The European Commission (EC) has recently published its brochure, "EU-funded research projects: Towards Transformative Change for Biodiversity," showcasing a portfolio of initiatives dedicated to addressing pressing environmental challenges. Among the highlighted projects within this publication is TRANSPATH, an EU-funded research endeavor that embodies the brochure's mission to foster "Transformative pathways for synergising just biodiversity and climate actions".
TRANSPATH's inclusion in the European Commission's brochure underscores its strategic importance in the broader European effort towards sustainability.
The brochure emphasizes the critical need for "transformative changes" in our economies and societies to halt biodiversity loss and curb climate change.
TRANSPATH directly addresses this by focusing on:
Integrated Solutions
Indetifying Leverage Points
Whole-of-Society Opportunities
Addressing Root Causes
"Safe and Just Operating Spaces"
The project acknowledges that global biodiversity and climate crises are "strongly coupled" and require urgent, ambitious, and integrated policies and interventions, moving beyond siloed approaches. Through inclusive deliberative processes, TRANSPATH aims to pinpoint "leverage points and associated interventions" that can trigger fundamental shifts at consumer, producer, and organizational levels. This includes exploring critical social tipping points where small changes can lead to larger, positive, and potentially irreversible cascading shifts. The project seeks whole-of-society opportunities for achieving climate-neutrality whilst simultaneously allowing local communities and nature to flourish. This involves engaging diverse stakeholders, from policymakers and practitioners to civil society organizations and businesses, across Eastern and Western Europe, Africa, and Latin America.
TRANSPATH emphasizes tackling "fundamental system-wide restructuring of the root causes" of sustainability challenges, focusing on underlying social paradigms, values, and behaviors rather than just direct drivers of environmental degradation. A normative concept integrated into the project is the development of "safe and just operating spaces" that respect both planetary environmental limits and human rights, including gender equality and the needs of vulnerable groups.
Anicipated project outputs
Among the anticipated outputs is a suite of Transformative Pathways, a Toolbox of Transformative Interventions, and a Transformative Navigation Toolkit. These are designed to provide practical guidance for practitioners and policymakers in enabling these crucial shifts. Furthermore, TRANSPATH's commitment to collaborating with other Horizon Europe projects on transformative change helps create a broader portfolio of local to global initiatives, amplifying the collective impact of EU-funded research.
By showcasing projects like TRANSPATH, the European Commission's brochure reinforces its dedication to funding research that not only deepens scientific understanding but also provides actionable strategies for a sustainable and equitable future, directly contributing to the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Recovery Plan for Europe.