Can we learn how to stop the climate crisis?

In a world where climate change is accelerating and the need for systemic responses is becoming increasingly more urgent, how can learning empower stakeholders and practitioners working on climate issues to reach the just, resilient future to which we all aspire? This article marks the beginning of a month-long exploration of EIT Climate-KIC’s learning activities across our teams and programmes. We intend to showcase how continuous learning, experimentation, and innovation drive our efforts to combat climate change through systems innovation. Over the course of July, we will consider what it means to develop adaptation capabilities for European regions, discuss the future of development funding in a new podcast series, and invite our colleagues to share the learning and experimentation activities within their clusters. 

The power of learning in systems innovation

Climate change poses the greatest set of challenges to humanity that the world has ever known, and as a result, demands new ways of living, thinking and innovating. We believe that learning is integral to the way we approach challenges through systems innovation. Our programmes and projects are designed not only to address climate issues but also to support a culture of continuous improvement and adaptation.

Embracing a mindset of experimentation and continuous learning is key to navigating the complex and evolving landscape of climate change. In systems change, outcomes of interventions are never easy to predict. So, we must be willing to dive into the unknown, experiment and learn, and allow unexpected results to emerge and flourish. Our activities aim to provoke a shift towards this experimentation mindset – activating radical new ways of approaching the poly-crisis.

Learning across our programmes

Learning is embedded in everything we do – from cities and regions to entrepreneurial ventures and systemic change initiatives – and allows us to capture and share insights, intelligence, knowledge, and emergent understanding from the iterative testing of new approaches.

NetZeroCities

The NetZeroCities Pilot Cities Programme is a testing ground where cities explore pathways to decarbonisation, exchange knowledge, and practise systems change. In a unique two-year initiative, European cities are learning together how to achieve climate neutrality by 2030. The programme’s approach is focused on exploring different pathways and understanding how local ecosystems work, so cities can deliver meaningful change in their communities. The programme aims to set up new services or entities, conceive of innovative tools to aid decarbonisation, or implement local projects.

Budapest Winter School: Part of an extensive capability building programme for Mission Cities.

“The goal of this process is that cities can use all of their findings to ultimately guide their decision making, guide their investments, and involve a wider audience, be it citizens or communities, but also more importantly the decision makers and politicians who influence those processes they are trying to change.”

Nikhil Chaudhary, Strategic Learning Lead in NetZeroCities.

Twinning Learning Programme

This initiative facilitates a two-way exchange between cities in the Pilot Cities Programme and partner cities across Europe. Cities share knowledge and collaboratively work on strategies to achieve climate neutrality by 2030 – learning from each other’s successes and challenges.

Representatives from Belfast and Galway during a site visit.

Site visits are an essential part of the programme, and offer the opportunity for in-person exchanges between Pilot and Twin Cities. A recent example is the twinning of Belfast and Galway, who shared innovative insights on sustainable construction:

“We’re delighted that we got paired with Galway, who are slightly ahead of us in retrofitting buildings. It’s a great opportunity to learn which we are really benefitting from. I would definitely recommend the twinning process. I’ve been contacting my counterparts in Galway because we have lots of common interests, and I’ve met a lot of people that I’ll be following up with in future.”

Brenda Roddy, Climate Change Project Officer from the city of Belfast.

Climate Leadership Academy

This modular programme is designed to provide individuals with the skills and mindsets necessary for leading in a climate-resilient world. Alongside experienced designers, facilitators, and orchestrators, we offer training sessions, workshops, and mentorship programmes to nurture leadership and innovative thinking.

“We bring people together for collective learning and practical learning. Participants are reflecting on their own capabilities, their own skills and their own way to create interventions in their own contexts. Then together with other participants, they are exploring what are the practical steps for them to increase their innovation capabilities and create a life-long practice of them being a systems transformer.”

Solveig Zophoniasdottir, Learning Services Orchestrator, EIT Climate-KIC.

Deep Demonstration capability building

Our Deep Demonstration learning portfolio supports and facilitates partners and collaborators in practising systemic approaches in their projects and programmes. In Slovenia, we are supporting innovative activities in four areas that contribute most to carbon dioxide emissions. The Policy Lab in Slovenia is a process included within our Deep Demonstration work. It is designed to enhance policy-making capabilities, incorporating learning and experimentation at their core.

“If we begin a synchronised, multi-area transformation of a system, we must ensure that its ability to create new or updated policies is improved. We are very impressed by how, using their previous experience from our systemic activities within Deep Demonstration and the implementation of their own innovative projects (such as Stop Bureaucracy and Inovativna), the officials from the Slovenian Government were able to quickly generate ideas for solutions, working under time pressure.”

Carolina Giraldo, Designer and Producer, EIT Climate-KIC.

System Innovation Learning Partnership (SILP)

From increasing the capacity of individuals and organisations to creating novel or alternative approaches to systemic challenges, SILP aims to embrace ideas outside our knowledge and build a community of practice for like-minded innovators and pioneers in the field. In our sensemaking sessions, we gather diverse perspectives to understand complex systems better and identify effective intervention strategies.

The SILP Experimentation Fund takes a novel, learning-centred approach to seeding and funding experiments. In May 2023, we began collaborating with a cohort of seven projects, which all aim to affect systems change and address complex challenges, across a diversity of geographical, cultural, and socio-economic contexts.

A working session featuring Power Compost, an experiment funded by the Systems Innovation Learning Partnership.

“By participating in SILP’s Experimentation Fund, we have recognised the immense power that lies in funding for learning – it has allowed us to develop this project without the limitations of a predetermined, fixed and rigid vision of results and has instead allowed us to harness the potential that exists within the local system to co-create and catalyse sustainable transformations.”

Javier Guillot and Antonia Brock, Power Compost

To learn more about SILP, listen to our podcast series where we interview community grantmakers and grantees from the SILP Experimentation Fund and question what needs to change in the field of development funding.

The EIT Community New European Bauhaus

The New European Bauhaus funds projects with a strong emphasis on improving local communities.

The New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative provides a fertile ground for learning by doing with its emphasis on collaboration between citizens, communities, and entrepreneurs. We regularly hold events that bring together cohorts from each NEB programme to share learnings on many different topics.

One such event was the NEB celebration in Barcelona, held in January. This is an example of how, in partnership with the wider EIT community, we facilitate events that bring together a diverse group of stakeholders – from citizen engagement initiatives to start-ups – to exchange learning and advance innovation. 

“In this three-year track record, the EIT Community NEB has supported 44 start-ups, 55 social activation projects (including Connect, Co-create and Enhance) and 13 teams of young ideators. Through each iteration, and learning by doing, the EIT Community NEB has adapted and evolved – creating new activities such as Ignite NEB events, NEB mentors and the Enhance NEB programme”

Teresa Thiebaut, Innovation Project Officer at the EIT.

The EIT HEI Initiative

The EIT HEI Initiative is a pan-European programme, driven by EIT Climate-KIC alongside other EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). It aims to create systemic impact in higher education by supporting higher education institutions (HEIs) to increase their innovation and entrepreneurial capacity and engage more effectively with innovation ecosystems.

A recent sensemaking workshop, which was organised as part of the EIT HEI Initiative.

The first three years of the EIT HEI Initiative have been designated as the pilot phase, where our sensemaking methodology has played a central role. Through annual sessions, all partners have been guided to move beyond the silos of each project under the initiative’s umbrella – to learn collectively from their experiences and explore further collaborations to strengthen the projects going forward.

Creating a learning culture within our organisation

At EIT Climate-KIC, we believe that nurturing a learning culture is essential for success. We invest in staff development through training sessions, workshops, and mentorship programmes. Cross-department collaborative learning efforts further enhance our ability to innovate and drive systemic change.

Our System Innovation Learning Programme convenes an annual learning festival that provides a platform for sharing insights and experiences. Furthermore, internal courses and initiatives on leadership or climate justice are other examples through which EIT Climate-KIC staff gain new perspectives and skills essential for addressing climate challenges.

“Being part of the ‘Unlearning for Relational Justice’ course has allowed me to reflect on the systems of racism and privilege that exist and how this influences our day-to-day work in the climate sector. The impacts of climate change will not be borne equally and therefore, we must understand how we can reflect and engage with difficult topics on racism and colonialism regarding climate innovation. The course was structured to allow exploration of difficult topics and to learn and listen from people within our organisation and beyond on how racism and white supremacy affect their work and how we, as EIT Climate-KIC, can begin to dismantle that in our ways of working.”

Wallis Grant, Gender Entrepreneurship Programme Manager, EIT Climate-KIC.

“The course ‘Leading in Complexity’ has challenged me to question my identity, assumptions, and worldview, enabling deep personal and professional growth. Small actions, like allowing myself to be two per cent wrong, are reshaping my approach to work. The course fosters meaningful peer connections and offers a safe space for experimentation, blending unconventional training with elements of counselling for a powerful impact. Despite sometimes feeling uncomfortable, these moments are where true growth occurs, guided by exceptional facilitators, and the positive effects are evident in both my work and personal life.”

Brian Lally, People Business Partner, EIT Climate-KIC.

Share your own learning with us!

We welcome you to explore our linked case studies and articles to see how learning is making a difference in our collective efforts to build a climate-resilient future.