s already there: Take advantage of the golden thread—build on previous engagement rather than starting from scratch. Respect the work communities have already done.
- Be transparent and honest: Show how public input is used and be honest about what the Council has achieved. This builds credibility and encourages future participation.
- Design for inclusion: Use multiple formats—online, in-person, formal, informal—to meet people where they are, and reward people for their time and effort.
- Invest in facilitation: High-quality, independent facilitation (like that provided by Involve) ensures participatory decision-making and that engagement is meaningful and quality assured.
I believe the success of local climate action lies in shared ownership. Councils can’t do this alone. By working alongside communities, we can create plans that are not only more effective, but more equitable and enduring.