Stockholm Seminar: The potential of the new Global Citizens’ Assembly

Rich Wilson, CEO of the democratic innovation centre Iswe, presents the newly launched UN Global Citizens’ Assembly and what it could mean for global governance.

In June 2025, the UN Global Citizen’s Assembly will start operating in the run up to COP 30. The assembly hopes to have 10,000 participants by COP30, 100,000 by COP31 and 10M by 2030, making it perhaps the largest democratic innovation taking place today. But what is the promise, limits, and future development of citizen involvement in policy-making of global concern? Rich Wilson will present the assembly and explain how it seeks to create a new operating infrastructure for global governance.

When & Where

Thursday 22 May 15:00-16.00 (CEST)

Stockholm Resilience Centre, Albanovägen 28, Stockholm
Albano house 1, floor 4, kitchen/lobby area

Register to join on site or online. Zoom link will be provided upon registration

Registration

About the speaker

Rich Wilson is a democratic innovation specialist and CEO of Iswe, an independent democractic innovation centre. Starting his career as an environmental economist, he has worked with the IPCC and Environmental Council, written policy reports and blogs on The Guardian, Carnegie Europe, and New Internationalist, and is the author of the book Anti Hero.

In 2004 he founded the public participation charity Involve, which under his leadership became a leading international centre for democratic innovation research, innovation and policy-making. Since then, he has worked with the UN, OECD, WHO and EU, and advised governments globally on democratic reform.

He is currently working with the UN to establish a permanent Global Citizens’ Assembly to give millions of people a powerful voice in decision-making.

About Stockholm seminars

The Stockholm Seminars cover a broad range of sustainability science perspectives with a focus on the dynamics and stewardship of social-ecological systems. The seminars are usually held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and organised by the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, the Anthropocene Laboratory, and the Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere programme, all three at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, together with Albaeco, Future Earth and Stockholm Resilience Centre. Since its start in 2000 more than 100 of the world’s leading scientists and experts have taken part in this seminar series, including Nobel Laureates.

See previous seminars in the series and subsribe to invitation list.

Stockholm Seminars