The European Commission plays a crucial role in addressing climate challenges through various actions and instruments:
Policy frameworks
The European Green Deal is the EU's ambitious plan to become climate-neutral by 2050. Through policy changes and investments, it aims to transform the EU economy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, promote sustainable growth across various sectors and ensure a just transition for all citizens and regions.
The EU Adaptation Strategy aims to make Europe climate-resilient by 2050 through smarter, faster and more systemic adaptation measures. It recognises that these actions must be informed by robust data and risk assessment tools available to all – from families building homes, businesses in coastal regions and farmers planning their crops.
The New European Bauhaus (NEB) is an EU policy and funding initiative launched by the European Commission in 2021 to foster sustainable solutions for transforming the built environment and lifestyles as part of the green transition.
Environmental missions
As part of Horizon Europe, the Commission also funds dedicated environmental missions:
The Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change aims to support at least 150 European regions and communities in becoming climate-resilient by 2030. It focuses on helping regions understand, prepare for, and manage their climate risks, and on deploying innovative climate resilience solutions.
The Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities involves large-scale research and innovation activities to develop, test, and scale up innovative solutions for climate neutrality in 100 European cities.
The Mission to Restore Our Ocean, Seas, Coastal and Inland Waters aims to restore the health of Europe's ocean, seas, coastal, and inland waters by 2030, addressing environmental degradation and ecosystem health, which are closely linked to climate resilience.
The Soil Deal for Europe Mission focuses on creating 100 ‘living laboratories’ and ‘lighthouses’ to lead the transition to healthy soils by 2030, which are crucial for carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and overall ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change.
Research and innovation programmes
Through programmes like Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe (which runs from 2021 to 2027 with a budget of €95.5 billion) the Commission funds research projects and initiatives. These generate essential information and develop solutions to help communities, businesses and regions mitigate, adapt to and become more resilient to climate change.
The LIFE programme funds projects in areas like biodiversity, circular economy, climate change mitigation and adaptation and clean energy transition. The aim is to develop and implement EU environmental and climate policies. Of its €5.43 billion budget until 2027, €1.94 billion is reserved for climate action, with specific allocations for climate change mitigation and adaptation, and clean energy transition.
A few projects funded under these programmes include:
EU-CHINA-BRIDGE is creating a roadmap for industrial decarbonisation and green economies through EU-China cooperation. The aim is to support the transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society in both Europe and China through co-creation and knowledge sharing.
Adaptation AGORA empowers communities to adapt to and mitigate climate change through co-creation of solutions, knowledge sharing and active citizen participation. It also engages regions in climate actions that promote democracy, climate justice, gender equality and equity. At the heart of this project is the belief that climate change solutions should be co-created with the communities they are designed to serve.
MULTICLIMACT supports the building and retrofitting of buildings and infrastructure to adapt them to a changing climate and make them more resilient in the face of increasingly frequent extreme events like floods, earthquakes and severe heat waves.
WET HORIZONS is dedicated to upgrading knowledge and solutions to fast-track wetland restoration across Europe. Wetlands are key biodiversity hotspots that provide numerous ecosystem services, including water purification, flood control and climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration.
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