Research field: Urban Transformations Towards Sustainability: A Law and Governance Perspective

Climate change poses a challenge for Austrian governance. Recently, it has accelerated the previously hesitant introduction of democratic innovations into the political system. To increase acceptance among the population – as well as within parties and government coalitions – for consistent and far-reaching transformative measures, more and more participatory instruments such as citizens’ councils and participatory budgets are being used. Whether it is the Vorarlberg Citizens’ Council on Climate Future, the nationwide Climate Council, or the Vienna Climate Teams: a representative cross-section of the population (mini public) is invited through a lottery process to draft recommendations for climate-relevant measures. However, apart from Vorarlberg, where citizens’ councils have been enshrined in the state constitution since 2013, there is a lack of a legal framework regarding the nationwide and Viennese variants. This ultimately leads to legitimacy deficits of these participatory instruments and has an impact on acceptance and governance successes.

This project, funded by StartClim 2025, brings together political and legal research on Austrian climate councils and develops legal policy proposals. Firstly, these proposals are based on the evaluations already conducted on how such processes could be anchored at the federal or state level to enable and support profound transformation. Secondly, they are also made with regard to the constitutional convention anticipated by the federal government in the coalition agreement, to which a scientific contribution is to be made. The questions are: Can the Vorarlberg model be transferred to the federal level? How can the legal framework contribute to increasing acceptance among the citizenry and in politics? The StartClim funding and our project results based on it are also intended to serve as a basis for a further application, particularly for a CERV project on comparative acceptance research of climate councils in European Union states.

Project lead: PD Dr. Teresa WEBER, MSc., Dr. Tamara Ehs

Funding: Federal Ministry of Women, Science and Research, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Climate and Environmental Protection, Regions and Water Management, Climate and Energy Fund, State of Upper Austria

Duration: 12.01.2026 - 15.10.2026