Citizens to discuss Seoul’s role in overcoming climate change

An event will be held to introduce various ideas from citizens to overcome climate change and select suggestions to reflect on policies of Seoul. Citizens will have opportunities to share tips in their daily lives to contribute to the cause. 　

The City of Seoul announced Tuesday that it will hold an online meeting for citizens “2021 Seoul Citizens Meeting” on Wednesday with an agenda “An era of climate change, Seoul’s role.” The meeting is a public sphere to discuss policies, build consensus and reflect opinions of citizens from all walks of life. Seoul appointed 1,081 citizens through open recruitment in May. They have had multiple discussion sessions since June and suggested 497 ideas to tackle climate change. Seoul’s Climate and Environment Headquarters and experts picked 25 ideas after a review, out of which 11 were selected through a mobile voting by appointed citizens. 　

Proposers of each idea will present the purpose, background and effects and have debates. Appointed citizens who watched this through video will select the best idea and two second-best ideas. Seoul City plans to use the proposal to establish policy. 　

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hun and citizens will have a session “Citizens’ promise to save the earth” to share ideas that other citizens can practice in their daily lives to stop climate change. Those ideas include reducing energy consumption, using public transportation, building more parks and green lands, reducing the use of disposables, recycling and Low-carbon meals. 　

The event will start at 6:00 p.m. and be broadcasted in real time through Seoul City’s YouTube channel. “I will take the voice of appointed citizens as the voice of all citizens in Seoul as they were selected by considering gender, age and neighborhood ratio based on Seoul’s population,” said Mayor Oh.


Chang-Kyu Park kyu@donga.com