Open Letter to the European Commission: Strengthening Social Science-Focused Energy Research in Horizon Europe
Official media statement
The Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN) and Energy Politics, Policy, and Governance (Energy-PPG) research network have issued a joint open letter to Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva, urging the European Commission to enhance support for social science-focused energy research within Horizon Europe and its successor programmes.
The current perspective of the Horizon Europe programme, which is the EU’s most important platform for financing research, does not envisage a role for the social sciences in energy and decarbonization-related calls. “This is hard to explain and goes against a global trend. The most important scientific body related to climate change research – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently turned more to the social sciences, beyond economics” – notes Caroline Kuzemko, professor at Warwick University and co-chair of the Energy-PPG network.
The letter highlights the critical role of social sciences and humanities (SSH) in achieving the European Green Deal’s goals. “Scholars from the interdisciplinary field of transition studies have spent the last two decades to better understand structural change processes in fields such as energy. It is crystal clear that systemic changes require social as well as technical changes, and that they are deeply intertwined” explains Dr Florian Kern, Head of the research group Ecological Economics and Environmental Policy at the Institute of Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and chair of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network. SSH research is essential for understanding public perceptions, and ethical considerations, which are crucial for policy innovation and public acceptance, and for developing alternatives. “Technical solutions are available in many sectors. We often hear that ‘we just need the political will to implement them’. SSH research is crucial to understand the limits of political feasibility and how to expand them” says Dr Lukas Hermwille, Co-head of the Transformative Industrial Policy Research Unit at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.
The STRN is the largest association of scholars working on the science-technology-society interface, gathering over 3000 researchers. The Energy-PPG network, part of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), is the largest community of energy and climate political scientists representing over 350 researchers. The letter has also been endorsed by the European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP), a research and action-oriented non-profit society that supports the development and implementation of concepts and approaches for sustainable consumption and production.
The letter calls on the European Commission to reintroduce dedicated SSH research calls and strengthen SSH’s role in future research programmes. The arguments raised in the letter include:
1. Addressing Political Feasibility: SSH research can explain why climate actions are limited and failing, providing insights into political and social dynamics.
2. Accelerating of transition processes across all sectors of the economy: SSH can develop insights into how transition processes can be shaped, both in terms of their speed and direction.
3. Ensuring a Just Transition: Social science research is vital for developing policies that support vulnerable groups during the transition to net-zero economies.
4. Informing Industrial Policy: SSH research can guide industrial strategies to enhance European competitiveness and achieve environmental objectives.
5. Enhancing Public Engagement: Effective communication strategies, informed by SSH research, are necessary to foster public trust and participation in the European Green Deal.
6. Ethical Considerations: SSH research can address the ethical implications of new green technologies, ensuring they align with European values.
“We are issuing this letter only some days after global climate negotiators met in Baku, Azerbaijan – an authoritarian country that has imprisoned most of its environmental activists and finances the event from fossil fuel rents. Think about the blow this is to the legitimacy of our collective efforts to fight climate change. If this does not illustrate the importance of political science considerations in energy and climate real, I don’t know what does” – adds Kacper Szulecki, professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and co-chair of the Energy-PPG network. As of 1 December, the letter has gathered over 300 signatures from researchers based in some 35 countries in Europe and beyond.
For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact: c.kuzemko.1@warwick.ac.uk kacper.szulecki@nupi.no
lukas.hermwille@wupperinst.org
h.z.a.vanderloos@uu.nl – STRN Network Manager
Read the letter here: