Adaptation and mitigation synergies gap: a problem and an opportunity

Mar 29, 2022 | News

Adaptation and mitigation synergies gap: a problem and an opportunity

By Martínez Görbig, Gerard (ITC-UT); Reckien, Diana (ITC-UT); Flacke, Johannes (ITC-UT)

Adaptation and mitigation are not the same topic. However, shall they follow different paths? Absolutely not.

In fact, to combine adaptation and mitigation measures might lead to a more cost-efficient outcome of the processes, as well as avoid maladaptation (the problem of increasing risks from adaptation) and malmitigation (the problem of increasing risks from mitigation) (Grafakos, S. et al. 2020). However, sometimes reality doesn’t follow the right direction. The research conducted in the paper Integration of mitigation and adaptation in urban climate change action plans in Europe: A systematic assessment (Grafakos, S. et al. 2020) states that there is an existing gap in this sense.

In the paper, the author analyzes the existing synergies in between adaptation and mitigation plans in urban areas. From 885 analyzed cities, just a 147 (17%) had integrated adaptation and mitigation in an integrated manner. From all other cities, just 62 (7%) had both plans – but treated separately-, 376 (42%) had a mitigation plan and 12 (1%) had an adaptation plan. It seems to be critical that the 33% of the cities don’t have any kind of plan.

The results of the paper showed that this might be caused by a knowledge gap in the “Envisioning and Planning” stage, associated to the identification of adaptation and mitigation synergies, co-benefits, trade-offs and conflicts. Moreover, there is the economic assessment of adaptation and mitigation actions during prioritization processes.

Nevertheless, the number of cities taking actions against climate change and starting mitigation and adaptation plans is increasing in recent years. National policies, along with international initiatives such as the Covenant of Mayors or the UN Compact of Mayors are raising awareness and being important drivers on these plans’ implementation (Reckien et al. 2018). Even more, probably the fact that mitigation had been included in most of the analyzed plans can be caused by the action of these organizations: a GHG emissions profile is integrated in a 71% of the analyzed CCAPs, whereas a 60% of them have addressed a vulnerability profile in them.

Due to these studies, we can affirm that the mentioned gap offers an opportunity to act in there, taking profit of this awareness raise and introducing synergies in between mitigation and adaptation plans.

In this sense, the LOCALISED project will provide decision takers and stakeholders with diverse tools that might help them. To offer already calculated feasible adaptation and mitigation measures for NUTS3 regions will facilitate a lot the previous processes to implementation and help create more synergies in between both kind of plans.

Figure reference: Mitigation and Adaptation Actions (Source: Eastern and Midland Climate Action Regional Office – CARO). Source: Carlow City Council (Oct, 2021). Carlow County City Development Plan 2022-2028. Chapter 7: Climate Action and Energy.

The Austrian Climate Assembly: A Groundbreaking Participatory Format to Boost Climate Policy

Mar 28, 2022 | News

The Austrian Climate Assembly: A Groundbreaking Participatory Format to Boost Climate Policy

Austrian Citizens Assembley_ (c) Bundesministerium für Klima

Something unprecedented – and worth to observe

While regional citizens’s assemblies on various topics have a long tradition in some parts of the country, the climate assembly is the first citizens’ assembly on a national level in Austria.

What is a Citizens’ assembly?

Citizens’ assemblies are consultative tools of citizens’ participation that can complement (but not replace) representative democracy. A number people representing the country demographically debate on a certain issue. After their research and discussions, they will propose measures and hand them over to politicians. Two things are important for success and validity: (1) the people have to be selected randomly to avoid echo chambers and (2) the process has to be facilitated to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. Citizens’ assemblies are particularly useful on controversial and complex issues.

How did the Climate Assembly start?

In 2020 a citizens initiative („Volksbegehren“ in Austria, comparable to the European Citizens’ Initiative) on climate issues collected nearly 400,000 signatures and thus had to be discussed by the Austrian government. One of the demands was more participatory processes in climate politics. The government decided to install a citizens’ assembly on climate, which was to be organised by the Federal Ministry for Climate Action. The task set for the participating citizens is to propose measures to reach net zero emission in Austria by 2040 – the official national target.

In the summer of 2021, there was an EU wide call for the organisation and facilitation of the climate assembly, which ÖGUT – along with a consortium of two other partners – won. Nearly 100 people were selected by Statistics Austria (the national statistics agency) using the central register of residents.

How does the Climate Assembly work?

The citizens are between the ages of 16 and 75 and represent Austria in terms of age, gender, education, location and income-level. They meet on six weekends between January and June 2022.

There are three teams to support them: First, a stakeholder board which provides input from Austrian civil society organisations, chambers and unions. Second, a facilitation team, which guides the process. The methods used are dynamic facilitation and the systemic consent method – a procedure that ensures that only those decisions are made, which create the least resistance in the group. Researchers developed this tool for effective consent oriented decisions making, even for big group and multiple, complex options. Last but not least, there is a scientific advisory board which provides inputs on the five topics discussed: (1) food and land use, (2) mobility, (3) production and consumption, (4) Energy, (5) Building and Housing.

What happens after?

The measures will be presented to the government and possible steps for implementation will be discussed. The citizens assembly does not have a binding effect, but it will boost the debate and it comes with heavy authority, representing the will of average citizens. A dialogue with parliament and federal states will start too. Moreover, civil society will be able to use the proposed measures as a point of reference in their work.

What can we learn from this tool?

Since citizens assemblies are a relatively new format – at least in some areas and as big as the Austrian Climate Assembly – it’s promising to study their potentials and their possible effects on climate policy. In the face of the escalating climate crisis, drastic interventions might be needed, where politics prefers modest measures. To uncover and enhance the needs, concerns and proposals of the citizens – as affected population – might provide essential new solutions.

In the context of Localised, insights and learnings from the Austrian Citizens Assembly will be used for the implementation of citizen’s councils in year 2 and 3 of the project. With this activity – led by ÖGUT – we will capture citizens’ views and develop mitigation / adaptation strategies that fit with people’s lives and the respective region’s decarbonisation goals at the same time.

Further Resources:

Official webpage: https://klimarat.org/

ÖGUT, organizing the climate assembly: https://www.oegut.at/en/

Knowledge Network On Climate Assemblies: https://knoca.eu/

Localised Project: https://www.localised-project.eu

Description of the Systemic Consent Method, “Systemisches Konsensieren“:
https://partizipation.at/methoden/systemisches-konsensieren/ (German only)

IMP-PAN presented LOCALISED at the EnergiaPL conference

Mar 13, 2022 | News

IMP-PAN presented LOCALISED at the EnergiaPL conference

IMP-PAN attended the conference EnergiaPL, a one-day event where institutions and companies can present advancements or novelties in the field as well as current aspects, e.g. related to legislation, to a mainly business-oriented audience. This Polish-language conference was in its fourth edition and was organised together with ENEX / ENEX New Energy, an event which combined the 24th International Power Industry Fair ENEX with the 19th Fair of Renewable Sources of Energy ENEX New Energy in Kielce on February 23rd -24th 2022. This annually recurring exhibition – which was not organised in 2021 due to Covid restrictions – allows companies to present their products to a broad audience.

The EnergiaPL conference initially focussed on energy storage, but over the years its scope expanded; this year it enjoyed an audience of approximately 50 attendees. Sebastian Bykuć – head of the Distributed Energy Department in IMP presented the LOCALISED project, Weronika Radziszewska elaborated further on the details and invited representatives of companies to cooperation within the project.

The effects of disruptive scenarios in basic supplies consumptions

Mar 13, 2022 | News

The effects of disruptive scenarios in basic supplies consumptions

By: Catalonian Energy Research Center, Elisenda Clèries, Soledad Ibañez Iralde, Jordi Pascual, Daniel Sánchez, Jose Luis Dominguez

In this day and age, hearing the word pandemic can immediately bring words such as isolation, confinement, restrictions into our minds. The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected all areas of our lives, changing our behaviours, our way of understanding mobility, and modifying the ways we conduct our work. Likewise, the restrictions imposed during and after the pandemic have also impacted household habits modifying energy consumption in residential buildings, but not only. These behaviour changes have raised the question of how domestic water and electricity consumption has changed during 2020, to learn about how to adapt to next-future disruptive scenarios, as the ones pointed due to climate change.

Many efforts have been made to analyse the impact of the pandemic. One initiative was launched in 2021. The ComMit-20 project coordinated by Jaume Salom from IREC – Catalonian Energy Research Centre aims to establish the long-term and short-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic over energy consumption, usage patterns, and higher indoor environmental quality requirements in buildings. The project aims to propose oriented adaptive measures, policies, and recommendations to increase the resilience of buildings and urban communities by integrating newfound requirements in design, energy planning tools, and energy management systems.

The first analysis conducted on Catalan households within the project shows that domestic water consumption has increased by 5% on average. The most significant differences with data from previous years of water consumption in all the municipalities studied were displayed from March to the end of June 2020, with an estimated domestic increase between 10% and 15% in the same period. Consumption levels were even more altered during the lockdown, showing the most extensive variations after two weeks of adopting the restriction.

Regarding to the electricity sector, the analysis of Catalan electricity data also showed that energy consumption patterns were altered during the lockdown, both during weekdays and on weekends. Patterns began to regulate during July 2020, when measures became more flexible; however, data showed a clear overall decline in electricity consumption during 2020, even more, accentuated in industry and services. However, during the lockdown and even after the relaxation of restriction, the change in work modalities and the vast implementation of teleworking have increased household energy consumption. This reality brings one again residential buildings to the centre of attention. Thus, it seems to be fundamental to establish measures and financing mechanisms to easily modify the different involved sectors to be able to adapt to next-future potential disruptive scenarios; in the case of the building sector, to promote integral residential retrofitting not only to fight climate change but to integrate the new requirements in the household conditions.

In addition to retrofitting measures, it’s important to highlight the key role of power grids in the energy distribution task. To be able to withstand high-impact-low-probability (HILP) events and adapt to a decarbonized future outlook, is necessary to consider the inclusion of a great number of Renewable Energy Sources and resilience adaptation and mitigation measures. Thus, in the frame of the COMMIT-20 project, a renewable energy prioritization system is being evaluated for Barcelona city, considering climate change extreme events and socio-economic data altogether, leading to the generation of climate change city adaptation measures.

In line with all of the above, the objective of LOCALISED project is to provide useful tools to local authorities, citizens and businesses, in a way that would speed up the uptake of mitigation and adaptation actions and the possible decarbonisation pathways for 2030 and 2050.

(Photo by Jason Richard on Unsplash)

Business end-user engagement: first steps in Italy

Feb 24, 2022 | News

Business end-user engagement: first steps in Italy

by CMCC Foundation and RFF-CMCC EIEE

The key emerging mitigation and adaptation options can be used by local businesses to overcome the challenges of a transition to net-zero. This is quite challenging and not an easy path to follow without the right knowledge, instruments, and objectives.

The main objective of this part of the LOCALISED project is to provide end-user solutions for regional businesses and investors in line with European and national decarbonisation pathways. We provide different technological options and low-carbon business models for the EU businesses to achieve the regional decarbonisation goals.

There are several technical and non-technical barriers to the adoption of emerging mitigation technologies including high upfront costs, employment risks, and other uncertainties.

A fundamental role of CMCC is to liaise with regional players to identify their vulnerability and the vulnerability of their operations to climate change and consequent changes in supply chain, market demand, and environmental regulation.

This will be achieved through effective dialogue among the regional businesses and other stakeholders to promote knowledge sharing and to provide guidance for investment in retrofitting existing infrastructure, adopting new technologies, and implementing effective adaptation solutions.

To this end, CMCC has partnered with Assolombarda, a large business association with 6,818 member companies in northern Italy. The mission of Assolombarda is to protect and represent the enterprises’ interests by providing technical assistance, advice and a practical handbook on different management and strategy aspects.

The first joint meeting between CMCC and Assolombarda took place on 1st February 2022 where the risks and the expected impacts of climate change on industries in the Lombardy region were discussed and a plan for further engagement of interested members companies in LOCALISED research was laid out.

This dialogue will continue during the entire duration of the project with both national and European industry representatives including those industries represented by Assolombarda as well as other interested parties such as potential investors and entrepreneurs.

Gearing up to provide localised information to accelerate decarbonisation and adaptation

Feb 17, 2022 | News

Gearing up to provide localised information to accelerate decarbonisation and adaptation

By Luis Costa (PIK)

After its successful launch in November 2021 at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the LOCALISED project is gearing up to supply municipalities, citizens and businesses with local information on mitigation and adaptation actions that are compatible with national decarbonization plans.

With the objective of downscaling model outputs at the country-level to NUTS3 regions, the LOCALISED project has initiated the linking of EUCalculator model outputs of activities, energy and emissions with trialled and tested downscaling routines. Initial work focused on setting up spatial disaggregation routines of model outputs to NUTS3 using only a limited number of scenarios and proxy data. In the coming months, the focus will revolve around searching and collecting proxy data at NUTS3-level to inform the downscaling algorithm. In addition, national decarbonization scenarios for all EU member-states are now being gathered and documented, a work that will last until June 2022. The purpose is to reproduce the national scenarios consistently using a common energy model so that they are comparable and then introduce the outputs in the downscaling routines being developed.

But LOCALISED is not only about data, it is also about extracting policy-relevant information for municipalities, businesses and citizens to guide their mitigation and adaptation actions. This will be achieved by selecting feasible combinations of mitigation and adaptation options for EU municipalities. Compilation of mitigation and adaptation actions and policies has started, focusing on documenting the actions potential for mitigation/damage reduction, required investments, implementation time and indicators of socio-cultural and technical feasibility. Choosing the feasible combinations of adaptation or mitigation actions is subjected to criteria of non-objective choice which the project will discuss internally and with stakeholders in the upcoming consultation rounds.

Speaking of which… Until the end of March 2022 the project will roll out its strategy for stakeholder interaction methodology and schedule. The main purpose of this strategy is to present the method and time plan for the user interactions and co-design of project tools. Given that the tools in LOCALISED will target municipalities, citizens and businesses, our consultation will expand the views and information needs expressed by our local partners City Council of Barcelona, City of Vienna, Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot Metropolitan Area and the associate partner of Assolombarda – the largest entrepreneurial association of Italy. Currently national governments within the EU are rolling out ever more ambitious energy plans and policy packages towards net-zero. On the side of adaptation, the 2021 EU strategy on adaptation to climate change highlights the need to deepen and expand adaptation actions and make relevant data more uniform and accessible. While this is good news and bodes well at the technical boardrooms of Brussels, the associated material, social and economic challenges/opportunities of the energy transition, as well as the planning of adaptation, will be managed at the regional level by municipalities, citizens and businesses. The LOCALISED project aims at providing a layer of translation between EU and national-level plans and local information and knowledge for action.

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