Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EUtrsfWPM (Europe's Transformation: Where People Matter)
Période du rapport: 2018-03-01 au 2019-01-31
The initiative Growth in Transition, which was launched in 2008 by the Austrian Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism and steered by a group of ten, recruited from EAA, MoE and the Vienna University of Economics and Business, brings together transformation activists and decision makers from politics, science, business and civil society and promotes dialogue and an exchange of perspectives on growth, prosperity and quality of life.
The overall objective of the project was to organise a presidency event that strengthens a multi-stakeholder dialogue in Austria as well as within the EU on ecologically and socially sustainable growth in order to enable the transition towards a resource-efficient and environmentally compatible economy. The aim was to address transformation towards a sustainable society in Europe from a multitude of perspectives. Conference topics included social and distributional aspects of a fair society, the role of business in a low carbon transition, the societal challenge of climate change and digital economy, the implantation of the Paris agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), social and ecological innovation as well as circular economy.
The project managed to have broad media coverage, including 9 press releases. The conference was mentioned 62 times in online and print media, both in national and international media outlets.
The most important output of the conference is the Call to Action. This document is addressed to the European Commission and consists of ten recommendations relating to the conference topics. It was handed over to the First Vice-President of the EC, Frans Timmermans, during the closing session of the conference. Another inspiring output of the conference is the so-called ‘art book’, that was created during the art session where participants, speakers and politicians participated. Additionally, a conference report summarizing the content of the two-day event was made available online. Another important outcome are the key messages formulated by each parallel session.
The first follow up meetings took place in December 2018 and an March 2019 and further follow up activities are in progress. Together with the GiT stakeholder network and session host, potential future activities were discussed and the organisation of further activities is in progress.
To have a wider socio-economic impact and foster a holistic approach, it was decided to include actors from all different sectors of society. The conference included participants from academia, business, international organisations, media, public administration, NGOs, political decision-making bodies and the broader public. Citizens from nearly all EU member states as well as speakers from outside the continent participated and had the opportunity to network and share their knowledge.
The idea of a holistic transition towards a more sustainable future was reflected in the thematic diversity of parallel sessions and broad range of topics covered by the conference.
The strength of the 2018 GiT conference lies in its capability to connect different actors and topics as well as the outstanding political support it received in this endeavour. Where the GiT initiative goes beyond this state of art is the range and depth of its holistic approach, as well as the high priority level it was able to base its activities. As a result, the conference increased legitimacy and visibility of a sustainable transition, the awareness of the urgency of such a drastic change, the interconnectivity of the relevant actors in this endeavour and the empowerment of the participants. Due to this encompassing approach to an ecological and social transformation, the Growth in Transition initiative can function as a role model for similar initiatives in other countries.
The increased legitimacy and visibility of the much-needed transition to a sustainable future was achieved by the conference through the aforementioned political support and the resources that the Horizon 2020 programme provided. The initiative Growth in Transition became a top priority of the minister herself and together with the newly obtained resources, the initiative gained high visibility both on a national and international level.
Through its increased legitimacy and visibility as well as the increased size of the conference, more people than before were able to be made aware of the urgency of a sustainable transition. With two thirds of the conference’s participants were first-comers, the conference was able to attract new persons.
Another important impact was the empowerment of the participants of the conference, which is reflected in the title of the conference: Europe’s Transformation: Where People matter. Attendees were encouraged to participate in discussions, participatory designed parallel session, artistic activities and a ‘call to action’ was formulated.