The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) created a unified global policy agenda in response to global problems such as climate change, habitat degradation and resource depletion. International, national and local actors from the state, private sector and civil society have been mobilized as changemakers to achieve the SDGs.
Launched in early April 2022, the GOGREEN project is a global comparative study that explores the conditions for successful co-creation of green transitions that enhance sustainability. Funded by Danish Independent Research Council, the project is led by Roskilde University with the participation of six international research institutions investigating collaborative innovation at the local level in 13 countries around the world. Centre for Civil Society and Governance (CCSG) at HKU is the dedicated collaborator contributing the experience from Asia. Professor Wai-Fung LAM, Director for CCSG, is leading the HKU team in the collaboration.
GOGREEN adopts an innovative research strategy that invites local teams from all over the world to contribute case studies of local co-creation of green transitions to build a global database on collaborative governance of green transitions. This database will provide a solid foundation for improving the governance of green transitions, thus complementing technical knowledge about how to build a sustainable future.
Research collaborators are responsible for selecting and making agreements with a suitable empirical case of a relatively successful co-creation process that aims to achieve one or more green SDGs and then make a case study following the jointly developed research protocol. The case involves tracing the impact of different governance factors on the co-creation process and its outputs and outcomes based on analysis policy documents, interviews, on-site observations and mini-surveys.
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There are seven international research institutions forming the research network.
Following in the footsteps of Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom, the research project challenges the presumption that governments are doing a better job than users, citizens, private firms and civil society organizations when it comes to generating green solutions that protect our climate, natural resources and biodiversity.