Living in a Low-Carbon Society: What needs to be done to create an environment conductive to promoting a Low-Carbon Society and what does this imply for its citizens?

March 2011

Report of the ‘High-Level Workshop on Living in a Low-Carbon Society’. The workshop was organised by Atomium – European Institute for Science, Media and Democracy together with the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in order to create a comprehensive, constructive and realistic debate on the current situation of the transition to a Low-Carbon Society by 2050, the challenges and opportunities from governance, economic and sociological perspectives.

Introduction

One of the grand challenges that the world will have to face in the coming decades is the transition to a Low-Carbon Society. Although today the governance and economic issue of the debate have taken priority, the role of the individual citizens will play an important part in the transition to a Low-Carbon Society.

In recognition of the complexities of this issue and the vastness of the subject, Atomium – European Institute for Science, Media and Democracy organised the High-Level Workshop on Living in a Low-Carbon Society (HLW) and the writing of its report to stimulate new insights and ideas from bringing together leading thinkers from university, industry, media and policy makers to discuss on the real issues and barriers of this debate. Building on the work done with the Swedish Presidency for the HLW held in December 2009 (Governance for a Low- Carbon Society) and the work done with the Spanish Presidency (An Economic Perspective on the Transition to a New Sustainable Energy Model), the workshop looked into the sociological implications and perceptions of the transition to a Low-Carbon Society from the point of view of the individual citizen.

This report and the HLW wanted to create a comprehensive, intersectorial and interdisciplinary forum in order to create a credible and realistic medium for the public at large to access and understand the complexities of the debate; to outline the challenges, the possible solutions and innovative ways of implementing these.

Download the PDF file .

Atomium-EISMD