Das Projekt "Civil society for sustainability (CSS)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von DIALOGIK gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Kooperationsforschung mbH durchgeführt. Objective: Civil society and its organisations (CSO) play a vital role in the implementation of sustainable development (SD). Civil society actors exhibit special features, they are to a large degree driven by visions or ideals, place a focus on common action, participate in and initiate discourses about SD in society, enhance social capital, and share a non-economical (non-efficiency driven) world view. Given these characteristics, CSOs show some specific shortcomings: a non-economical worldview leads to less efficient pursuit of SD goals and to a weak representation in political and economical decision-processes; initiating discourses often excludes evidence-based thinking, giving away chances for increased self-reflexivity and learning; and a lack of institutionalisation within existing institutional frameworks of governance provide not sufficient leverage to influence policy making. Apart from these more general shortcomings, there are numerous specific and context-related issues that would need to be researched in order to increase efficiency of CSOs. To foster sustainability from an analytical perspective, there are two aspects underlying (or overarching) all these context-dependent problems: - Degree of institutionalisation of sustainable development efforts within a local/regional context (socio-economical-political-cultural). Also therein, the degree of institutionalisation of sustainability-driven CSO in political/institutional decision structures (participative governance). - Sustainability knowledge and sustainability learning: getting sustainability across to people (the long way from head to hand).
Das Projekt "Partnering to enhance civil society organisations contribution to research in sustainable consumption & production (CSOCONTRIBUTION2SCP)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production gGmbH durchgeführt. Objective: Some relative decoupling of economic growth from materials and energy consumption has been achieved in many EU countries during the past decade. However, this did not lead to an absolute decrease in environmental pressures, because absolute resource use has been generally remained steady over the past two decades. Moreover, due to the rebound effect , it is unlikely that resource use can be reduced by technological improvements alone. This leads us to the conclusion that sustainability of current lifestyles and consumption patterns may have to be critically reviewed. In order to reach the goal of shifting towards less environmentally damaging consumption patterns without reductions in the quality of life , contributions from and agreement among a variety of economic and societal actors are required. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have the unique position to bring a variety of actors together and convince them to take action for more transformational type of change beyond resource productivity measures. They can encourage concrete set of goals to drive away from currently unsustainable patterns of consumption. This project looks into how CSOs can provide new insights for research in sustainable consumption and production with the goal of reaching absolute decoupling of economic growth from resource use. Incorporating all major priorities of the call, specific objectives of the project are as follows: - Identify gaps (1) in the knowledge of CSO s how to shape consumption and production patterns in a sustainable way, and (2) in the research agenda for sustainable consumption and production policy strategies, assessment tools and indicators; - Providing new insights for increasing efficiency of policy strategies, assessment tools and indicators for sustainable consumption and production through small-scale exploratory actions; - Create partnerships between CSOs and research organisations to increase involvement of CSOs in research.
Das Projekt "Integrating civil, scientific and stakeholder knowledge towards African sustainable energy policy (SUSTAINERGYNET)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Organisation for International Dialogue and Conflict Management durchgeführt. Objective: Sustainable development is closely linked to the issues of Environment and Energy and their interdependencies. Sustainable economic growth and social development are only possible if secure, constant and equal access to energy sources is guaranteed. However, intensive energy use is likely to present serious implications for the environment and the climate. Especially in developing countries, promotion of sustainable energy options is necessary to tackle these challenges. In Africa, Civil Society Organisations (CSO) have been particularly active in addressing sustainable development and energy management within the last 15 years. While presenting important representatives for social needs and concerns, their effective impact on research policy agenda setting has however been considerably low yet. In line with the EU s commitments to strengthening civil participation and to promoting a global approach to the issue of sustainable development, SustainergyNet aims at promoting the engagement of CSOs in Africa in the field of research policy agenda setting concerning sustainable and efficient energy management. In this perspective, the project will elaborate and suggest ways on how to encourage and facilitate the cooperation between CSOs and RTD performers. This will be based on the assessment of current settings and frameworks that already exist, the formulation of recommendations and best practices and the presentation of a specific facility ( CSO Involvement Net ) that shall support CSOs towards actively contributing to research and policy processes.