Search for European Projects

Ecological Lifestyles for CO2 Reduction (EcoLife)
Start date: Oct 1, 2013, End date: Sep 30, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Background Measures to buffer climate change are at the core of the EU’s 2020 strategy for sustainable growth. However, Italian public opinion is less accepting of the need to tackle climate change than elsewhere in Europe, as shown by the 2011 EU Survey on Climate Change. This revealed that Italian public opinion downplays the potential consequences of climate change, despite scientific evidence and already observable negative impacts on the Mediterranean area. Reasons for the ineffectiveness of efforts to communicate the impact of climate change include the following: The lack of a direct, evident relation between individual behaviour and its impact on climate change; The irregularities and slow progression that are typical of climate change; A feeling of impotence and the lack of a clear way to address the problem individually; and A lack of feedback about the effectiveness of actions taken by individuals. Objectives This project intends to transfer the knowledge and experience gained in professional communication on risk perception and prevention to communication on climate change. It will launch a long-term, sustainable, information and communication campaign to reach the following goals: Improved population awareness about climate change; Reduction of CO2 emissions through the adoption, by the target audience, of a new and environmentally-friendly lifestyle; Enhanced effectiveness of the project’s communication approach by extending it to other environmental communication operators. The main project actions will be: An exhibition on climate change, a simulation game and a scenario simulator; Testing the campaign promoting reduced CO2 emission lifestyles in particular communities before extending it to a larger national audience. The nationwide rollout will be supported by the experience gained from the pilot campaigns. Citizens will be able to monitor the effectiveness of their new lifestyles, using information about individual and collective contributions, available on the project website and in a newsletter; Proposing the expansion of the communication approach adopted in this project to other public and private environmental communication operators, to multiply its results and effectiveness. Expected results: A specially-designed exhibition taking place in 20 Italian cities and included in 10 events organised by the partners, reaching around 150 000 citizens; promotion of the new lifestyles to the 150 000 visitors of the exhibitions, with an estimated 20% of the participants actively participating in the initiative; Proposal of the new lifestyles in 30 local communities reaching 7 000 citizens, with an estimated participation of 40%. This group will be actively assisted and monitored for the duration of the project and it is expected that 90% of the participants will continue to adhere to the practices it promotes after LIFE; Promotion on the four websites of the beneficiary and project partners, with an estimated active involvement of about 40 000 visitors, of which 20% will continue to follow the initiative in the future; Reduction of CO2 emissions by the target audience, with an estimated average saving of 0.5 tonnes/yr/participant, and a total reduction of 5 000 tonnes/yr; and Organisation of two events that will propose the communication approach to another 50 environmental communication operators.
Up2Europe Ads

Details

Project Website

4 Partners Participants