It is often said that actions speak louder than words and in LOCALISED we believe an action-oriented approach to climate planning can help regions and communities achieve their climate goals.

Researchers from the Institute for Techno-economic Systems Analysis (IEK-3) at Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) recently presented an approach to modeling regional climate actions at the 17^th IAEE European Energy Conference on September 24^th, 2022. As past discussions on decarbonization have been muddied by disagreements on what an effective counteractive pathway may be [1], the LOCALISED method looks at the geographic, social, and economic aspects of a region to form an idea of how their climate vulnerabilities may be challenged. These aspects are combined with a counteractive measure database that collects mitigative and adaptive climate actions from literature and climate action plans in the EU. Ineffective or unfit measures for a region are filtered from the database to create a regionalized portfolio of actions and a genetic optimization framework is used to extract best-case measure scenarios. Resources and costs of implementing measures are balanced against their anticipated benefits and the resulting scenarios may be used as a foundation for stakeholders to begin or accelerate climate discussions in their community.

In the project’s early stages, an initial proof of concept tested this approach using a simple measure database to analyze climate actions in Germany. Initial results were positive and once it was determined the method was capable, development of a production version began. Expanded measure sets were introduced and current model iterations are able to analyze cross-sector mitigation measures in EU, NUTS-3 regions to locate optimal pathways or align measures with downscaled national decarbonization pathways. Future iterations will integrate adaptive measures to combat climate impact risks and the full EU results, measure database, and model platform made open access for end users. Following the development stages, an interactive feedback process with the project’s city partners will ensure useful information is ultimately provided to the stakeholders.

Further upcoming talks and papers will be published on the LOCALISED website so stay tuned to keep up to date!

References:

[1] Lowes, R. and Woodman, B. (2020). Disruptive and uncertain: Policy makers’ perceptions on UK heat decarbonisation. Energy Policy, 142, p.111494.

“Overcome the crisis” – this was the motto of this year’s Smart Metropolis congress. For the 10th time, the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot Metropolitan Area – LOCALISED partner – organized a conference devoted to the cooperation of cities, villages and metropolises. About the biggest challenges faced by local governments in the face of the energy and climate crisis local government officials, experts, social activists and scientists talked for two days.

How to create a friendly, healthy city that takes into account the needs of all residents, but also responds to climate change and develops in a sustainable way? How to educate about threats to activate young people and not cause depression? We discussed all this during the Smart Metropolis 2022 congress.

“The world is on the brink” – began the journalist and blogger Paulina Górska. – “There are various scenarios, but we must act radically to save our planet. In Poland, the temperature rises by 0.2-0.3 degrees every 10 years, which applies to each of us. To stop climate change, we must start with ourselves. But it is necessary to involve local governments” – emphasized Paulina Górska.

And here a good example is Potęgowo. The commune uses its resources in a sustainable way and promotes low-emission activities. “The heating network built by the commune has significantly reduced the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere” emphasizes the mayor Dawid Litwin.

In addition, photovoltaic panels were installed in the commune on public utility buildings, which, in addition to economic benefits for the local government, increase the use of energy from renewable sources, which has an impact on increasing energy security, improving the energy balance and reducing the burden on the environment.

The accompanying event of this year’s Smart Metropolis was the workshop entitled Climate mosaic. This is an educational game that helps to understand how the world is changing as a result of climate change and what the consequences will be.

Commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Municipal Climate Partnerships initiative has the objective to strengthen cooperation between German municipalities and municipalities in the global South in the fields of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

For the kick-off workshop of the 9th project round in the city of Essen (Germany), Luis Costa from the Potsdam Institute for Climpate Impact Research (PIK) was invited to give a keynote lecture on the current challenges and possible solutions to climate change, with special attention to the local and regional level. During the talk and discussion it was highlighted the need to make explicit the decarbonization challenges at regional and city level that come implicit in national decarbonizations plans. This ties-in perfectly with the objectives of the LOCALISED project of converting the outcome of national decarbonization plans into usable data at regional and municipal level via downscaling.

A further aspect emerging from the discussion was the need to have a more holistic view on what type of effects – beyond GHG emissions – particular mitigation options entails for the habitants of a region or municipality. A case in point was the need to balance the distributional effects of the needs for aggressive energy renovation of buildings in economically disadvantgoues groups.

The first workshop on the EU Business Vulnerability Assessment was held in Milan, Italy on the morning of November 29, 2022. The workshop included participants from 3 LOCALISED partner entities: CMCC, Assolombarda, and T6 and representatives from 7 business members of Assolombarda.

The workshop started by the introduction to the LOCALISED project, its aim, scope, and outcomes. The CMCC team then presented the envisioned procedure for assessing the vulnerability of EU businesses at the NUTS 2 level and presented the draft of a questionnaire designed to solicit information about businesses and their vulnerability along multiple dimensions of energy, workforce, technology, raw materials, output and supply chain, regulations, and finance.

During the Q&A session following the presentations, the participants expressed their opinion about the overall survey and commented on how to improve its reach. In particular, the main comments were concerned about:

• How to customise survey for businesses in different sectors
• How to include background information about sectoral vulnerability from other sources
• How to include more dimensions to vulnerability assessment

The LOCALISED team will follow-up with the business representative for any additional comments and questions to finalise and improve the survey and make it ready for the next phase.

On November 29, Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC) and Assolombarda, an associated partner of LOCALISED, will host a joint workshop on evaluating the vulnerability of businesses in the Lombardy region of Italy to climate change and decarbonization pathways.

Assolombarda is an association of companies operating in the Metropolitan City of Milan and in the provinces of Lodi, Monza and Brianza. The representatives from 6 businesses in different sectors of mechatronics, food processing, and transportation will discuss ways in which decarbonization pathways affect their operation. The emphasis will be on identifying questions regarding vulnerability along 7 major dimensions: energy, labour, technology, input, output, supply chain, and finance.

A draft of a survey designed for mass distribution among EU businesses in the next phase of the project will be discussed and the feedback from the participants will help improve the scope and methodology of the survey.

This year, the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27) has taken place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The COP27 was a great opportunity for all stakeholders involved in the challenge of tackling climate change to meet and discuss multilateral and collective actions to address this truly global threat. COP27 was called the “implementation COP” and transported high hopes for major steps forward in implementing the Paris Agreement and preparing for the First Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement, in 2023, and the related Global Goal on Adaptation. 

Diana Reckien, member of the IPCC AR6 — the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and Associate Professor of University of Twente (UT) – and a LOCALISED partner – participated in the conference as part of the IPCC WGII Author team – delivering the latest information of the impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change.

Diana was involved in sessions that discussed the multidimensionality of our needed societal responses, including adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable development – something called Climate Resilient Development in the latest IPCC AR6 WGII report.

Look at the event again here: Climate Resilient Development: How to make shifts towards a sustainable future for all? – YouTube

Diana was also part of an event highlighting the importance of gender aspects to be considered in all our responses to climate change–an event that culminated in a role play on the gender sensitivity of climate impacts and adaptation approaches.

Look at the event again here: Gender, Climate Justice and Gender-Transformative Adaptation Pathways – YouTube

The event was also a good occasion to create awareness about the LOCALISED project and its activities – very much working on the implementation of a holistic Climate Resilient Development approach in responding to climate change.

LOCALISED is an EU-funded research project which is providing downscaled national decarbonisation trajectories, and thereby helps to upscale the definition and implementation of mitigation and adaptation measures from the local level. The project pulls together a multidisciplinary consortium including experienced institutions in the science of multi-sectoral energy transition, economic analysis, urban adaptation and climate impacts, policy consultants, and citizen engagement and communication experts.