Australia’s Citizen COP movement has today released its 2026 national event program: 90+ events across every state and territory, supported by a growing ecosystem of 75 partner organisations — more than doubling in scale since last year, driven by one thing only: a shared commitment to citizen-powered change.
As preparations intensify ahead of the UN COP17 Biodiversity and COP31 Climate negotiations, Citizen COP continues to grow as a decentralised national platform for civic engagement on climate and nature.
While the official COP runs on badges, delegations and international flights, Citizen COP runs on none of that. It is citizen-led, locally hosted, and open to anyone — demonstrating that participation doesn’t require a conference pass, only a willingness to be part of the conversation.
Building on a successful 2025 pilot that engaged more than 1,400 participants across 42 events, Citizen COP is now moving from pilot initiative to a structured, distributed civic platform for climate and biodiversity engagement across Australia.
A nationwide citizen climate democracy network
Rather than a single conference, Citizen COP operates as a nationwide network of locally hosted events — brought to life by councils, universities, community organisations, and individuals who believe in participatory democracy. Together, they bring global climate and nature discussions into local contexts, connecting citizen perspectives directly into broader policy conversations.
The 2026 program runs from October to November 2026, alongside COP17 (Biodiversity) and COP31 (Climate) — two landmark global negotiations taking place at a critical moment for both nature and climate action. With Australia set to play a leading role in hosting COP31 in partnership with the Pacific, , there is a renewed opportunity to ensure that voices from across the country are not only present, but actively listened to and meaningfully included in shaping the conversation.
Across many countries, there is growing recognition that stronger community engagement is essential to addressing the complexity of climate and biodiversity challenges. At People For Nature, we see democracy itself as one of our most powerful tools for tackling these “wicked” problems — not as a slogan, but as practice. Our contribution is to help make that engagement real in Australia: creating structured, accessible spaces where people can come together, learn from one another, and actively shape responses to the climate and nature crises
Browse 2026 Agenda and Book Tickets
Citizen COP events include community forums, workshops, citizen science activities, and locally led action projects — connecting global negotiations with lived experience on the ground. Already, 75 organisations, councils, universities and community groups are participating in the rollout, forming one of the largest coordinated citizen-led climate and nature engagement initiatives in Australia.
Built on principle, not just program.
Citizen COP is deliberately non-partisan, inclusive, and designed for broad public participation. It is intentionally different from the typical sustainability conference model — often shaped by commercial sponsorships, formal venues, and high-emission formats that can drift away from the communities and purpose they claim to serve. Instead of that, Citizen COP is designed as something simpler and more grounded: people coming together, for people and for nature, in ways that stay connected to real places, real voices, and real action.
- No flights
- No paid speakers
- Free and accessible participation
- Vegetarian catering only
- Minimal-waste approach
- Participatory funding model
- No involvement from fossil fuel companies
“These principles are not symbolic — they are structural. If we are asking society to respond to climate and biodiversity challenges, the way we organise participation must reflect those same values.”
Citizen COP brings together local events under a single national agenda, creating a coordinated framework for engagement across Australia. Each event is part of a shared program supported by an event guide, ongoing coordination with hosting organisations, and continued engagement with DCCEEW to remain connected to the evolving COP process.
Alongside this, Citizen COP is building something more collective: a way to capture the “pulse” of citizen perspectives as communities come together during the program — translating conversations on the ground into a shared, structured signal of public priorities, insights, and concerns on climate and biodiversity.
Expressions of interest to host 2026 events have now closed as the national program moves into delivery. Participation in the movement remains open through volunteering, donating, or sponsoring — as citizens, organisations, and partners continue to help build this distributed national initiative.
Get involved
💜 Make a monthly donation — monthly giving provides the financial stability to grow and sustain Citizen COP as a nationwide citizen-led movement. Every contribution, monthly or one-off, large or small, makes a difference. → www.peoplefornature.org.au/donate
💜 Become a supporter — help grow Citizen COP as a long-term, independent nationwide initiative. Support can take many forms, from helping host events or providing venue space, to contributing modest financial or in-kind support that helps cover practical needs such as event setup, communications, AV, IT, and coordination. We welcome organisations that want to contribute in ways that fit their capacity and values — whether that’s actively collaborating or offering light-touch support in the background.
💜 Book a conscious ticket ($10) — helps cover the work behind delivering Citizen COP events across Australia.
→ https://collections.humanitix.com/citizen-cop-australia-2026
Contact
Audrey Barucchi
CEO & Co-Founder, People For Nature
a.barucchi@peoplefornature.org.au | 04 06 683 018