TRANSFORM – Driving Transformative Environmental Governance

The TRANSFORM project will investigate how civil society actors drive change towards transformative environmental governance. Current scholarship claims that such a change is a crucial element to improve our responses to climate change, biodiversity loss and the host of daunting challenges these pose. This viewpoint is shared by key actors in global environmental governance as well as civil society actors (CSAs), and all converge in underlining the need to shift away from the existing system of environmental governance rooted in understandings of the ‘environment’ as a set of resources. While emerging work on transformative environmental governance focuses on the fundamental elements that will characterise this governance model, there is less detail available about how such a transformation will come about. Although CSAs are seen as key drivers of transformative change, questions about how their actions will drive change remain.

The TRANSFORM project will unpack how different CSAs are driving changes towards transformative environmental governance by conducting multi-method, holistic case studies of actors working towards such change at multiple levels of governance. It will focus on the Italian context and investigate cases at the local, national and international levels. It hypothesises, on the basis of the emerging literature, that CSAs of different types can challenge the overarching norms that currently shape environmental governance through bottom-up paths where they encourage and enact innovative changes to social-ecological systems, and through demands for change at multiple institutional levels. After a period dedicated to conceptual work to deepen the hypothetical understanding of how transformative environmental governance may be driven by CSAs, case studies will be carried out following a participatory and multimethod approach in line with the expertise of the research units. The case studies will then be placed in complex contexts via political process and qualitative network analysis. Using the claims of the case studies as a starting point, the project will then conduct an innovative content analysis to trace transformative impacts in different sites of environmental governance.

The project follows a clearly structured research plan, organised in distinct yet complementary work packages that will allow the research team to achieve clear objectives, set out in a series of milestones, and deliver a series of academic findings in open access publications. The project will also pay attention to impacts on CSAs themselves, seeking to support them to continue driving transformative change in environmental governance, and to delivering findings in accessible ways to policy makers. Above all, the project will answer key questions about how to transform our efforts to protect the environment at a time when unique opportunities, linked to perceptions of multiple crises, are open.

Leading unit (Università di Trento): Louisa Parks (Principal Investigator) and Bartek Goldmann

SNS research unit: Lorenzo Zamponi (associate PI), Giuseppe Cugnata and Maria Chiara Franceschelli

FUNDING: Italian government (PRIN PNRR 2022)


Case studies

• International level: Convention on Biological Diversity (International)
  The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) offers a valuable case for examining the impacts of activism and advocacy in international environmental governance. In particular, this case study focuses on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ (IPLCs’) efforts to drive transformative environmental change through unique frames and actions within the CBD, including how calls for direct participation, recognition of traditional knowledge, and unmediated funding are reflected—or resisted—in CBD decisions. Drawing from interviews, analyses of policy documents, and observations at events like COP16, this study aims to identify both the opportunities and constraints IPLCs encounter when engaging with the CBD, as well as how the CBD has historically constructed its view of IPLCs’ role. Ultimately, this work will reveal the extent to which IPLCs have influenced biodiversity policies and what this means for environmental governance at large. During COP16, IPLCs and allied civil society organizations voiced a range of demands addressing their rights, roles, and the structural barriers within the CBD. Foremost among these has been the establishment of a permanent subsidiary body dedicated to Article 8j, which concerns the recognition of traditional knowledge and Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ contributions to the conservation of biodiversity, ensuring a consistent mechanism for including the voices of IPLCs in decision-making. A major call was also made for direct, unmediated funding mechanisms for IPLCs, bypassing national intermediaries to allow local actors greater agency in biodiversity projects. Several groups advocated for the recognition of traditional knowledge as equal to scientific knowledge, underscoring the need to incorporate cultural and spiritual values into biodiversity frameworks. Additionally, calls for legal recognition of IPLC land rights and protections against corporate resource exploitation highlighted the need for enhanced transparency and accountability within the CBD. Groups like the Indigenous Women’s Network emphasized integrating gender perspectives in CBD policies, while others argued for community-led conservation strategies and ecosystem-based approaches to climate resilience. Lastly, IPLC delegates underscored the importance of ethical guidelines in research involving indigenous communities, as well as safeguards for intellectual property rights. This constellation of demands showcases the broad spectrum of transformative change sought by IPLCs within the CBD, reflecting a holistic approach to environmental justice that links biodiversity with social, cultural, and political rights.
  
• National level: Italian climate justice movement
  The Italian climate justice movement represents a dynamic and multifaceted force within global climate mobilization. Over the past two decades, environmental protests in Italy have undergone significant transformation: traditional organizations like Legambiente and WWF have ceded prominence to informal groups, territorial committees and social centers opposing large infrastructure and extractivist projects. This shift paved the way for the new wave of climate mobilization that emerged in 2019. The Italian climate justice movement features a constellation of actors, with Fridays for Future Italia, Extinction Rebellion Italia, and Ultima Generazione as its most prominent organizations. These groups share a common goal: pressuring institutions to address the climate crisis through contentious actions. Since its foundation in 2019, Fridays for Future Italia (FFF) has led mass mobilizations inspired by Greta Thunberg’s school strikes, organizing national climate strikes and serving as an inclusive platform for diverse participants, including students, social centers, and citizens new to activism. After the pandemic, FFF expanded its scope by fostering convergences, notably with the GKN Factory Collective. Extinction Rebellion Italia (XR), active since 2019, introduced nonviolent civil disobedience into the Italian climate movement, employing tactics such as street blockades and promoting the creation of citizens’ assemblies to decide on the measures needed to tackle the climate crisis. Ultima Generazione (UG), initially launched as a campaign within XR and later established as the Italian branch of the A22 network in 2022, amplified these tactics. UG’s high-visibility actions, including the throwing of washable paint on monuments and persistent street blockades, have sparked national debate about the urgency of climate action and the legitimacy of disruptive protest. The Italian climate justice movement advocates for concrete policy measures. Key demands include ending fossil fuel investments, establishing public funds for eco-social transition and reparations, and ensuring greater institutional accountability at national, regional, and transnational levels. Operating in a challenging political context marked by the rise of the far-right, the movement faces increasing repression and diminishing political opportunities. Nevertheless, the Italian climate justice movement exemplifies the transformative potential of “by demanding” strategies, where grassroots mobilization and contentious protests compel institutions to address systemic challenges and implement concrete solutions, paving the way for the transformation of environmental governance. 
  
• National level: Collective for social and agroecological convergence
  In the spring of 2023, the collective for social and agroecological convergence came to life. It consists of a network of land workers, agronomists, researchers, environmental and human right activists, retailers, inhabitants of urban and rural areas, aimed at envisioning and establishing an alternative to the current agroindustrial system, through the horizontal sharing of knowledge and resources. The network relies on the principles of social and climate justice, land and community preservation, food sovereignty and ecology. It unites small local realities that autonomously implements agricultural methods and principles based on agroecology, in stark contrast with the logics of the capitalist agroindustrial system. The network’s internal structure comprehends both a space for self-reflection, self-determination and collective deliberation, and various working groups on specific policy proposals and initiatives, such as the working group against the use of GMO in agriculture. However, the Collective maintains a certain distance from the institutions and is mostly oriented in establishing a shared set of values to orient each of the converging actors’ work in a way that is suitable to the Collective’s mission. The case offers crucial insights on grassroots, bottom-up alternatives to the current agroindustrial model and on self-managed sustainable food systems. These are developed and established following a “by doing” logic: actors autonomously develop a value framework of reference and set out their workflow accordingly.
  
• Local level: Insorgiamo ex-GKN, Florence
  The mobilization of the former workers of the GKN factory in Campi Bisenzio, Florence illustrates an ongoing experiment in local transformative action ‘by doing’, where collective action at the local level creates new possibilities for reindustrialization and sustainable production. The GKN struggle began in 2021 after the factory’s sudden closure by its owner, Melrose Industries, leading to 400 layoffs. This crisis catalyzed collective action, leading to the workers’ occupation of the factory, which aimed not only at reclaiming workers’ jobs but also at reimagining the factory’s role in the broader ecological transition. It exemplifies the convergence of labour and climate justice movements in Italy, highlighting the push for a socially and environmentally just transition in the context of factory closure, layoffs, and reindustrialization efforts. The Collettivo di Fabbrica (Factory Collective) played a pivotal role in leading the mobilization, operating independently of traditional trade unions like FIOM-CGIL, which continued engaging in institutional negotiations. The Collettivo’s bottom-up approach, based on activating relationships at the local and national levels with civil society actors, including Fridays for Future (FFF), ARCI, ANPI, and student organizations. The potential of labour struggles to converge with broader social and environmental justice movements represents a critical pathway for driving transformative change from below (Gabbriellini et al., 2024)​. The GKN case underscores the importance of fostering solidarity networks, where labor disputes are not isolated but integrated into a wider political landscape of collective struggle against both capitalist exploitation and environmental degradation (Cini, 2023)​. One of the Collective’s core strategies has been the development of a comprehensive reindustrialization plan, devised together with a Solidarity Research Group, aiming to convert the factory into a public hub for sustainable mobility. The vision entailed producing eco-friendly goods such as cargo bikes and photovoltaic panels, emphasizing the need for a “just transition” that prioritizes worker rights, environmental sustainability, and community well-being. The plan also called for greater public ownership and democratic control of production, positioning GKN as a model of radical industrial democracy grounded in environmental sustainability and social justice (Feltrin & Leonardi, 2023). This approach highlights the movement’s focus on transformative change that integrates ecological concerns with labor issues, rejecting the traditional “jobs versus environment” dichotomy​. The mobilization illustrates that coalition-building, strategic alliances, and a clear vision for ecological and social justice can drive grassroots-led transitions in the absence of top-down institutional support. The movement has framed its struggle not just as a fight for jobs but as a broader battle for a just ecological transition that challenges capitalist models of ownership and production. 
  
• Local level: Simulation Citizen Assembly, Trento
  The Simulation of the Citizens’ Climate Assembly (CA) in Trento, held in June 2024, serves as an exemplary case of transformative change by demanding, where ordinary citizens came together to deliberate and propose policy solutions for local environmental issues. Organized through a collaboration between the local science museum MUSE, the municipality of Trento, and various civic actors such as Extinction Rebellion (XR), this assembly sought to model how bottom-up participatory processes can influence policy-making for climate action, focusing on three themes: sustainable mobility, energy, and the management of green space. Throughout three days of deliberation, participants received input from scientific experts and local climate networks, gaining deeper insights into the challenges and potential solutions related to these topics. The discussions led to the creation of ten key recommendations for local policy, which included promoting public transportation through subsidized tickets, expanding safe cycling routes, encouraging renewable energy use, and improving the design of urban spaces to reduce carbon emissions. One key outcome of the assembly was the emphasis on the importance of community engagement in decision-making, with participants highlighting the value of sustained communication between the municipality and citizens, calling for better public awareness and participation in sustainability efforts. The recommendations, approved by a 75% majority of the participants, have since been forwarded to the local government, where they are expected to shape future policy initiatives in Trento. This simulation is not only significant for its immediate policy proposals but also for its methodological implications. The CA illustrates how local participatory and deliberative processes can enhance democratic legitimacy and efficacy by allowing citizens to propose actionable solutions to address climate issues. The next phase of the project will assess the extent to which these recommendations are adopted and implemented by policymakers, providing insights into the political impacts of citizens’ assemblies as innovative participatory instruments. It also reflects on how these assemblies may generate transformative environmental governance through citizen-driven demands​.
  
• Local level: Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympics (local, demanding)
  The 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics have sparked an intense debate in the interested regions, in both urban and mountain areas. Local communities have become increasingly concerned over several issues: scarce transparency in tender contracts and private interests involved, use of public money and public space, invasive large-scale infrastructure projects, promotion of elitist and exclusive sport culture, ecosystem preservation, conservation of local heritage and identity. These preoccupations have been channeled into different types of mobilisation across various territories, which sometimes have converged around broader protest events. This case disentangles the grassroots debate around the Winter Olympics across different territories and communities, and explores its broader implications in terms of urban and environmental policy. It maps the issues at stake, and how they were understood and framed by different actors. The Milano-Cortina case sheds light on bottom-up proposals for alternative models of urban and environmental policy.  Activist groups from urban and mountain areas have taken advantage of the allocation of the 2026 Winter Olympics to Milano-Cortina to launch a debate around the use of public space and public fundings. They have conceptualised alternative models of urban and mountain development that shall be established in order to face the challenges of the present times, which go beyond the Olympic event. Spontaneous committees have also sprouted across mountain areas. Residents aim to defend their territory against invasive infrastructure that is perceived as ordered from above, without prior consultation with the local communities. These groups unite various individuals with very different political views and values. What these diverse actors and initiatives have in common is the fact that they all stand in stark contrast with the dominating development model currently applied to sports, public space, mountain areas and the environment. While the current development model at the core of the Milano-Cortina project maintains an extractivist approach, alternative proposals stress the need for a fairer vision that sees the preservation of communities, ecosystems and socio-economic opportunities as a priority. The Milano-Cortina case offers crucial insights on possibilities for bottom-up, multilateral policymaking processes that enlarge the scope of current urban and environmental policy in an ecologically and socially sustainable way.
  
• Local level: Renewable Energy Communities – Naples, San Giovanni a Teduccio
  Renewable Energy Communities (REC) represent a transformative model of energy production, management, and consumption. They consist of groups of citizens who get together to produce energy from renewable sources, distribute it collectively and consume it locally. Unlike traditional energy companies, RECs deliver renewable energy at accessible costs to members, prioritizing environmental, social, and economic benefits for their local communities over profit. RECs challenge traditional energy models, advancing ecological and social justice while combating energy poverty. By 2024, Italy hosted 154 renewable energy communities and collective self-consumption groups, reflecting the growing appeal of this model. Among them, Legambiente’s Rete delle Comunità Energetiche Rinnovabili e Solidali (Network of Renewable and Solidarity Energy Communities), launched in 2021, stands out as a grassroots initiative to combat energy poverty. Notable examples include the pioneering Comunità Energetica e Solidale di Napoli Est (East Naples Solidarity Energy Community), established with support from Fondazione con il Sud on buildings provided by Fondazione Famiglia di Maria. This initiative engages 40 families in San Giovanni a Teduccio, a post-industrial, working-class neighborhood of Naples, to co-produce and share renewable energy through a photovoltaic system. Excess energy is sold to the national grid, with proceeds redistributed among participants to provide tangible relief from energy poverty. The Naples East REC exemplifies transformative change “by doing”, where a civil society initiative demonstrates the viability and benefits of a radical solution—community-driven renewable energy production—to address systemic challenges. This case demonstrates how energy communities can foster social and environmental transformation by addressing systemic inequalities in energy access while building solidarity networks in marginalized contexts. By rejecting traditional profit-driven energy models, RECs showcase the power of collective action to drive a just ecological transition through innovative, community-centered solutions.