Good news for the climate in 2009 came in the form of a host of local victories and unprecedented civil society coordination at the international climate negotiations, both of which demonstrated that across the U.S. and the world, the call for real climate action is alive and growing.  But in other obvious and important ways–stalled US climate legislation, an anti-climactic Copenhagen climate summit, a resurgence of climate skepticism in the media– it was not the 2009 many of us had hoped for.  So- What now?  What next?

A national summit or series of regional climate summits in the US could help answer those all-important questions by pulling together the collective wisdom of those in-the-know: on-the-ground citizen climate leaders.  The summit would bring together two citizen climate leaders  from every U.S. congressional district and from as many tribal communities as possible. The main objective of the summit would be to get feedback from these leaders on what it’s like on the ground in their communities, what works for them and what doesn’t and what they need as far as resources and networks, approaches on the Hill, etc. to support their work, etc. Each summit participant would also be an ambassador of feedback from additional citizen leaders in their community, who could also contribute via interactive webcasts and other “off-site” opportunities.  National climate and environmental organizations, agencies, climate-forward companies, etc. could then use the compiled feedback in working with local leaders.  Additional summit outcomes would include a replicable summit model, earned local media on climate advocacy in every district, communications to elected leaders, and new relationships between hundreds or thousands of local leaders (especially in less-networked areas).  The summit(s) would be sometime late this year or early in 2011.

The idea is premised on the belief that  among climate leaders and concerned citizens in communities across the country exist the collective understanding, observations, and ideas needed to scale up citizen involvement in and support for climate action and to hone our strategies for change.  The next best role for some of us will be to bring them all together, and then to listen well.

This citizen climate summit or series of summits would be unique in two key ways:

1-Many summits perpetuate a one-way flow of ideas and information.  Many events necessarily focus on sharing a “top-down” message, policy ask, brand, and/or campaign with citizen climate leaders.  However, this can also mean lost opportunities for a reciprocal emphasis on collecting valuable information from those participants.  In contrast, this summit would take advantage of participants’ wealth of local knowledge and on-the-ground experience through a unbiased facilitated feedback process.  The summit would not promote a piece of legislation, it would not plug them into a campaign, it would not form a new organization.  It would give self-identified local climate leaders an opportunity to give feedback and recommendations–via the innovative facilitated feedback process–to national organizations, federal agencies, and the like that do work (or would like to work) with citizen leaders in communities across America, to help ensure those collaborations are more effective and resonate with  more climate-concerned citizens across the political spectrum.

2-Many summits also aim to attract the maximum possible number of participants, and/or overwhelmingly attract participants with the most natural access (geographic proximity, ability to pay their own way, etc.).  In contrast, this summit would engage a diversity of voices from all regions, with even representation at two participants per Congressional district and tribal community.  Outreach and selection would need to be very carefully managed and  well-resourced to help ensure fair and effective representation.

Pulling together an effort of this magnitude will no doubt be an undertaking, and will require a lot  of work by many people and organizations behind the scenes.  And it will require, at the outset, a lot of as-of-yet unidentified financial support.  But at the end of the day, we can’t afford not to do it.

So if reading this has provoked a thought, a worry,  or enthusiasm, if you’re a whiz kid at models of stakeholder engagement, if you’re  working on most any national or global issue in local context–in other words, wherever you’re coming from–I’d be very grateful for your feedback–feedback on whether this kind of summit would be helpful from your perspective, feedback on what kinds of questions the summit should ask of participants, advice on organizations and individuals who might be interested in supporting the work moving forward, folks who may be thinking along the same lines, anything from your experience we should note, etc.  Please leave a comment here or shoot a note to imaclimateleader[at]gmail.com.  Oh, and please ask a friend or so to take a look, too.    Looking forward…