Citizen engagement initiative : Shaping the EU’s climate future together

Citizen Voices for Climate Transition is an initiative funded through the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call, “other action 9”. Its goal is to analyse the environmental, social and economic transitions needed to achieve the European Green Deal objectives in different domains:

• technological and behavioural changes mandated by EU initiatives and policies,
• social justice mechanisms across different geographical and social contexts necessary to keep the process fair, and
• engagement of citizens across the EU to generate public buy-in.

The project kicked off in September 2021 and aims to draw an EU roadmap for the climate transition with the active participation of citizens. The roadmap itself will be drafted by selected experts, but the actions in the roadmap will be identified on the basis of inputs received from citizens, civil society organisations, research and education communities as well as national and local authorities, through a series of workshops in all 27 Member States.

A first round of participatory workshops will involve groups of citizens who will discuss three key areas for the climate transition: sustainable food production, smart and sustainable mobility, and energy-efficient buildings. The outcomes of these events will directly feed into the Conference on the Future of Europe. Building on the citizens’ input, a second series of workshops will be organised with national experts – gathering policymakers, businesses and researchers – to elaborate national policy roadmaps for the climate transition. As a final step, experts in the three policy areas will build on the inputs from all Member State to draft an EU roadmap by autumn 2022.

In a high-level event citizens will have the opportunity to present their key ideas and recommendations directly to Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans, leading the European Commission’s work on the European Green Deal and the climate transition, and Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Research, Innovation, Education, Culture and Youth. The event will take place in April 2022.