Interreg Contributions to Combating Climate Change
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Interreg contributions to combating climate change Interact Climate Change and Risks Network March 2019 Interreg contributions to combating climate change March 2019 Disclaimer: You are permitted to print or download this material for your personal use. This material can be used for public use, provided the source is acknowledged and the publisher is given a prior notice. None of this material may be used for commercial purposes. The information and views set out in Interact documents do not always reflect Interact’s opinions. Publisher Interact Programme Date March 2019 www.interact-eu.net 2 / 34 Interreg contributions to combating climate change March 2019 Table of contents 1. Background ........................................................................................................ 5 2. Climate Change Activities in INTERREG 2007-2013 ......................................... 8 2.1. Overview .................................................................................................................. 8 2.2. Cross Border Cooperation ....................................................................................... 8 2.3. Transnational cooperation .................................................................................... 12 3. Analysis of Climate Action related projects in KEEP for 2007-2013 ............... 16 3.1. Main findings......................................................................................................... 17 3.2. Main activities implemented ................................................................................. 19 4. Outlook on Climate change and Risks activities in Interreg 2014-2020 ......... 21 4.1. Background ........................................................................................................... 21 4.2. Interreg in period 2014-2020 ............................................................................... 23 4.3. Addressing climate change adaptation in transnational regions in Europe.......... 25 4.4. Climate change and Macro Regional Strategies ................................................... 26 4.5. Ongoing projects in climate change ...................................................................... 29 5. Conclusions...................................................................................................... 32 6. Reference and bibliography ........................................................................... 344 3 / 34 Interreg contributions to combating climate change March 2019 Introduction This document is a reflection for the Interact Thematic Network on Climate Change and Risks, in order to support internal discussions within the network members, based on data extracted from different sources. In this respect, relevant information and knowledge related to the topic has been collected, identified and to the extent possible, and clustered. This collection of data has been based on the KEEP.EU database by Interact and other sources of information such as programmes ex-post evaluations, contributions from selected Interreg programmes and other sources. The aim of this document is to get a grasp of the main actions that have been implemented in the current and past programming period dealing with climate change and risk management measures within the framework of Interreg programmes. 4 / 34 Interreg contributions to combating climate change March 2019 1. Background The European Council, the European Parliament, the Council, and the Commission identified the contribution of cohesion policy to the delivery of climate objectives as a key priority for the 2014-2020 period. New elements of process were introduced, including the drawing up of a Partnership Agreement between Member State and Commission before the development of operational programmes, in part to ensure that programmes addressed climate objectives; and mechanisms were introduced to cohesion policy programmes to help track the delivery of a target to spend at least 20% of the overall EU budget on climate change. Meanwhile, since the adoption in 2013 of legislation on the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework, in 2015 the EU successfully concluded the Paris Agreement with other parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Paris Agreement was ratified by the EU and entered into force in November 2016. Experience in implementation of the current approach to climate mainstreaming, and the implications of the Paris Agreement, will need to be considered in the design of the next programming period for cohesion policy; as will the connections between climate change and the urban dimension; and the connections between climate change and European territorial cooperation.1 The European Structural and Investment Funds promote eleven so-called Thematic Objectives, of which Thematic Objective 5, ‘Promoting climate change adaptation, risk prevention and management’, is the key thematic objective regarding adaptation. National and/or regional risk assessments for disaster risk management are a precondition (ex-ante conditionality) for funding under Thematic Objective 5, and national climate change adaptation strategies and related climate vulnerability assessments are required, where appropriate, to inform national risk assessments. This Thematic Objective is covered by the European Regional Development Fund (including the European Territorial Cooperation Objective), the Cohesion Fund and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. The cross-sectorial nature of climate change adaptation means that other Thematic Objectives are also potentially relevant to climate change adaptation, typically supporting adaptation more indirectly. 1 For further information check “Climate mainstreaming in the EU budget” by DG CLIMA available at https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/1df19257-aef9-11e7-837e-01aa75ed71a1 5 / 34 Interreg contributions to combating climate change March 2019 The perspective of climate change adaptation mainly deals with anticipating and reacting to the variety of effects and risks emerging from global warming which adversely affect natural and human systems all over the globe. The most widely known and directly perceived climate change risks are sudden hydro-meteorological events (e.g. storms, floods, landslides) and climatological events (e.g. heat waves; droughts, forest fires), but there are also gradually developing and less directly perceived risks (e.g. sea level rise, loss of biodiversity, increase of human health risks due to diseases etc.). These risks are expected to increase in the future, but they impact larger bio- geographical zones of Europe quite differently and thus also the types of territories that are found within them (i.e. urban areas, coastal areas, mountain areas, remote or sparsely populated areas). Across all regions, however, past developments in Europe show that the social and economic cost linked to the damage caused by extreme climate-related events has already an upward trend and long-term projections indicate that this cost is expected to further increase in the future. Climate change adaptation is particularly important in areas where most of the EU’s population and economic or cultural assets are concentrated. Especially urban regions and densely populated coastal areas are likely to accumulate various risks over increasingly longer time periods during the year (i.e. coastal & river flooding due to high precipitation and storm surges during autumn, winter and spring; heat waves, droughts and water scarcity in summer). Climate change adaptation is also crucial in areas hosting most of Europe’s natural capital (e.g. rural border areas and mountain regions, less populated coastal zones, sparsely populated areas) mainly to reduce the vulnerability of ecosystems and to preserve their essential services rendered to society, but also for preserving their important potential in removing GHG emissions from the atmosphere. If the various impacts that climate change has in different types of European territories is considered together with the variable capacity of regions to adapt to these impacts (i.e. economic, socio-cultural, institutional and technological ability of a region), then it appears that most regions in Mediterranean countries together with some hot-spots in the north-western part of Europe (i.e. regions at the channel & north sea coast of NL, BE, UK, FR) show the highest potential vulnerability to climate change. This overall picture clearly goes counter to territorial cohesion, because it indicates that climate change would deepen existing socio-economic imbalances between economically lagging regions in the south and prosperous regions in the core of Europe. 6 / 34 Map 1: Impacts and effects of climate change for the main biogeographical regions of Europe. Source: EEA, JRC 2. Climate Change Activities in INTERREG 2007-2013 2.1. Overview Interreg programmes, even though operating with a medium and long-term perspective, have addressed Climate Action at cross-border, trans-national and interregional level. Main source of information that has been relevant for this document is the ex post evaluation of 2007-2013 cohesion policy programmes commissioned by DG REGIO. In addition, Interact has conducted a desk research based on KEEP and other relevant sources, in order to provide the current available knowledge of actions and projects financed over the last programming periods 2007-2013. Regulation 1083/2006 had allocated EUR 7 831 million for the ETC objective.