National citizen panel on sustainable consumption

In the spring of 2024, We Do Democracy and SoCentral were appointed to be the third-party secretariat for Norway’s first National Citizens’ Parliament. The theme was sustainable consumption of goods, as Norway is among the countries in the world with the highest consumption per capita.

A representative group of ordinary Norwegians from all over the country had to work together to come up with good solutions that were also socially just, so we can get everyone on board.

The Ministry of Digitization and Public Administration was the formal commissioner and the work of the Citizens’ Parliament will be presented to the Norwegian Parliament, Stortinget.

The first Norwegian national citizens’ parliament was to answer the question – “How can we together reduce our overconsumption of goods while living good lives?” The Citizens’ Parliament was to develop concrete recommendations that could be turned into government policy. The total budget for the Citizens’ Parliament, which committed to the OECD principles, amounted to NOK 3.5 million.

This is the first time that We Do Democracy has conducted a national citizens’ consultation. At the same time, we did it in collaboration with Soentral in Norway. We worked together to conduct a process where ordinary Norwegians had the opportunity to dive into the topic and develop recommendations across their diversity. The partnership with SoCentral enabled us to bring our knowledge of civic engagement into play in Norway and inspire the rest of the Nordic region

40,000 Norwegians were invited to participate in the panel. Of the nearly 500 who signed up, 66 were selected by lottery.

Over the winter of 2024-25, members met and spent over 40 hours delving into the topic and making recommendations to the government.

On Friday, February 14, 2025, the Norwegian Parliament submitted its recommendations on sustainable consumption to the Norwegian government. Karianne Tung, Minister for the Ministry of Digitalization and Public Administration and Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, Minister for the Ministry of Climate and Environment accepted the recommendations.

The process has followed the OECD principles for deliberative processes in public decision-making.

Watch the launch of the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly here: https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/invitasjon-norges-forste-folkepanel-gir-rad-til-[…]en-about-how-we-can-reduce-overconsumption/id3086759/

The recommendation report can be found here https://folkepanel.regjeringen.no/