The Civic Engagement in American Climate Policy conference, planned for May 13-14, 2022 in Washington, DC, will convene practitioners and scholars who work across various fields of American environmental and climate policy where civic engagement, public deliberation, and multi-stakeholder collaboration have become critical for sustainable, resilient, and environmentally just solutions in the decades ahead.
Conference participants will address existing practices and programs at the community level, as well as through civic associations, public agencies, and partner institutions. The conference will also address capacity building challenges to embed productive civic engagement across the full range of issues and at the scale that will be needed for a genuinely democratic response to climate crises across our cities and regions, coastal communities and Western landscapes.
Frank Niepold will be speaking on a Environmental Education panel with Judy Braus (North American Association for Environmental Education), Bora Simmons (North American Association for Environmental Education), Marianne Krasny (Cornell Civic Ecology Lab), and Elena Takaki (Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies)
At the conference across numerous panels, the conference participants will discuss what robust strategic leadership might look like that keeps civic engagement at the core of creative climate policies, while also aligning community and collaboration with the full range of other tools of accountable and effective governance.
After the conference, the organizers will release a report of our discussion and recommendations, as well as on the research that has preceded our meeting and may immediately follow to further clarify issues. This report will be circulated widely as a PDF and in print through various media, as well as among a broad range of organizations.