Citizens' Climate Council Presents Proposals to Luxembourg Government

On Thursday 15 September 2022, the members of Luxembourg's "Klima-Biergerrot" (citizens' climate council) presented their proposals to the government, represented by Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, the Minister for Energy and Spatial Planning, Claude Turmes, and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, Joëlle Welfring.

Afterwards, representatives of the citizens' climate council presented their proposals to members of the press. Raphaël Kies, a researcher at the University of Luxembourg and member of the climate council's support committee, provided details of the process that framed the Klima-Biergerrot mandate.

"Climate policy affects us all. It concerns us all at the heart of our living together. How do we want to live in the future? What kind of planet do we want to leave to future generations? The climate issue is a social issue". It is with these words that Prime Minister Xavier Bettel announced the establishment of the Klima-Biergerrot in his State of the Nation address in 2021.

This was the first time in Luxembourg's history that civil society was so widely represented at the climate policy negotiating table. The Klima-Biergerrot is described as an innovative democratic instrument of citizen participation. Made up of 60 effective members and 40 substitute members, the citizens' climate council was officially launched in January 2022 and has just concluded its work.

After eight months of intense deliberations, numerous debates with experts, several weekends of work and dozens of field visits, the members adopted, in a democratic way, their proposals aimed at intensifying efforts in the field of the fight against climate change. Their many proposals range from the field of agriculture and forestry, renewable energy and sustainable construction to waste management and mobility.

Luxembourg's Prime Minister stated: "I applaud the Klima-Biergerrot for their courage, without which such meticulous and ambitious work would not have been possible. We also hope for broad political support in the Chamber of Deputies, which will do justice to the seriousness of the situation and respect the work carried out in this participatory project".

Faithful to its promise, the Luxembourg Government will integrate the work of the Klima-Biergerrot into its discussions surrounding the update of the integrated national energy and climate plan (plan national intégré en matière d'énergie et de climat - PNEC). In accordance with national and European legal provisions, the process of updating this plan provides that a preliminary draft of the document will be submitted to the Government Council for approval at the end of February 2023. It will then be the subject of a public consultation and will be submitted for opinion to the "Climate Platform". The draft update of this plan, taking into account the aforementioned consultations, must be sent to the European Commission by 30 June 2023 at the latest.

Luxembourg's Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, Joëlle Welfring, said in this regard: "The recommendations of the Klima-Biergerrot are very lucid and testify to the very encouraging quality of the work that has been carried out these last months within the citizens' office. We will study each of them in detail in order to integrate as many of them as possible into the process of updating the PNEC".

The Government Council has decided to set up a task force made up of representatives from the Ministry of State, the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Development and the Ministry of Energy and Spatial Planning which will coordinate the preparatory work in order to integrate the Klima-Biergerrot proposals into the discussions around the update of the PNEC.

This update will be based, among other things, on the analyses and proposals of the interministerial committee for climate action and will take into account the recommendations of the Klima-Biergerrot, as well as those of the scientific observatory of climate policy, whose first report on the implementation of climate policy will be published on 7 October as part of KlimaExpo 2022. As provided for by the climate law, the platform for climate action and energy transition will be associated with the elaboration of the preliminary draft of the update of the PNEC. A first working session of the platform for this purpose will take place on 7 October at the same place.

Luxembourg's Minister for Energy thanked all the participants and congratulated them on the result: "The proposals are of high quality, active and direct participation of citizens in the decision-making processes is of great value and we must think about anchoring it more firmly in our political system. The process of 'Luxembourg in transition' has demonstrated this".

The Klima-Biergerrot members will present their proposals to the competent committees in the Chamber of Deputies (Luxembourg's parliament) at the beginning of October and a consultation debate will be organised in the Chamber of Deputies on 25 October 2022.