KonfliktRadar.NRW

Even though Germany has already made significant progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there is still a long way to go before achieving climate neutrality by 2045. Current political instruments are increasingly affecting people's everyday lives – and are in some cases the subject of fierce public debate. The challenges of this transformation and the potential for conflict are particularly high in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) due to its population density, the large number of industrial companies, and its diverse regional structures.

This is where the ‘KonfliktRadar.NRW’ project, funded by Stiftung Mercator, comes in: In its first phase, the project aims to identify social discourse dynamics and emerging lines of conflict at an early stage. Building on this, in a second phase the project team develops mediation strategies and communication instruments to help stakeholders negotiate emerging conflicts in a constructive and solution-oriented way. This process also seeks to strengthen social trust in democratic decision making.

The project initially focuses on three key areas of potential conflict:

• the new European emissions trading scheme for buildings and transport (EU-ETS 2)
• municipal heat planning
• structural change induced by industry transformation

These topics will be explored in depth through empirical research methods, including representative surveys, network analyses, as well as discourse and interaction analyses. The findings are then employed to develop target-group-specific action plans for conflict resolution in cooperation with intermediary partners such as KlimaDiskurs.NRW. The intermediaries also implement the action plans and integrate them into existing communication formats. Finally, the researchers identify transferable aspects by systematising the three areas of conflict investigated to help address future conflicts more quickly.