ABSTRACT
The chapter argues that citizen participation in environmental policies in general, and in climate policies in particular, has moved through four phases from the early 1960s until today, after a discussion of a definition of citizen participation. The phases are institutionalisation of citizen participation in environmental policies, development of instruments for citizen participation, citizen participation in a global governance perspective, from global to local citizens as policy agents. Each phase is marked by different policy regimes such as changing role of the state, emphasis on different policy instruments, different dominant political discourses and different citizen and expert roles. Finally, the chapter answers two research questions: what is the precise content of the reorientation towards the local after 2009 in terms of citizen participation in climate change mitigation, and how can this reorientation be understood by using a steering perspective and a democratic perspective.
