SoGreen, a new survey project funded by the European Commission, will evaluate how the European Green Deal affects Europeans of all ages.
By Eve Lacroix (Senior Communications Officer), Published
How does the European Green Deal impact Europeans across the continent?
The European Social Survey (ESS), an open-access research body based at City St George’s, University of London, is taking part in a new research project which will evaluate how Europeans feel the green transition is impacting their day-to-day lives.
The €5m data collection research project, called SoGreen, is funded by the European Commission as part of its Horizon Europe programme, and began on 1 January 2025.
European Green Deal: a climate-neutral EU by 2050
Launched in 2020, the European Commission’s deal is made up of a series of policy initiatives with the ultimate aim of making the European Union climate neutral by 2050.
This means that the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere by the EU will be equal or less than the amount removed.
For example, the new Nature Restoration Law requires EU countries to restore degraded ecosystems – by restoring peatlands, reversing pollinator decline, or planting three billion trees by 2050.
SoGreen: Social Aspects of the Green Transition
The project – called Social Aspects of the Green Transition or SoGreen – is a collaboration between four leading social science infrastructures:
- The ESS ERIC at City St George’s
- Generations and Gender Programme (GGP)
- Growing Up In Digital Europe (GUIDE)
- And project coordinator, Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-ERIC).
The project will collect new data to offer valuable insights into how elements of the European Green Deal affect the general population using survey datasets, geospatial data, visualisation tools and more.
Questions will be fielded in 11 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Finland, France, Hungary, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, and the UK.
A variety of surveys will be implemented to make sure the project collects thoughts from Europeans as young as eight years old to those who are 50 years old and beyond.
Existing and new survey data on the green transition will be harmonised and presented as part of a new dissemination platform to make the data as accessible as possible.
The platform, known as the Knowledge Mobilisation Lab, will connect policymakers, researchers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and private sector stakeholders.
Professor Rory Fitzgerald, ESS Director at City St George’s, said:
Professor David Green Richter, SHARE ERIC Managing Director, added: