Rechercher des projets européens

A Tale of Two Futures
Date du début: 1 sept. 2016, Date de fin: 31 août 2019 PROJET  TERMINÉ 

Climate change has been on top of the agenda for governments, business and civil society for decades now and the European Union has been a global leader in developing policies that help tackle this global problem. However, the discourse about climate change often focuses on scientific facts as well as detailed descriptions of the catastrophic consequences of inaction in the future. Jeni Cross, sociology professor at Colorado State University, defends that that contrary to common sense, giving information to an audience about a problem does not necessarily lead to behaviour change and she emphasises the importance of highlighting the personal stories of those who are taken steps to reduce their environmental impact to inspire others to do the same. Authors G. Gardner and P. Stern explain in a similar fashion that when it comes to global problems, statistical information rarely leads to behaviour change while authors Dan Heath and Chip Heath argue that focusing on 'what's broken' (about the energy system that uses fossil fuels and is therefore responsible for climate exchange), instead of emphasising 'what works' may lead to apathy instead of action - people are less likely to take part in the transition to a low-carbon future.In this Erasmus+ project, we would like to address the above two points. We want to focus communication about climate change on the personal stories of those who make change happen. With the experience of three partner organisations in the fields of adult education, e-learning and environmental literacy we want to support people and other organisations undertake small actions as well as start new small CO2-saving projects. We will focus on personal stories of people reducing their environmental impact through the Carbon Conversations programme. The programme, managed by The Surefoot Effect, focuses on values, emotions, and identity and over 3,000 participants in Britain have shown to reduce their personal carbon footprint by 1 T CO2 a year on average and pledged to halve it in the long term. We therefore want to adapt Carbon Conversations that uses social, economic and cultural references to carbon emissions in Britain to the social, economic, and cultural backgrounds of Spain and Lithuania. Volunteer facilitators run the programme in Britain for participants and in this project the three partners will collaborate to develop the volunteer networks in Spain and Lithuania.We will also focus on narrating a story of the benefits of a low-carbon future by showcasing 200 projects that have saved or are saving CO2 in Europe but also in some neighbouring countries and other large industrialised countries. These examples will be displayed in the project's Online Open Interactive Educational Platform. This way, we can show what options are available for people to reduce their environmental impact so that i) others can replicate them; ii) we can contribute to create a positive picture of a carbon-neutral economy, an 'optimistic tale of the future'.Eco-innovation is seen as a one of the key enablers of the transition to a green economy under the EU's startegy ECO 2020. In this project we want work in the adult education field to develop innovative methods to support people and organisations reduce their environmental impact. The Surefoot Effect will contribute with experience in environmental education and literacy while DomSpain and Ziniu Kodas will add their experience working in digital technology and e-learning programmes and community engagement, including working with groups of people with fewer opportunities, respectively. The skills and knowledge gained through the project will increase participants' learning and life opportunities and encourage them to take part actively in modern society within a field whose importance is expected to increase over the coming decades.Our primary target groups will be i) educational as well as environmental organisations in our partner countries, willing to train inthe Carbon Conversations programme and become volunteer facilitators and ii) organisations and individuals who would like to undertake CO2-saving projects and personal actions by looking at what other organisations and people are doing elsewhere. The project needs to be carried out internationally because in order to present a positive picture about the future, we must work with partners from different backgrounds, including cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. The project must also work at the transnational level because often, national economic policy determines a higher or a lower use of clean energy or public transport, for example. Thus, citizens in Lithuania will not go about purchasing renewable energy or travelling by train in the same way as citizens in Spain. Having examples from both contexts means that a wider number of people can identify with at least one of these examples and will therefore be able to replicate them.

Coordinateur

Details

2 Participants partenaires