Klagenfurt goes climate-neutral

The Carinthian provincial capital of Klagenfurt am Wörthersee is the only Austrian representative in the Horizon Europe mission "100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030" (EU Cities Mission). The city's plans to achieve its climate targets are ambitious and range from decarbonising the bus fleet to expanding green energy. The EU Cities Mission aims to shape the city of the future. However, the path to a climate-neutral city is not limited to technological and infrastructural measures but includes social and cultural challenges. 

Analysing the city’s path towards a climate-just future, the project "Klagenfurt goes climate-neutral" cooperates with three Klagenfurt schools, the Klagenfurt City Council, the Klagenfurt Youth Council, and the ÖKOLOG network. The schools were selected to represent a variety of social backgrounds and to have experience in ESD. Two secondary schools and one grammar school in Klagenfurt, all of which are part of the ÖKOLOG network, take part in the research.

The aims of the project are twofold:

Firstly, the project seeks to explore how a sense of urgency is politically and socially generated, communicated and used as a tool for mobilisation. Using ethnographic methods, students collect and analyse data on the urgencies of various social groups such as their families, their quarters, clubs, or communities. Their research will substantially contribute to analysing hierarchies and asymmetries, cleavages, and legacies. At the same time, their research helps to identify ways of shaping a just, democratic and participatory climate-neutral future.

Secondly, the project focuses on the students as social actors who themselves are affected by the climate crisis. How does their pivotal role in shaping teaching and learning and school development contribute to a transformative education for sustainable development?

The project’s interdisciplinary approach conveys, sensitises and activates the pupils' knowledge about climate neutrality. Learning about and questioning different concepts and strategies for a sustainable city enables them to develop an awareness of the complex relationships between human behaviour, technology and the environment, as well as their own role. The project results will significantly contribute to advancing practical teaching and school development at the participating schools and in the wider ÖKOLOG network.