The Communities for Local Green Deals – COM4LGD project is mobilising communities in all 27 EU member states to promote a just and participatory green transition. Running from 2024 to 2026, this initiative is committed to citizen-led local sustainability and democratic governance as an integrated response to the climate and environmental crisis and growing social and political polarisation.
Using Transformative Social Innovation, COM4LGD stimulates in-depth debate, scenario planning and gender-inclusive decision-making, promoting the creation of public policies based on the concrete experiences of communities.
At a time when the European Union is preparing to define its new vision for agriculture and food – due to be presented in February 2025 – COM4LGD ensures that community-led initiatives (CLIs) have an active voice in defining these policies. The political positioning process, which began in December 2024, promotes the co-design of recommendations through collaborative discussions on topics such as access to land, seeds and biodiversity.
The Centre for International Studies of Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon (CEI-Iscte) is a partner in this European project, with researcher Ana Margarida Esteves in charge of the project on CEI-Iscte’s side.
The partners also include ECOLISE (whose work on the project is coordinated by Katerina Boucoyannis, in collaboration with Advocate and Enable), GEN Europe, ICLEI Europe, ECON and ELARD.
This joint effort aims to ensure that solutions born in local communities directly influence political decisions at European level, promoting a greener, more inclusive and democratic Europe.