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Achieving the European Union’s vision of climate neutrality by 2050 dictates the need to transform the role that citizens can play in decarbonizing the energy system. Yet, “which citizens to involve in this process,” “when to involve them,” and “how to do so fairly and effectively,” are questions that still remain unclear to both experts and policymakers. Energy citizenship has been discussed as a concept that has the potential to galvanize the public for the energy transition. This potential has yet to be fulfilled, as there is a need to connect theory and concepts to the realities, challenges, and opportunities of the lives of citizens, under diverse circumstances. In this perspective, we argue that the concept of energy citizenship and its potential for contributing to low carbon transitions should be studied within a research framework that aims to produce transformative knowledge. We also introduce such a new transdisciplinary framework for creating transformative knowledge to explore and address questions relevant to the concept of energy citizenship. Our framework aims to produce knowledge that can be used to mobilize decarbonization actions for both individuals and collectives, by: (i). integrating different scales of analysis and action, i.e., at individual, collective, and national/ regional/ global levels, (ii). reconceptualizing the role of research and researchers, and finally, (iii). striving to be inclusive in a meaningful and innovative way.

Most recently in 2018 and 2019, large parts of Europe were affected by periods of massive drought. Resulting losses in cereal yield pose a major risk to the global supply of barley, as more than 60% of global production is based in Europe. Despite the arising price fluctuations on the cereal market, authenticity of the crop must be ensured, which includes correct declaration of harvest years. Here, we show a novel approach that allows such differentiation for spring barley samples, which takes advantage of the chemical changes caused by the extreme drought. Samples from 2018 were successfully differentiated from those of 2017 by analysis of changes in near-infrared spectra, enrichment in the isotope 13C, and strong accumulation of the plant-physiological marker betaine. We demonstrate that through consideration of multiple modern analysis techniques, not only can fraudulent labelling be prevented, but indispensable knowledge on the drought tolerance of crops can be obtained.

The determination of country of origin poses a common problem in the appraisal of gemstones and is in many cases still based on the observation of inclusions and growth features of a gem, whereas chemical analysis is only done by major labs. We have used Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry to analyze the trace element profiles of demantoid garnets from six different countries and identified a set of six elements, which are magnesium, aluminum, titanium, vanadium, chromium, and manganese, that are necessary to assign the mining regions with a good certainty. By using the logarithms of the trace element concentrations and subjecting them to chemometric modeling, we were able to separate the demantoids originating from Russia, Pakistan, Namibia, Iran, and Madagascar very well, leaving only Italy with some uncertainty. Results are presented for an &ldquo, all origins&rdquo, model as well as pair-wise comparison of two locations at a time, which lead to even better results.