CO2PED is a transdisciplinary project fostering collective agency and behavioral change for energy transitions in underprivileged neighborhoods across the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Estonia. Each partner develops a key tool—collective visioning, bottom-up PED actions, public-community co-evolution & social-technological innovation—combining them into the CO2PED toolkit. Four international CO2LABs test and refine these tools, ensuring locally tailored solutions and transferability across diverse European contexts.
On the first day of the international CO2LAB in Ghent, we (the Utrecht-based team) organized an experimental workshop on visions for the heat transition. Our objective was to connect research and practice across contexts and experiment with elements to help develop our tool for collective, inclusive visioning processes. That last part represents our role in the consortium: how to create visioning processes for alternative futures of vulnerable neighbourhoods in ways that connect to their communities’ needs?
From 4–6 July, the CO2PED LAB in Ghent brought together researchers from the CO2PED teams in the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Estonia, along with city officials and local organisations, for three days of workshops, neighbourhood visits, and tool testing. Together, they explored how Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) can support just and inclusive energy transitions in vulnerable urban areas.
This was an international exchange moment where CO2PED tools met real-life challenges on two case study neighbourhoods in Ghent. The...
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