We believe that ecovillages and other community-led sustainability initiatives are vital in achieving global climate targets as set out in the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals, as well as offering vital pathways to an enriching and happy life for all. As part of our mission, we advocate for support for ecovillages at all levels, from the local and regional to international, in order to make this a reality.
Ecovillage Obstacles Survey
In order to inform our advocacy work for ecovillages at a local and national level, we run the Ecovillage Obstacles Survey in order to gather crucial information to support communities.
Many good initiatives encounter administrative and bureaucratic obstacles when trying to create more sustainable lifestyles. We in GEN Europe want to help all new and developing initiatives with good advice based on the solid evidence of other more established ecovillages and their experience solving administrative hurdles that cause initiatives to fail. At the same time we want to gather all the bitter experiences when ecovillagers were not able to overcome dilemmas and find solutions. It is these cases that allow us to identify true blockages to Europe’s sustainable development. GEN Europe wishes to influence and demand change in rules and laws that prevent the creation of the sustainable Europe that Europeans have agreed to.
ECOLISE
We are founding members of ECOLISE – the European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability. Through ECOLISE we part in the annual European Day of Sustainable Communities, participate in policy and advocacy events at the European level, participate in the creation of reports and papers, and work jointly with other European organisations and networks to create an enabling environment for community-led initiatives to thrive.
United Nations – COP
We are regularly present at the annual United Nations climate summits, presenting community-led climate solutions and seeking partnerships to support local and national governments achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
