Le potenzialità della democrazia partecipativa in materia climatico-ambientale: considerazioni a partire dall’esperienza andina ed europea

Abstract

The potential of participatory democracy in climate-environmental issues: considerations from the Andean and European experience – Both international law and the cultural and religious conceptions of some peoples, including the cosmovision of some indigenous peoples in Latin America, attribute a central role to the community in making decisions on climate-environmental issues. This has given rise, on the one hand, to a tendency in very different and distant countries to protect the environment through norms of constitutional status and, on the other hand, to the spread of democratic-participatory tools in order to compete in decisions in this area.  The objective of this contribution is to analyze, after preliminarily illustrating the trends just mentioned, the forms of participation for the adoption of climate-environmental decisions, with particular attention to European and in Andean legal systems.  The choice of these case studies is based on their capacity to offer useful perspectives for reflection on the current and potential role of participatory democracy in decision-making in this area. In fact, although they present significant differences, especially in relation to the conception of nature and the regulation of its protection, both have provided for the use of participatory tools in these areas that, although different from each other, allow for the identification of both critical and positive aspects of the use of such mechanisms.

Keywords: Participatory democracy; Climate-environmental decisions; Citizen climate assemblies; Popular consultations; Europe; Latin America