Project launch: SHARED GREEN DEAL

Social sciences & Humanities for Achieving a Responsible, Equitable and Desirable GREEN DEAL

We are joining a €5 million European project to investigate how local initiatives, bringing together individuals and organisations, can play a role in meeting climate change targets, and support the ambition to deliver a green transition for Europe.

The five-year SHARED GREEN DEAL officially began on 1 February 2022 and is being funded by the EU’s Horizon2020 scheme. The research is intended to assist the EU in reaching its target of climate neutrality by 2050 and to create change at the local level. A total of 22 partner institutions from across Europe will together examine the role social sciences can play in helping countries and neighbourhoods dramatically reduce their carbon emissions as part of the European Green Deal.

Much of the recent focus on tackling climate change has centred on green technology development.  SHARED GREEN DEAL, however, will involve 24 separate ‘social experiments’ – taking place in neighbourhoods across Europe – looking at how organisations and individuals can work together to make our daily lives more sustainable.

Our German office will lead the implementation of the social experiment on efficient building renovation and will work directly with women affected by energy poverty, as well as with schools, housing associations, care providers and businesses. Knowledge-sharing workshops, toolkits for other local networks, and accessible training videos will be developed to help diverse organisations implement bottom-up knowledge sharing actions, especially valuing women’s skills.

The pledge that no person or place is left behind during the transition to a low carbon society is a key part of the European Green Deal, and diversity and inclusivity will be at the heart of SHARED GREEN DEAL to ensure social groups that are in a vulnerable position are supported with the changes taking place.

Our energy, climate and gender programmes coordinator, Katharina Habersbrunner, stated the project focus on the meso-level -the dimensions and infrastructures that connect and influence changes at both the individual and societal levels- is a very innovative approach. It will address citizen groups, NGOs and networks to bundle collective experience and knowledge. Particularly, in the experiment energy efficiency and renovation, WECF will engage residents and citizens, analyse their needs and experiences of prior renovations, and enhance their capacities to become proactive energy citizens.

Learn more about the project here