Key messages
The key messages from SOER 2020 were endorsed by the participants of the four stakeholder events. Overall, the events signalled a broad recognition of the urgency and scale of the societal change needed, acknowledging that doing more is not enough, it is necessary to do things differently (support the emergence and the scaling up of innovations, address drivers, lock-ins and barriers to change). The political ambition of the European Green Deal and the EU’s commitment to the sustainability agenda was recognised, pointing to an important window of opportunity. Strengthening policy coherence, integration and implementation and were noted as key.
The events also emphasised that transitioning to sustainability will require engaging with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure societal support and legitimacy.
The need for co-creation and participation was stressed in all events and perceived as fundamental to generate solution-oriented knowledge and actions that respond to policy and societal needs. The need for new knowledge and skills, and for the better sharing of existing knowledge and practices was also emphasised.
Between late 2019 and early 2020, the EEA engaged with close to 300 stakeholders, from policymakers, to politicians, scientists, as well as members of civil society organisations in four thematic stakeholder events. To ensure their relevance and impact, the four events were co-organised by the EEA in close collaboration with a range of partners from the European Commission, the EEA’s Scientific Committee, the Council of the European Union, and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
From words to action: how can EU policy drive sustainability transitions?
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Co-organisers
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European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC) and DG Environment
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Date & time
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10/09/2019, 09:00 – 13:00
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Target audience
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EC policymakers
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Aim(s)
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- Building on the ongoing work of the EEA and EPSC on sustainability transitions and their implications for policy, contribute to a shared understanding – across the European Commission – of what is at stake and of possible response options
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Overarching questions
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- Sustainability transitions: how to make them happen and operationalise them?
- What are the opportunities and barriers towards transformative EU policy mixes?
- What EU policies, institutions and knowledge are needed to enable transitions?
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Background materials
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Main discussion points
- There is an unprecedented political momentum and commitment to the sustainability agenda in the EU.
- The workshop signalled a broad recognition of the need to change direction, define visions (e.g. what is our vision of the good life?) and enable sustainability transitions. Many participants have already started to think about how to re-orient their areas of work, creating opportunities for the EEA to deepen existing partnerships and establish new ones.
- Co-creation of policy and knowledge is acknowledged to be critical at all levels of governance. The EGD and the European Semester represent key opportunities to foster such collaborations and enable change in how EU institutions work together and with external partners.
- There is a clear need for new knowledge and skills to enable people to cope with structural change, and better sharing of knowledge and practices. Participants highlighted particular knowledge needs in a variety of areas, including lock-ins, inequalities and externalisation of impacts both within Europe and globally.
Knowledge for a sustainable 21st century
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Co-organisers
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EEA Scientific Committee
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Date & time
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29/10/2019, 09:00 – 17:30
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Target audience
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Knowledge communities
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Aim(s)
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- Reflect on Europe’s unprecedented sustainability challenges from a knowledge and environment perspective
- Discuss knowledge needs to enable sustainability transitions based on the SOER 2020, and explore opportunities for innovation in knowledge production and use
- Provide a platform to facilitate a dialogue between key actors
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Overarching questions
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- What knowledge is needed to respond to Europe’s sustainability challenges?
- How should knowledge for sustainability be developed and used?
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Background materials
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Main discussion points
- There is sufficient knowledge available for transformational action, but it needs to be better connected and used. In particular, knowledge transfer needs to better align with the needs and realities of decision-makers and societies.
- The development of new knowledge should be based on reflexivity, processes of knowledge co-creation and interdisciplinarity.
- The understanding of social interactions and science-policy communication are ever more important.
- Governance plays and important role in knowledge creation and transition. New governance need to include new actors e.g. civil society.
- Co-creation processes with different stakeholders inevitably involve a multitude of different areas of expertise, approaches, and interests, calling for specific bridging competences and sufficient time.
- Re-thinking of academic incentives is needed to complement the scientific impact factor with societal impact factors.
- Real-world experiments and their scaling-up are another starting point for the creation of solution- and impact-oriented knowledge and action. This calls for a coherent framework of evaluation combined with increased tolerance for failure.
- Trade-offs between different policy objectives need to be studied further to support the establishment of policies that scale up sustainable solutions and phase out unsustainable practices and subsidies.
- Societal actors, including researchers, need to take responsibility both for mobilisation and action.
From Knowledge to Action: SOER 2020 and the European Green deal
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Co-organisers
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Council of the European Union
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Date & time
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04/12/2019, 18:00 – 21:00
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Target audience
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Politicians, policymakers, researchers, and civil society
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Aim(s)
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- Reflect on what the SOER 2020 means for the forthcoming EU policy agenda and the European Green Deal (EGD)
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Overarching questions
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- How can EU policy induce transformative change at the needed pace and scale?
- How can the SOER 2020 and the EEA best support the EU policy agenda in the next five years?
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Background materials
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Main discussion points
- To realise the political ambition of the EGD, short, medium and long-term targets are needed. Ambitious targets spark investment in innovation.
- Only by mobilising different types of mechanisms, e.g. policy instruments, investments, taxation, across all policy areas can policies start to move our societies and systems (including the economic system) towards sustainability.
- Strengthening policy implementation and ensuring policy coherence is essential.
- Robust legal and policy frameworks are need to ensure it is either extremely expensive or illegal to do the wrong thing when it comes to sustainability. Political will is essential.
- Sustainable finance is critical to promote green investments and finance the transition. The EGD should integrate and level the playing field for natural capital accounting.
- The EGD should include legally binding habitat restoration targets for Members States using nature-based solution principles.
- For the benefits of R&I to be realised at the Member State level, knowledge needs to be mobilised to provide regional and local decision-making hubs with solutions.
- Develop and implement a (legally binding) monitoring system for the just transition that identifies how it will be monitored and who is responsible for it.
- The EEA plays key role in evaluating the success of EU policies in a timely and robust manner and thus is a key asset in the fight against climate change and environmental degradation.
- More focus is need on identifying opportunities for protecting and restoring nature itself, on how to reduce the drivers of environmental degradation, but also on how that translates into benefits, including economically.
- Invest resources into connecting the best available science and information, translating it into actionable knowledge and linking it to the policy agenda (e.g. EGD) to inform policy needs.
- The EEA could support Member States in exploring transition scenarios towards delivering the goals of the EGD and promote European cooperation.
SOER 2020: Civil society's role for a just (and fast) transition towards sustainability
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Co-organisers
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Sustainable Development Observatory (SDO) of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)
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Date & time
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12/02/2020, 09:00 – 13:00
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Target audience
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Civil society
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Aim(s)
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- Examine the core messages of the SOER 2020 and their implications for actions in support to ongoing policy processes, in particular those related to the European Green Deal
- Look at ways to boost the role of civil society for a just transition towards sustainability and to translate knowledge into action
- Discuss how to foster the engagement and active participation of all stakeholders, including youth, in accelerating the shift towards a more sustainable Europe
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Overarching questions
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- For a European Green and Social Deal: how can we ensure that no one is left behind?
- How can we leverage civil society actions in sustainability transitions?
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Background materials
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Main discussion points
- Transitioning to sustainability will require engaging all sectors of the economy and society, making sure that no one is left behind, and translating knowledge into action.
- The EGD is a positive agenda that recognises the need for systemic change, addresses systems and tries to identify responses. While it forms a key framework, targets are not enough and there is still a need to go further in scope and level of investment. It also needs to have broader ownership to succeed, which will not happen without civil society.
- For a Green and Social Deal, a just transition is needed. This will only be successful if there is strong engagement from society and affected communities and if just transition principles are integrated across European actions and budgets. Sustainability transitions critically depend on the emergence and spread of diverse forms of innovation that trigger alternative ways of thinking and living. Citizens, communities and civil society groups are important sources of creativity and innovation and are instrumental in bringing about behavioural and lifestyle changes. It is thus vital to rebuild social capital and for policymakers to support the emergence and the scaling up of civil society action and innovations.
- Co-creation and participation are crucial to ensure legitimacy and societal support for sustainability transitions. Tools for participatory democracy should be part of all levels of government as this enables learning and sharing knowledge from civil society experience e.g. food policy councils. However making shared choices together can be difficult to achieve when under time pressure to develop and implement policy initiatives.
- Accelerating sustainability transitions requires doing things differently. Urgent action is required in the next 10 years across the areas identified in SOER 2020 with a focus on addressing drivers, lock-ins and barriers to change. Key to this will be ensuring investments do not lead to dead-end streets and lock society into unsustainable pathways.
- Achieving change is linked to wider social and economic issues and values. There is a need to develop a better understanding of what it means to be a citizen and have prosperity and a good life within environmental boundary constraints. This will present challenges to the current economic model, and the role of vested interests in preventing change will need to be tackled. It will require consideration of what it means to have genuine societal engagement, along with putting in place the mechanisms to ensure civil society involvement. This should be supported by a positive narrative and a well-being pact to ensure societal support.
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