This chapter argues that citizen participation in environmental and climate policies has moved through four phases from the early 1960s until today. The most recent phase is characterised by a ‘reorientation towards the local’, a move which is increasingly supported by actors at both national and international levels. For local governments, the task of initiating or facilitating citizen action concerning climate change mitigation has generated the development of new policy instruments that increasingly target people’s everyday lives, homes and workplaces. Examples of the use of these new policy instruments are given, and the roles of citizens and experts are discussed. The discussion highlights the precarious balances between governability and control and between democracy and efficiency upon which these policies depend.