Good news, you can contribute again! What should the medical examination for driving licenses look like? Yesterday a consultation went live in which you are asked that question. All Dutch citizens can participate. Make sure to give your advice.

The Minister would like to hear your opinion

Cora van Nieuwenhuizen wants to know how the government can best determine whether someone is healthy enough to drive safely. That is why she is asking for your opinion in the consultation. For example, should drivers from a certain age receive a medical examination in your opinion? And should drivers or their doctors be required to report certain medical situations?

Together with the Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management we have worked intensively to develop the consultation, which is now online: denkmeeoverkeuren.nl.

Structure of the consultation

In the consultation you will be presented with various choices. For each choice the effects are shown. What will it cost drivers if you choose a particular option? And what will it cost the government? But also: what is the effect on road safety?

After the various options, a number of scenarios are presented to you as well. Which scenario do you find most appealing?

Furthermore, at the end there is room to share your own experiences with regard to the current set-up.

Until when can you participate?

Until August 5, the consultation will be open to everyone. Would you like to advice the government on the structure of the medical examination for driving licenses? Make sure you fill in the consultation before then. You can find the consultation here: denkmeeoverkeuren.nl.

We, as well as the Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management, would like to hear what you think.

Today the results of the climate consultation have been shared with the Lower House.

What will the climate policy be in the coming years?

Over the past few months, the PWE-lab from the TU Delft together with the University of Utrecht has conducted a public consultation on climate measures. This in response to a request from the Lower House. The new government will have to take extra climate measures, if the Netherlands is to achieve the EU’s climate targets. Before deciding which climate measures will be taken, the government wanted to hear the advice from its society.

The citizen in the decision-maker’s seat

More than ten thousand people participated in the consultation. The participants were presented ten climate measures, together with an explanation of the effects and costs of these measurement for the government. Participants were bound to a governmental budget that they could spend on climate measures. This way, the dilemma and the choices that the government faces were simulated as best as possible.

Handing over the report

The input of all participants and the results of the consultation have been compiled into a hefty, multi-page report. Today this report was officially handed over to the Lower House and to Ed Nijpels, Chairman of the Climate Agreement Monitoring Committee. Niek also gave a technical briefing today to the Lower House, to explain the results and answer questions the House might have.

Niek: “I am pleased that the members of the Lower House were enthusiastic about our method and that they found the results useful.”

What does the population find important?

The report showed that three quarters of the population supports more ambitious climate measures, but only if three conditions are met:

• Low incomes must be protected
• Polluters must pay
• The benefits must be greater than the costs

Ed Nijpels responded by saying that he is pleased that a vast majority supports climate policy, but that it is up to the politicians to ensure that the conditions are met properly. If politicians can do that, the willingness among citizens will be high.

To be continued

The Lower House will delve deeper into the report in the coming period. The new cabinet will take the results of the consultation into account in the choices they will make regarding climate policy.

Today the Webinar “Engaging citizens in energy transition” took place. This webinar was a collaboration between TU Delft’s PVE Lab and Populytics during which we discussed two recent consultations: 1) a citizen-initiated consultation on the heat transition in the Amsterdam district of Nieuw Sloten, and 2) a consultation combined with a citizen forum on the future energy policy of the municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân. In preparation of this webinar, we reflected on the conditions needed for successful citizen participation. We came up with the following list; do you have any additions?

Upfront:

• There should be a policy dilemma with various alternatives that still can be implemented.
• Begin public participation when they can still inspire you/decision-maker.
• Have the courage as a government, to present dilemmas to your citizens
• Think about the goals you want to achieve with participation and communicate this clearly

During:

• Involve citizens in the design of the consultation
• Good substantive and communication support from the organization
• Send letters / good recruitment campaign

After:

• Enable a citizens’ forum or group of citizens to convert the learnings from the consultation into (normative) recommendations
• Involve a group of the participating population in determining which analyses are relevant
• As a decision-maker show what you have learned from the participating population (and what you will do with the results)

Where, how and how much solar and wind energy can we generate in the region by 2030? In the Foodvalley region, representatives of stakeholders are working with 8 municipalities, 2 provinces and 2 water boards to come up with the Regional Energy Strategy (RES) plan. A group of residents from throughout the region – a citizens’ forum – wrote an advisory report on how this regional plan could take into account what the residents consider important. Populytics carried out a consultation among the residents of Foodvalley Region in support of this advice.