Alliances for Environmental Protection II Transdisciplinary Collaboration between Environmental/Social Organizations and Academia on Issues of a Socially Just Resource Transition
The resource crisis is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century, significantly driving both species extinction and the climate crisis. Over 90 percent of biodiversity loss and water scarcity, along with approximately half of global greenhouse gas emissions, are linked to resource overuse. The consumption of resources and its harmful impacts are distributed highly unequally, both globally and nationally. Consequently, it is imperative to drastically reduce resource consumption, which necessitates profound changes in economic structures and lifestyles – changes that inevitably lead to distributional conflicts. To address these conflicts and develop solutions for a socio-ecological transformation, close collaboration between science and civil society organizations – including environmental, social, and welfare associations, as well as trade unions – is essential.
This project focuses on the social dimension of the necessary resource transition and asks: How can resource protection be reconciled with social justice? Where are opportunities to align ecological and social goals? To understand the connections and interactions between a resource-efficient economy and social justice, the project combines scientific expertise with the knowledge of environmental and social policy organizations. Building on the previous project, “Alliances for Environmental Protection II” strengthens and solidifies the existing resource protection network, which serves as an important dialogue platform for shaping transformation processes. The goal is to expand the collaboration between civil society and science within the network over the long term and to make the experiences of this form of cooperation applicable to other processes.
Under the overall coordination of the German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND), the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) is involved as a scientific partner institute. The IÖW collects and evaluates resource protection measures and examines their social impacts. Together, the project team develops discussion papers on topics and measures for a socially just resource transition and a circular economy. As a member of the resource protection network, the IÖW is developing guidelines for collaboration and the long-term stabilization of the network while actively contributing to transdisciplinary exchange.
