Final Report Summary - POLIMP (Mobilizing and transferring knowledge on post-2012 climate policy implications)
Executive Summary:
It is acknowledged that much information is already available for climate policy stakeholders, but the way the information is presented is often difficult to access, not in the right format or otherwise of limited use for stakeholders. The POLIMP project has focussed on identifying the key knowledge needs of climate policy and decision makers, and covering these needs by providing knowledge packages derived from a broad range of existing reports, research and climate policy decisions at, e.g. EU and UNFCCC levels.
Through the project, stakeholders were provided with better insights on implications of possible international climate policy directions; so that they can take more informed decisions with reduced uncertainties and mitigated risks. Through that, POLIMP has enhance the implementation of the EU climate targets, strengthened the EU climate policy information, and increased stakeholders’ understanding of the consequences of current and future international climate regimes.
POLIMP has created an online database of climate policy knowledge, the Climate Policy Info Hub, with information on the key climate policy issues as selected through the identification of key knowledge needs of climate policy makers and other climate stakeholders, at EU and Member States level. With a key focus on renewable energy, emissions trading, general EU policy, and financing, POLIMP could impact the key areas of interest for European stakeholders. However, also knowledge needs that were less frequently mentioned, such as on agriculture/forestry, energy efficiency, industry, adaptation, and transport, have been discussed by POLIMP in order to ensure a wide coverage.
The knowledge collection and processing network thus under POLIMP has enhanced the insights of policy and decision makers on possible courses of international climate policy making, which has reduced the uncertainty of policy makers and sector and company level decision makers and helped these stakeholders to better understand the consequences of different policies and climate regimes on economic sectors and the European society as a whole. These insights have increased stakeholders' understanding of the consequences and opportunities of international climate regime and EU climate policies for European citizens, and supported the enhancement of awareness and public acceptance.
The POLIMP project has used a very wide range of communication and dissemination tools, in order to increase communication both among the research community, and between researchers and other stakeholders specifically policy and decision makers. In addition to the publicly accessible Climate Policy Info Hub online platform, POLIMP has published a range of publication types, in order to reach as many relevant stakeholders as possible. For example, while the POLIMP Policy Brief series was specifically focussed on EU and Member State policy makers, other publication types, such as the Briefing Note series and the Guides towards COP21 in Paris, have been aimed at a much wider stakeholder group, including for example business and NGOs. Similarly, the organization of events in Brussels, Berlin, London, Warsaw, Lima, and Paris ensured a broad involvement of stakeholders in knowledge dissemination, but also discussion and knowledge co-creation.
Project Context and Objectives:
In the global complicated modern climate policy context, informing stakeholders about opportunities and pathways on climate policy, and about scientific insights and warnings is important to help creating positive dynamics. Policy makers need digestible information to design good policies, and understand their options and the possible impacts of these options. Policy makers need access to improved knowledge transfer and uptake, as well as appropriate techniques to manage information and data. Also players in the economic sphere will need to understand global changes and the impact on their business. This might comprise big opportunities to be embraced.
The overarching motivation of POLIMP was to facilitate exchange and transfer of information about climate policy and its implications among the policymakers, market actors and general society within the EU. This was performed by identifying where knowledge gaps exist and how these gaps can be filled. The aim was to provide stakeholders with better insights on implications of possible international climate policy directions, so that they can take more informed decisions with reduced uncertainties and mitigated risks. Through that, POLIMP contributed to the implementation of the EU climate targets, strengthening the EU climate policy information and its effects and increasing stakeholders’ understanding of the consequences of current and future international climate regimes.
To achieve that, POLIMP: a) built upon knowledge of the existing and future climate policy developments, which will be efficiently assimilated, b) provided the existing stock of evaluation outcomes of various climate policy scenarios widely in a comparative manner, and c) actively triggered the exchange of targeted information to targeted actors in order to promote effective and efficient climate policy implementation. In terms of significance, the information exchange and outreach of the third component is predominant within POLIMP, but the logical flow of the other two components is required to reach the expected impacts. POLIMP therefore in essence coordinated and facilitated the information exchange and outcomes of existing research on climate policy and climate agreements in order to broaden the knowledge in the field and enable associated stakeholders to extract key policy conclusions. The consortium for this proposal represents a wide range of expertise and knowledge for addressing the above aspects with the required details and feeling for decision contexts. Moreover, POLIMP provided a platform for information exchange of a wider list of contemporary and future climate policy initiatives.
The scientific and technical project objectives originating from the above components of POLIMP are presented below:
• Identify knowledge gaps on the implications for EU stakeholders of possible directions of climate policy making during the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and, after that, as a result of negotiations under the “Durban Platform”.
• Collect and synthesize knowledge of possible climate policy directions and their implications in terms of: governance (centralized multilateral or scope for decentralized, bilateral climate actions), applicability of all current policy mechanisms in climate agreements, such as market based mechanisms (ETS, CDM, JI, DOs etc), embedding of climate change priorities in countries’ national economic, environmental and social priorities in NAMAs, Low Emission Development Strategies, National Adaptation Plans, and potential for and support of international low emission and climate resilient technology transfer within different sectors (energy, transport, industry, land use and forestry).
• With these information packages, support policy and decision makers in taking well informed decisions, thereby reducing uncertainties and mitigating the risk that decisions are taken against poorly-understood climate policy contexts, and build awareness among the society as a whole of costs and opportunities of future climate policies.
• Track down links between the outcome of the UNFCCC negotiations and EU-level and domestic policy actions in selected country-parties and explore how different UNFCCC climate policy directions would impact these policy actions; and to
• Facilitate communication among various research components and knowledge dissemination among various stakeholder groups.
In order to achieve the above objectives, POLIMP considered past developments in climate negotiations, especially the committed and/or pledged mitigation and adaptation actions, the position of different (groups of) developed and developing country Parties on the future direction of an international climate policy regime, policies and instruments used under the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol so far and agreed new mechanisms. Recent climate negotiations have shown a few trends that POLIMP will consider for providing advise on how future climate policy making would impact achieving global mitigation and adaptation goals and decision and policy making processes in the EU.
For the EU the changed climate negotiations perspective creates several new opportunities and challenges. First, it addresses the EU’s concern that it might be the only player to undertake ambitious climate policy actions; although LEDS and NAMAs do not result in quantified national targets, the ambition level could nevertheless be high as successful climate measures defined by LEDS and NAMAs are also in the domestic interest of the developing countries concerned. Second, the actions that could result from LEDS and NAMAs enable the EU to support emissions trading mechanisms as emission reductions are no longer calculated below ‘business-as-usual’ baselines but below ‘do-something’ baselines. Third, the Durban Climate Conference decision to establish a New Market Mechanism enables to the EU to ‘export’ its expertise with carbon credit projects/programmes and emissions trading schemes. Finally, the COP21 outcomes are yet to be implemented in practice.
POLIMP acknowledged that the above climate policy experience and trends and uncertainties about what a future climate policy regime will look could affect policy and decision making internationally and within the EU. Stakeholders need to take purchase and investment decisions under uncertainties about what are greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments or how strongly external costs of emissions will be reflected in commodity and energy prices. POLIMP aimed at providing information packages to a range of stakeholder groups thereby offering clear understanding of possible climate policy directions and their implications. This can reduce uncertainties and helps to mitigate climate-related risks when making investment.
As explained above, POLIMP coordinated and facilitated a process to identify, for different policy and decision making levels, knowledge gaps about implications of possible directions of international climate policies and subsequently cover these by knowledge packages derived from a broad range of existing reports, research and climate policy decisions at, e.g. EU and UNFCCC levels. With these information packages, climate policy associated stakeholders will be better able to extract key policy conclusions. Through series of workshops these packages will be communicated with stakeholders. In addition, POLIMP provided an overall, on-line platform for information exchange of a wider list of contemporary and future climate policy initiatives. The work was organized in seven workpackages (WPs) whereby the first and seventh workpackage cover the management of the project (WP1) and dissemination of the project results (WP7). In WP 2 the process of engaging stakeholders in the project and communicating project results with them is organized. This WP identified the relevant stakeholder groups in developing and developed countries for climate policy making. It is acknowledged that the range of stakeholder groups for which international climate policy-making has implications is broad and at different policy and decision making levels. A first result of WP 2 was the overview of stakeholders’ interests and pressure points which will guide the work in the subsequent WP. A further task in WP 2 was to develop a stakeholder engagement plan where stakeholder inputs are gathered through thematic workshops focusing on climate policy issues. This continued to a plan to continue stakeholder engagements and dialogues beyond the project so that the process of information exchange will continue.In WP 3 knowledge gaps are identified for a range of priority issues related to climate policy making. These issues will be determined in consultation with stakeholders, but as a starting point for discussion the following three (categories of) issues are suggested by the POLIMP partners:
• What would different possible international climate policy scenarios entail for EU society, business, Member States and EU as a whole, in terms of economic, social, and environmental impacts looking especially at likely reactions and resulting political acceptability for different groups such as those impacted by job losses and reductions in welfare as well as potential gains?
• How can EU stakeholders deliberate in an evidence based manner about the pros and cons of these different scenarios?
• How can EU and EU stakeholders learn from design and implementation of climate policies worldwide as well as share the experience the EU has gained in designing and implementing climate friendly actions?
In order to address these issues, WP 3 collected data and knowledge such as:
• Status quo of climate policy negotiations and the EU climate policy discussion (including the climate and energy package 2020 and longer term decarbonisation and energy roadmaps).
• Identification of key trends and drivers, such as key economic, energy and demographic trends in EU and Rest of World, and trends in global land use.
• Collection of possible international climate policy developments/scenarios based on progress in negotiation processes (UNFCCC and other forums), observers’ opinions, papers, interviews, etc., focusing especially on what the literature says about the social, economic and environmental impacts of climate policies and the resulting impact on their political acceptability by different stakeholders.
• Collecting information about how policies and measures proposed in international climate policy making might work in terms of direction, strength and expected effects in different EU stakeholder contexts.
WP 4 subsequently processed the knowledge collected into information packages. Key issues addressed included:
• the effectiveness of the new international regime in addressing the climate change mitigation and adaptation needs and resulting objectives.
• projected socio-economic impacts of possible international climate policy directions for different stakeholder groups within the EU.
• opportunities for the EU and EU stakeholders to learn from design and implementation of climate policies worldwide as well as share the experience the EU has gained in designing and implementing climate friendly actions, including the EU emissions trading scheme, sectoral benchmarking and technology development and transfer.
The information packages were communicated with stakeholders through four stakeholder workshops organized in WP 2. In addition, the information was made available through an online Knowledge Platform, titled Climate Info Policy Hub (http://www.climateinfopolicyhub.eu). The main objective of the platform is to address knowledge gaps by presenting complex facts and data in easily understood language and in intuitively understandable, structure and searchable format.
WP 6 drew lessons learned from the comparison of possible directions of future climate policy making and implications of these for international climate targets and EU climate, economic, environmental and social goals. It incorporated lessons learned from the stakeholders’ assessments in WP 2, knowledge gap identification and data collection in WP 3 and knowledge processing work in WP 4. With these insights recommendations were formulated for stakeholders at different policy and decision making levels within the EU, which can support the formulation of future EU climate, economic, environmental and social policy making and enable stakeholders to effectively and efficiently deal with these policies.
Finally, it is important to underline the strong link, next to the links with the knowledge collection and processing WP3 and 4, between WP2 (preparatory national dialogues), WP5 (access through internet), WP6 (policy implications and recommendations) and WP7 (dissemination).
Project Results:
The main Scientific and Technical results from POLIMP refer to the knowledge extraction, processing and dissemination on the various climate policy issues and each WP has produced their own concrete outcomes relevant for both science and policy making. Below we present these main results categorized per WP.
Work package 2: Stakeholders consultation
The two objectives of work package 2 were to mobilise the collected and processed information to stakeholders and define suitable formats to the effect; and ii) to encourage stakeholders to provide input for policy implications and recommendations for the EU. To meet these objectives, WP2 was structured into four tasks, focusing respectively on: the identification and analysis of relevant stakeholder groups; the elaboration and update on stakeholder engagement plan; the implementation of consultation workshops and events; and sustaining stakeholders’ engagement in the long run and follow up.
Identification and analysis of relevant stakeholder groups
From the beginning of the project, key EU stakeholder groups were identified and mapped according to regions or countries of their origin and to sectors. The list of stakeholders’ contacts was compiled and has been incorporated in a database, to be used for dissemination tasks.
The aim of the task was to identify the different stakeholder groups in order to be able to draw conclusions on what is the rationale and background to the position that each of the groups represents and follows in the negotiations. The key finding from the task as described in the report is that in the course of last twenty years of international climate policy, a complex system of stakeholder interaction on multiple levels has emerged and often policy instruments for climate change mitigation are triggered by a cascade of decision-making. Through this task, POLIMP aimed to aid the consultations throughout the work package, which will was also used throughout the project in various work packages. In addition to these findings, the list of stakeholders’ contacts was compiled and has been incorporated in a database.
Stakeholder engagement plan
The stakeholder engagement plan, as initially sketched out in Annex I, was further elaborated. Based on this, the process for preparatory dialogue was initiated, based on indicative guidelines and time-frames as described in the stakeholder engagement plan. The aim of the dialogue was to identify regional or national stakeholders’ needs for thematic knowledge with a view to feeding into a thematic workshop. By the first workshop at the end of the first year, the topics for thematic workshops could be finalised (public acceptance of technologies; financing renewable energy; the emissions trading system). Throughout the project duration, the stakeholder engagement plan has been updated with minor modifications (e.g. format of preparatory dialogue) and to the schedule of event organisation (e.g. extension of preparatory dialogue).
Consultations workshops and events
The POLIMP project implemented a ‘preparatory dialogue’ process across member states, four stakeholder workshops, and three COP side event under the UNFCCC.
The first side-event took place at COP19 in Warsaw, Poland (November 2013). POLIMP co-organised the event with Japanese organisation IGES. The side-event provided for an opportunity to present the project summary and key findings of the knowledge needs analysis as implemented in WP5, to UNFCCC and EU stakeholders.
After the completion of the knowledge needs analysis, the preparatory dialogue process was started. The first round of dialogue provided key findings at the first workshop on public acceptance to improve predictability about investments in low carbon technologies. The first workshop was held in Brussels in April 2014, attracting about 30 stakeholders from EU institutions, business, research community, and NGOs. Discussions were guided by the outcome of the above dialogue as well as a draft Policy Brief on public acceptance.
The second workshop on financing renewable energy was organized at University College London in October 2014, attracting about 20 stakeholders from member states, business, research community and NGOs. Discussions benefited from presentation of additional preparatory dialogue outcomes and that of a draft Policy Brief on financing renewable energy.
The second COP side-event organised at COP20 in Lima in December 2014 addressed a practical criteria matrix to assist policy makers in evaluating proposals for the 2015 Agreement.
A later preparatory dialogue process focused on the EU ETS in five countries (Poland, Greece, Austria/Hungary, and the Netherlands). The results were presented and feedback from stakeholders was received at the third stakeholder workshop on the EU ETS, organised and implemented in Brussels in April 2015. Based on stakeholders’ perspectives for the EU ETS at both EU and national levels, a Policy Brief was published, a summary of key findings from the dialogue, and a Working Document, a full report.
The fourth and final stakeholder workshop was organised and implemented in Berlin in September 2015. The programme consisted of three thematic sessions, public acceptance, renewables, and the EU ETS and a concluding session to synthesise these thematic findings.
As the final event under this task, the third COP side-event organised at COP21 in Paris in December 2015 looked at means of supporting implementation of national contributions that already exist and could be strengthened, focusing on technology needs assessments (TNAs) and current climate finance flows.
Sustaining stakeholders’ engagement in the long run
The POLIMP Webinar and Survey series were part of the POLIMP project’s efforts to sustain existing engagement with stakeholders by providing additional ways to engage them directly with the project and its contents using web-based tools. The target audience included both previous participants in the project’s stakeholder engagement activities as well as new stakeholders. The topics covered were selected based on the needs of the stakeholders identified during the early phases of the project.
The webinar format allowed for broad dissemination of POLIMP content as well as the ability to bring on external expert speakers from anywhere in Europe. Google Hangouts on Air was selected as the technical platform for the Webinar Series. This format enabled POLIMP to actively engage stakeholders through comments and questions during the webcast and make video recordings available later to a wider stakeholder community, thereby increasing the stakeholder outreach of POLIMP events. Platforms used for the promotion of the webinars and the dissemination of the webinar videos and surveys included the POLIMP website, Twitter, Facebook, as well as targeted advertising, such as the IISD newsletters.
The theme of the webinar series was “POLIMP Climate Policy Webinar Series – Key EU and international issues to facilitate decarbonisation”. As such, topics centered on key issues at the heart of the debate pre- and post-Paris. Webinars were short, interactive, visually appealing, easily digestible and implemented as a moderated discussion—between 45 and 60 minutes in length—which aimed at capturing a range of different views. The moderation of the webinars was done by senior staff at Ecologic Institute (mainly Matthias Duwe). Technical facilitation of the webinars was done by junior staff (mainly Andreas Graf).
In total, eight webinars were planned and implemented (with views up to 28 April 2016):
• Paris 2015: Lessons from the Copenhagen experience – 7 July 2015, 454 views
• Reform of the EU ETS: Making it fit for 2030 – 16 Sep 2015, 308 views
• EU climate policy for 2030: Why are we talking about governance? – 28 Oct 2015, 184 views
• Climate finance: Where do we stand before Paris? – 26 Nov 2015, 138 views
• After Paris: Implications of the Paris Agreement for EU climate policy – 26 Jan 2016, 206 views*
• Beyond feed-in tariffs: The future of renewable energy support – 19 Feb 2016, 123 views
• Sharing the effort for 2030: Main issues for future EU targets – 8 Mar 2016, 73 views
• Are EU climate policies up to the challenge of decarbonising Europe? – 6 Apr 2016, 158 views
• Financing Renewable Energy in Europe towards 2030 – 20 April 2016, 96 views
Video recordings of all eight POLIMP Webinars can be viewed online on a dedicated Youtube channel here.
The POLIMP Survey series ran in parallel to and complimented the POLIMP Webinar series, covering similar thematic material. It allowed for the pinpointed engagement of select stakeholders and knowledge collection on topical matters pertaining to international and EU climate and energy policy before and after Paris. In most cases, surveys were distributed two weeks prior to the accompanying Webinar. Thus results fed into and informed Webinar discussions. Each survey instalment was organized into three parts:
• EU climate policy “barometer” – three reoccurring questions on a general assessment of the status quo. Results on these items were tracked over time and provided insight into the experts’ changing outlook on EU and international climate policy.
• Main topic – thematic questions linked to the topic of the corresponding Webinar.
• “Buzz of the week” – questions on a relevant climate policy topic currently in the news
Surveys responses were elicited from a pre-selected Expert Response Group (ERG) composed of 43 stakeholders, policy-makers, industry representatives and researchers active in the fields of climate and energy policy. Each expert was handpicked and invited to participate. The “snap” surveys were designed to be short and require little time on the part of the expert responder. The online software LimeSurvey was selected as the technical platform for survey distribution for its ease of use, data management and analysis features as well as its capacity to safeguard response anonymity. LimeSurvey distributed each survey instalment via email to the ERG.
In total, seven surveys were distributed over the span of a year and covered the first seven Webinar topics listed above. Survey responses were analysed using basic descriptive statistical procedures and synthesized in a summary report (two pages). The reports were distributed via email to the ERG and published on the POLIMP website. All seven reports are available for download here.
Work package 3: Knowledge collection
The objective of work package 3 was to collect knowledge on the current post-Copenhagen, post-Durban, and post-Doha climate regime, on possible future climate policy scenarios and on key trends and drivers that will affect these scenarios. It then aimed to organise the knowledge gathered into a climate policy database. To this end, we conducted literature reviews, interviews, and stakeholder workshops and also incorporated a wide range of existing know-how from on-going FP7 projects in the field of climate change. To meet these objectives, WP3 was structured into five tasks: Status quo of climate policy negotiations and the EU climate policy discussion; Identification of key trends and drivers; Identification of climate policy developments/scenarios; Criteria to evaluate climate policy scenarios; and organisation of data into a “climate policy database”. This work formed the basis for the work in work package 4, where the gathered knowledge could be processed.
Status quo of climate policy negotiations and the EU climate policy discussion
The objective of this task was to review the current status of climate negotiations and address gaps emerging in policy dialogues. The status of climate change negotiations was analysed at both UN and EU levels. The findings of this task culminated into report D3.1 that presents an overview of the negotiation process and countries positions in the run up to COP19, addressing two major topics, the post-2020 framework (ADP Workstream 1) and pre-2020 pledges (ADP Workstream 2). It was written before the start of COP19 and later updated in March 2016 with the outcomes of the same. The report finds that there are significant contributions in terms of both the number of Parties putting forward voluntary pledges, resulting in the Cancún Agreement, and the level of ambition in commitments by Parties staying in the 2nd Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol. In order to fulfill the gap between ambition and reality, Parties agreed in 2011 on the goal of reaching a new climate agreement in 2015 and launched the negotiation process called the Ad-hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP). The COP19 in Warsaw led to a new decision taking stock of the ADP work and moving forward. More recently, 195 countries successfully adopted the Paris Agreement in December 2015. It is considered to be a legally-binding comprehensive agreement applicable to all parties and based on so-called ‘self-differentiation’ through (I)NDCs. With regard to the EU, this task concludes that the EU made a positive assessment over the COP21 outcome compared to what they had expected, and identified the next steps including signing and ratification of the Agreement. The EU will participate in the facilitative dialogue in 2018 and provide inputs to the IPCC special report aimed at providing a clearer understanding about implications of the aspirational goal of 1.5 °C. By 2020 the EU will also need to prepare a long-term decarbonisation strategy up to 2050 and intend to participate in the first global stocktake in 2023.
Identification of key trends and drivers
The goal of this task was to identify key economic, energy political and demographic trends in the EU and the rest of the world to prepare the backdrop for work in work package 4. The findings of this task are assimilated in the form of the ‘Report on key trends and drivers’. This report discusses and illustrates the key trends and drivers of the current international and EU energy and climate policy. It aims to give insights into the current dynamics and also enabling a better understanding of future developments. The most important findings of the task are that 1) there was a bottom-up development visible in introducing energy and climate policies; 2) oil and coal prices strongly increased over the last decade; 3) the costs for renewables significantly decreased over the last few years and 4) the European energy and climate policy is increasingly influenced by energy security concerns. In its analysis, the report finds that the carbon dioxide emissions of non-OECD/ developing countries can be closely linked to emission reductions (mainly caused by stricter climate policy) in industrial regions, resulting in the so called “carbon leakage”. Also global deforestation continued to increase in the last years although at lower levels than in the past decades. Climate policies in industrial countries are one of the drivers of global deforestation due to increasing demand for biofuels. Another trend that may increase global greenhouse gas emission is the shale gas revolution, made possible by hydraulic fracturing technology, that has helped the US reducing its energy imports and brought down energy prices, thus it is being considered also in Europe. The report concludes that while the bottom-up climate and energy policy initiatives are encouraging, unless a complementary collaborative global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is being made, emissions may further be on the rise.
Identification of climate policy developments/scenarios
This task aimed to identify possible international climate policy developments or scenarios within the UNFCCC and the EU and other forums, including the social, economic and environmental impacts of these scenarios and the resulting impact on the political acceptability by different stakeholders. The output of Work Package 3, summarised in a report, served as input for other tasks within POLIMP. Firstly, it provided material for the knowledge processing work under Work Package 4 (Knowledge Processing). Secondly, it provided input to the online knowledge platform being developed under Work Package 5 (Knowledge Platform). Thirdly, it provided background information for the stakeholder workshops being organised under Work Package 2 (Stakeholder Consultations). Finally, it also served as a basis for the production of briefing notes, policy briefs and synthesis papers under Work Package 6 (Policy Implications and Recommendations).
This work package included the management and review of all the articles prepared for uploading on the POLIMP Platform “Climate Policy Info Hub”. WP 3 partners responsible for the review and editing of the articles were assigned specific articles to be grade according to a number of criteria. Each article went through multiple rounds of review by different partners before being uploaded on the website.
Criteria to evaluate climate policy scenarios
Drawing on the results from the preceding tasks and on broader insights from the evaluation of domestic and international climate policies and measures, as well as the study of broader international environmental governance, this task surveyed existing research on criteria for the evaluation of developments in international climate policy (and international agreements). It then analysed submissions by Parties' under ADP Workstream 1, and contrasted the themes mentioned in those governmental documents with the criteria proposed in literature to see which find support among Parties, and to identify whether relevant criteria have been omitted in literature.
The analysis shows a high degree of convergence for some criteria that were listed in relevant literature, most importantly 'ambition', 'participation', 'compliance' and 'equity or fairness'. In contrast, other criteria, such as 'systemic coherence' did not find mentioning at all in the submissions we analysed. Our analysis further identified criteria that were not reflected in the relevant literature but widely embraced by Parties in their ADP submissions, such as 'assisting the vulnerable', 'durability' or 'flexibility'. Finally, analysing the submissions revealed that some criteria from literature were apparently too vague and broad, subsuming a wide range of interpretations that might better be reflected in distinct criteria. This concerns first and foremost the concept of 'equity or fairness'.
The researchers then proceeded to define a new matrix of criteria for the classification of alternative scenarios for international climate cooperation, which incorporates criteria that are widely reflected in Parties' submissions, and is precise and specific enough to facilitate the evaluation of design proposals for the 2015 Agreement. The proposed matrix includes criteria relating to environmental effectiveness (level of ambition, level of active participation, stringency of MRV system, stringency of compliance check and enforcement), equity-related criteria (differentiation according to historical responsibility, differentiation according to evolving responsibility, differentiation according to capacities and needs, assisting the vulnerable) and other criteria (institutional feasibility, durability, flexibility, cost-effectiveness).
In sum, the analysis undertaken resulted in a practical tool for policy makers to compare the features of the proposal to their preferred negotiated outcome, and to identify common ground with other Parties’ preferred options. In this way, the work contributed directly to the main objectives of POLIMP and to the desired impact. The findings of this task have been reported in a report on the criteria for evaluating climate policies scenarios.
Organisation of data into a “climate policy database”
The existing knowledge on climate policy was collected and clustered, creating the Climate Policy Database (http://147.102.6.97/ontowiki/). The constantly enhanced content disseminated this knowledge to support informed decisions and beliefs of the policy makers, researchers, market actors and general public. The data, which were organised into a “climate policy database” by setting the ontowiki, were regularly updated each time a new article were developed and uploaded in POLIMP Platform “Climate Policy Info Hub”. New keywords and issues of the knowledge packages were also selected. Resources from new knowledge packages were constantly being registered, keeping the database constantly updated. It is worth mentioning that a dedicated logo for the Climate Policy database was designed in order to facilitate the interconnection of the database with the official POLIMP website.
Work package 4: Knowledge processing
WP4 is part of module 2 of the project: Knowledge processing. The structure of the work was largely determined by the knowledge gaps identified from discussions with different stakeholder group and the proposed contents took into account these stakeholder interactions. WP4 coordinated the production of articles and reports that were linked to current climate policy discussions. The results were made accessible to wider stakeholder groups with the help of graphs and pictures, policy briefs, stakeholder Workshops and through the Climate Policy Info Hub but also included stakeholder insights.
Development of a framework to process the findings from the data collected in WP 3
A framework for the processing of data to create articles for the platform was developed. The detailed focus of the individual packages was formulated in parallel with the stakeholder process and the gap analysis and the topics were defined in collaboration with all partners. Topics for a total of 60 articles were defined each with their own logical identifier, following a logical tree structure with five different level. The articles are easily understandable for stakeholders and are a main result of the knowledge processing.
Effectiveness and efficiency of new international climate regimes in delivering the required
Knowledge on the environmental effectiveness and efficiency of new international climate regimes in delivering the required global mitigation objectives (2°C target) was synthesized based on the scenarios identified and their building blocks in WP3 and taking into consideration the criteria identified in WP3 The resulting report D4.1 (‘From Lima to Paris: Effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed new international climate regime in delivering the required global mitigation objective’) aimed to link the contents of this task to the current climate policy development, especially the evolvement of the Paris agreement. It thereby aimed to inform stakeholders ahead of the Paris conference of different climate policy option and their effectiveness. The report summarised mitigation pledges of countries under UNFCCC and the likelihood that they will be achieved; discusses the framework of the new international climate change agreement, evaluates the negotiating text for the Paris 2015 agreement with the help of criteria and assesses unilateral climate policies and their relevance for carbon leakage. Also adaptation measures, and the consequences of different levels of temperature increases are considered.
The main findings of the report are:
• A new international climate architecture will likely differ fundamentally from the Kyoto Protocol. Instead of a legally binding agreement with a limited number of countries having biding GHG remission reduction targets, the new climate agreement may be less biding but more inclusive.
• The so far pledged reduction targets # are not consistent with the reduction requirements to meet the 2°C target.
• New flexibility mechanisms would guarantee the cost-effectiveness of a new climate agreement; however the concrete design and governance have not yet been decided
• If in the short or medium term the EU carries out more stringent climate policies than other regions there is significant risk of carbon leakage
• The consequences of not meeting the 2° target may be far higher cost for adaptation. The damage costs rise disproportionally from 2° to 4° degree warming and impacts on human welfare are likely to occur mostly in countries with low adaptation capacity. It will be of critical importance to keep these trade-offs in mind when agreeing on the ambition of a new international climate agreement.
Socioeconomic impacts of a new climate regime on the EU
The resulting report has shown a range of socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the 2030 greenhouse gas target, most of them are positive, others can be at least partly compensated. Modeling exercises also show the importance of combining several energy and climate related targets such as a greenhouse gas reduction target and an energy efficiency target, even if overlaps of policy instruments need to be carefully considered in policy design. The report compared different models regarding economic impacts of climate change policies. While the model GEM-E3 for example projects negative impacts on GDP from 40% GHG reductions driven by a GHG target and carbon pricing only, the E3ME model projects positive contributions of up to 0.55% in the scenario including ambitious energy efficiency policies, taking into account the positive impact of energy efficiency investments on GDP. Remarkable possible impacts are i) job creation, ii) a technological leadership and iii) a reduction of energy import dependency but also environmental benefits such as reduced emissions of air pollutants.
Again the work was linked to current climate policy issues. The 2030 energy and climate framework is of great importance also in light of the current political crisis between the Ukraine and Russia. It serves the aim of the creation of a European Energy Union that was published in 2015 and aims to give EU consumers - secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy and most importantly aims to increase the EUs energy security. The 2030 energy and climate framework will reduce energy consumption and diversify the electricity mix. While by 2030, 397 Mtoe of natural gas is consumed in 2013 PRIMES reference scenario, the natural gas demand will be only 210 Mtoe in the Greens/EFA framework. Assuming the same domestic production, the import dependency regarding natural gas is thereby reduced to about 50%. Climate policy, as this report has shown, is far more than just about reducing GHG emissions, but can - if well designed - be an important impetus or driver for energy security as well as economic and technological development.
Opportunities for the EU and EU stakeholders to learn from design and implementation of climate policies worldwide as well as share the experience the EU has gained in designing and implementing climate friendly actions
Opportunities for the EU and EU stakeholders to learn from design and implementation of climate policies worldwide were identified, and EU experiences gained in designing and implementing climate friendly actions were shared. The main output of the task was D4.3 “Report on opportunities for exporting EU-based climate change mitigation and adaptation knowledge”. Considering that the task did not only focus on such opportunities for exporting EU-based policy and knowledge, but also on importing of non-EU policies and knowledge, it was decided to integrate this into on deliverable D4.3 titled “Policy Transfer Opportunities for exporting EU climate policies, and adopting non-EU policies within the EU”. Based on a thorough literature review on the theoretical aspects of policy transfer, a framework was created for the analysis of (bi-directional) climate policy transfer. Key questions include “who transfers policy?”, “why engage in policy transfer?”, “what elements of policy are transferred?”, “are there different degrees of transfer?”, “from where are policies transferred?”, and “what factors enable and constrain transfer?” Specifically in the field of climate policy, policy transfer has a significant role to play, as climate change is a relatively ‘new’ problem and climate policy therefore a relatively new policy area. Climate policy transfer is therefore less likely to be hampered by contextual constraints such as path dependency, and it is easier to adopt policies from other contexts.
For the chapter on exporting EU climate policies, three key topics at the heart of the EU’s climate policy framework were chosen: the EU ETS, renewable energy support systems, and transport policies. A clear overview of these policies has been provided, along with policy recommendations for non-EU countries, specifically developing countries, based on the expertise of the POLIMP project team.
For the chapter on importing climate policies from non-EU frameworks to the EU, the choice of topics has been based on the analysis of knowledge needs in the EU as carried out in the project. These include renewable energy (support schemes and public acceptance), emissions trading, climate finance, industrial policies, energy efficiency (including energy efficiency obligation schemes), climate change adaptation policies, transport policies, and in general interaction among climate policy instruments in a climate policy mix. For all of these topics, recommendations have been drawn from non-EU countries (including the United States, Canada, Japan, South Africa, China, etc.) as well as international frameworks (e.g. the UNFCCC, the National Adaptation Plan process, and NAMAs). The transferability of (climate) policies largely depends on technological, political, cultural and socioeconomic preconditions in the host countries. The recommendations from the EU and for the EU are therefore no blueprints. However, also broader policy concepts can be transferred, instead of specific instruments, which are able to be accommodated in more or less modified way in the host country. The respective deliverable (D4.3) can therefore be used as an inspirational guidance for policy development, both in the EU and beyond.
Work package 5: Knowledge platform
The main task of Work package 5 was the establishment of a “Knowledge Platform”, an online tool developed exclusively under the POLIMP project to offer evidence on climate policy options and thus support informed science-based EU climate policy-making – and to do so in a fact-based and neutral manner, having an easily accessible format with a clear user interface.
Knowledge needs analysis
The concept for the Platform was developed following a strict methodical procedure, building on an exercise to identify Knowledge Gaps and Priorities among our core stakeholders and target audiences, so that This exercise thus defined the thematic focus of the Knowledge Platform, using in-depth interviewing and self-completion questionnaires.
The results showed that many stakeholders believe that adequate information is already available but that policy-makers often lack an overview of the information. Others do see a need for additional information. Knowledge needs were identified in eleven areas of expertise, namely Renewable Energy, Emissions Trading, EU climate policy in general, Financing, International climate negotiations, Agriculture and forestry, Energy policy in general, Energy efficiency, Adaptation, Transport, and Industry. Some of the most important knowledge needs appear across several sectors, e.g. international context of climate policies and cost-effectiveness.
With the help of the methodology developed under work package 4 these knowledge need priorities were translated into a knowledge tree of content items for the website – with a system to monitor quality and ensure standardised style and formats.
Knowledge presentation and accessibility
These inputs fed into the definition of the strategy for Knowledge Presentation and Accessibility which defined the cornerstones of the knowledge platform. The strategy was based on a survey of ten existing knowledge platforms, conducted with the objective of identifying good practice examples. The review was performed as an expert evaluation and multi criteria analysis, using criteria such as corporate identity, meta information, information architecture, contents and functionalities. The insights from this review contributed to the development of the concept for the POLIMP Knowledge platform, drawing also from the POLIMP Communication and Dissemination Plan.
As the name for the platform the consortium decided on Climate Policy Info Hub (www.climatepolicyinfohub.eu) and it offers evidence on climate policy options. It explores impacts and implications of international and EU climate policy for decision-makers in policy, business and civil society. The aim is to support informed science-based EU climate policy-making. The knowledge is compiled by a group of independent climate policy researchers.
Knowledge platform
The concept for the knowledge platform was implemented in technical form for online usage – and filled with life through the production of contents to suit the knowledge needs identified. The platform was properly launched in March of 2015 with a significant volume of content in a first batch of articles.
Overall, the content management and development of the platform turned out to be a very ambitious undertaking. The sheer volume of material kept growing with implementation of the platform (as articles were split into several sub-articles due to the complexity of the topics being covered). Individual articles were updated in the course of the operation of the platform to reflect relevant new developments.
UPRC took over the progress tracking and editing as well as finalising for publication for the second batch of articles. The process established delivered new content for the platform on a regular and ongoing basis, at stable levels of quality. Overall, the amount of content developed specifically for the platform significantly exceeded the original plans – to the benefit of its users, but with additional demands on all project partners involved to engage in the production of additional material.
Content from the Knowledge Platform was also used for inspiration for the webinar Series implemented as part of stakeholder outreach under work package 2 – and the webinars frequently made reference to the Platform.
The work on maintenance and further development focused on the development of a sustainability strategy and connecting the Platform to other online fora. The Knowledge Platform has been interlinked with the POLIMP website, for dissemination and promotion purposes, as well as the Climate Policy Database, implemented within work package 3.
Furthermore, the POLIMP consortium and the Horizon 2020 CARISMA (Coordination and Assessment of Research and Innovation in Support of Climate Mitigation Actions) project partners have discussed the establishment of a synergy between the two projects. Within the CARISMA framework, a Knowledge and Networking platform is envisaged to be developed, promoting the exchange of information about Research and Innovation for Mitigation. POLIMP and CARISMA partners have decided to make an interconnection between the two platforms in order to expand the range of users, maximize synergies and optimize exploitation.
Lastly, a connection was developed between the Climate Policy Info Hub with the Clean Energy Info Portal (REEGLE). The REEGLE platform, developed by the Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), is a gateway that provides information and data on various sub-sectors within sustainable energy at a global level.
In summary, the Knowledge Platform has become a lighthouse element of the POLIMP project, that has been highlighted in presentations to external audiences and has received much acclaim for its user-friendliness and informative nature – and it has been built to outlast the project’s duration. It has made a direct contribution to the desired impact of enabling better informed decisions by decision-makers in the project’s core target group – by taking up their most pertinent issues and providing easily accessible and intelligible content for information in the manner preferred by the core audience.
Work package 6: Policy implications and recommendations
The main objective of work package 6 was to draw lessons learned from the comparison of possible directions of future climate policy making and implications of these for international climate targets and EU climate, economic, environmental and social goals. With these insights recommendations could be formulated for policymakers and other stakeholders at the EU, member states and sub-national levels. These practical recommendations support the formulation of future EU climate, economic, environmental and social policy making and enable stakeholders to effectively and efficiently deal with these policies.
The work package focused on two tasks, respectively on policy implications (socioeconomic aspects, technology transfer, land use, market mechanisms, and other policy options), and on policy recommendations for Europe. The main output of the work package is a series of 15 publications: 6 briefing notes, 5 guides towards COP21 in Paris, 3 policy briefs, and a synthesis paper.
Briefing notes
The briefing notes summarise key knowledge on a range of priority issues, based on the knowledge packages and general expertise of the project team members. Two of the briefing notes have been prepared in collaboration with the EU co-funded BIOTEAM project (Intelligent Energy Europe), focused on the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy support schemes established in member states, and sustainability criteria for biomass. One briefing note, focused on the harmonisation of EU renewable energy policies across member states, has been prepared based on results of the German-Dutch biomethane research programme ‘Groen Gas – Grünes Gas’, co-financed through Interreg Iva Deutschland-Nederland. The remaining three briefing notes were on public acceptance of renewable energy on sub-national or project levels, innovative financing of renewable energy, and the intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs), including the plan for the EU and member states, as prepared for the Paris climate summit in 2015 (COP21). The briefing notes have been published on the POLIMP website, and have been circulated throughout the network of the POLIMP project and the project partners.
In preparation of the UNFCCC COP21 climate summit in Paris in November-December 2015, POLIMP has prepared a series of special briefing notes named ‘POLIMP Guide towards COP21 in Paris’. The reason for starting this series was the realisation that the POLIMP project, and its partners, delivered a wide range of publications and knowledge packages related to or relevant for the Paris conference. It was decided to produce a series of briefing notes (‘Paris notes’) with short COP21-relevant articles, with clear references to the underlying knowledge packages and publications. Four issues have been published in the run-up to the conference, from September to November 2015 (M29-M31 of the POLIMP project). These include 4-5 short articles each on topics including INDCs, energy efficiency, carbon markets, climate finance, lessons from past negotiations, and climate technologies. In addition, the notes include references to the POLIMP online platform Climate Policy Info Hub, an overview of key recent publications, and announcements of events, as well as side-events at the COP21 conference. A final brief in this series was published in March 2016, looking back at the Paris conference. This fifth issue was prepared in collaboration with EU Horizon 2020 project CARISMA. The CARISMA project (2015-2018) will continue the publication of this series of notes under the name CARISMA Climate Change Mitigation Monitor, in order to ensure continuity of information provision. The frequency of publication will be approximately 3 times per year.
Policy brief series
Another series of publications under WP6 is the policy brief series. For each of the three policy briefs, a draft version has been published in advance of a related thematic workshop, and a final version after the workshop, incorporating comments and discussions from the event. The 1st policy brief was on the topic of social acceptance, related to the 1st POLIMP stakeholder workshop that was organised in Brussels in April 2014. The 2nd policy brief related to the 2nd stakeholder workshop, organised in London in October 2014, on financing renewable energy for Europe. The 3rd policy brief, on European stakeholders’ perspectives on the EU ETS, related to the 3rd workshop, in Brussels in February 2015. The key outcomes of the work on the three policy briefs were summarized in the synthesis report (see below).
Synthesis report
Upon the end of the project a POLIMP synthesis policy brief was published and launched at the POLIMP final conference. This paper consists of three thematic sections, which summarise and synthesise the key findings of the project, mainly those of the three thematic workshops and policy briefs with a new introduction based on the reflection of the Paris Agreement and the COP outcome.
For accelerating deployment of low-carbon technologies to help the EU achieve the 2030 GHG emission reduction targets, there are three major challenges. The first challenge is how to enhance incentives for private investments across support measures and instruments: for example, the EU ETS carbon price versus that of feed-in tariffs. The second challenge is how to manage and reduce economic risks, in particular those of financing both mature and less developed technologies, and to increase the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy financing and support measures. The third challenge is how to manage social risks of resistance to low-carbon technologies that would have a direct impact on the local environment, and associated policies at the national level. These challenges require an integrated approach to low carbon technology support, combining i) incentives for investments in technology research, development and deployment and ii) mechanisms for risk management and reduction. Such an approach also requires engaging all relevant stakeholders including amongst others citizens, local NGOs, institutional investors, and technology providers, and ensuring a transparent and open consultation process.
Work package 7: Dissemination activities
The main priority of the dissemination and communication strategy was to disseminate acquired knowledge on an on – going basis and communicate it to the targeted groups of potential beneficiaries, e.g. policymakers, stakeholders and scientific community, and the concerned citizens. In order to trigger the interest of an extensive range of target groups a tailor made dissemination approach was adopted.
POLIMP Dissemination and Communication strategy was based on the following elements:
♥ Creation of a pool of specific activities and means, targeting the mobilization and transfer of the knowledge collected, processed and accumulated.
♥ Effective, efficient and tailor-made selection of the appropriate means to address the appropriate communication of each POLIMP activity.
♥ Establishment of maximum impacts of policy implications and recommendations drawn from POLIMP at EU and member state levels.
♥ Provision of information in the scientific community in order to achieve further mobilization.
♥ Establishment of POLIMP as the main communication tool for the promotion and facilitation of knowledge exchange on key policy issues, such as EU climate policy.
A pro-active Dissemination Strategy was elaborated to be undertaken, so as the main outputs of all project results to be effectively disseminated to the following categories of related stakeholders:
♥ Policy makers at EU, national and regional level.
♥ Members of the European Parliament.
♥ Members of the Committee of the Regions.
♥ Public, national or international institutions.
♥ Industrial or trade organizations.
♥ NGO’s.
♥ Academia.
♥ Private sector.
♥ Audience of specialists and concerned citizens.
All the aforementioned actors were continuous recipients of a series of dissemination activities, which aimed to keep them informed for a number of issues concerning POLIMP progress, concept and activities, through awareness raising, knowledge sharing, interest creation, mobilization and various other activities. In brief the main dissemination activities included:
♥ A Dissemination and Communication Plan, which contains tailor-made communication activities, aiming at target groups, with specific objectives and direct messages.
♥ Continuous enhancement of the POLIMP web activities, including the POLIMP website, social media and My Europa and Capacity4Dev accounts, in order to establish POLIMP as a reference point regarding climate policy issues.
♥ Establishment of POLIMP, not only in the academia, but rather to all the aforementioned target groups through the participation in external conferences that led to the communication of POLIMP and the implementation of extended networking among experts and stakeholders and through the implementation of scientific publications.
♥ Implementation of project events, stakeholder consultation workshops and side events in order to increase the visibility of POLIMP, communicate its progress and outcomes and engage the stakeholder target groups in an ongoing direct involvement.
♥ Information promotion through the development of a wide range of dissemination material, including posters, leaflets, videos, social media tools, newsletters, press releases etc.
♥ Publications of the POLIMP results through a series of well-targeted publications targeting at policy makers and stakeholders, as well as scientific publications and policy papers.
♥ Integration of the POLIMP results into the academic curricula and in case of great interest, organization of summer school/seminars for postgraduate students.
The main achievements of the dissemination activities WP are highlighted below.
• 7 Articles & Scientific Publications promoting POLIMP activities and outcomes
• 6 Scientific Article Publications (1,490 views on the website)
• 3 POLIMP Policy Brief Series (2,000 views on the website)
• 2 POLIMP Working Document Series (900 views on the website)
• 11 POLIMP Briefing Notes (4,720 views on the website)
• 3 POLIMP Climate Change Monitor Series (1,280 views on the website)
• 4 POLIMP Expert Response Survey Series (1,230 views on the website)
• Almost 2,000 subscribers to POLIMP Newsletter
• More than 100 announcements in the Climate-L & Energy-L lists
• 13 POLIMP Templates
• POLIMP press material uploaded in 21 web-libraries
• More than 1,000 Brochures distributed to 14 internal and 32 external events
• 47 Press Releases (Invitations, Reminders, Thank you Letters, Announcements)
• 7 POLIMP and 18 partners’ newsletters
• More than 300 Participants in POLIMP Stakeholder Workshops and Side Events
• 276 Participants in POLIMP Final Webinar and Final Conference
• More than 2,050 views of POLIMP videos in YouTube
• More than 380 followers in Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, My-Europa platform)
• More than 2,072 views of POLIMP reports, publications and events announced in EC platform capacity4dev
• According to the Google Analytics, POLIMP has had 13,884 sessions throughout its operation, with 8,526 users and 37,762 pageviews
• 9 POLIMP Webinars with more than 170 participants
Potential Impact:
International climate policy making has been surrounded by many uncertainties. Firstly, upon the beginning of the POLIMP project, in 2013, there was still a considerable gap between the level of mitigation action pledges by countries, and the level that would be required for achieving the 2oC objective. At the same time, while UNFCCC negotiation rounds since Copenhagen (COP15 in 2009) had opened the door towards a new – bottom-up rather than top-down – climate regime, the exact shape and ambition levels remained unclear. For EU policy and decision makers this perspective created an uncertain situation.
Secondly, for citizens, although momentum of building climate change awareness had grown, interests to change to low-emission consumer behaviour have reduced at the same time. At the level of business, the reduction of carbon prices on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme market has reduced incentives to accelerate a shift towards low emission technologies and techniques. Moreover, for European businesses operating on international, global markets, it remains uncertain whether and how their international competitors will face commitments to work towards low GHG emitting technologies and techniques, and to what extent this may affect the levelling of playing fields.
Thirdly, at the level of Member State and EU-level policy makers, there is uncertainty about whether the EU climate policy ambitions will eventually be matched by other countries’ ambitions and whether policy instruments and knowledge could be transferred to other countries, such as the ETS methodologies and benchmarking experience. A process of decarbonising the EU economy will, according to the roadmap calculation, result in new economic opportunities for EU businesses, but it also requires that energy will increasingly be produced within the EU using renewable and biomass-based energy sources. This requires investments in secure energy systems and social acceptance of different ways to produce and consume energy.
The POLIMP project has focused on reducing these uncertainties, by ensuring that at different policy and decision making levels within the EU decisions are taken on the basis of the best available knowledge including an increased understanding of opportunities for business and society. This knowledge has been based on information from a range of current climate policy developments, that were particularly linked to the process towards the Paris climate conference (COP21 in 2015), including:
- What are likely GHG emission reduction commitments and/or actions that other major emitting countries would undertake?
- What are likely GHG emission reduction actions based on current NAMA plans?
- What are the socioeconomic impacts, cost and benefits for the EU?
- What is the potential for technology transfer to non-EU states based on TNA plans, NAMAs, as well as LEDS? The documents show what actions are needed and which technology is prioritized and this gives precise information for EU businesses where potential market opportunities are.
- What are the capacity, training and finance needs for mitigation and adaptation support as identified by, e.g. the Adaptation Framework, Technology Mechanism, and Finance Mechanism, which EU-based institutes could offer?
- How can techniques and tools developed under EU climate and energy programmes, such as the ETS and sector benchmarks, be ‘exported’ to other states for inclusion in, e.g. the New Market Mechanism?
In light of the above, POLIMP has created the Climate Policy Info Hub online thematic knowledge base. The website includes clear knowledge packages on 38 issues, centred around six key themes: EU climate policy, international climate policy and negotiations, emissions trading, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and climate change adaptation. Through these knowledge packages, for which the choice of topics has been based on a thorough climate knowledge needs analysis among stakeholders, the insights of policy and decision makers could be enhanced. By discussing the pros and cons of different options for future climate policy directions, uncertainty of policy makers, and decision-makers at e.g. sector and company levels, could be reduced. By focussing specifically also on newer EU Member States where the climate policy know-how is not yet widespread, such as Hungary or Croatia, climate policy knowledge in these countries could be enhanced.
POLIMP has collected and processed the information on future climate policy trends and impacts in an integrated manner for exchange with decision makers at different levels. Instead of exchanging information about energy security, climate change mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer, natural resource use, etc., through separate channels, POLIMP has integrated these information flows into balanced information packages to support decision makers.
Finally, next to the impacts on business and national/sub-national decision making, POLIMP has provided tangible support towards the enhanced and innovative implementation of policies and processes at the EU-level covering resource efficiency, in particular:
• the EU Strategy for an Energy Union,
• the EC Roadmap for low-carbon economy, as well as
• the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development.
In addition to the distribution of climate (policy) knowledge through the Climate Policy Info Hub, POLIMP has used a wide range of dissemination and discussion tools (see also below). A key aspect in this has been a series of four POLIMP thematic workshops, accompanied by a series of four POLIMP Policy Briefs.
As explained above, POLIMP impacted knowledge and decision-makers of stakeholders at different decision making levels across the EU:
EU-level policy making
The outcome of international climate negotiations may affect the longer term vision towards decarbonizing the EU economy by 2050. And in particular: what do the outcomes of the Paris agreement mean for sub-national policymaking?
In the framework of the pressing need for coherent and sufficient European climate policy, POLIMP has contributed to developing issues in terms of policy research and provide input to the assessment of potential policy alternatives and options. The general framework developed and applied in the context of POLIMP has reinforced an EU-wide dialogue and is expected to act as a reinforced tool to speed up the transition towards more climate-friendly and climate-resilient business options.
National policy making
How would future climate policy actions under the UN (or even in a multilateral setting should the current centralised UNFCCC approached be replaced with a more decentralised approach based on bilateral and multilateral actions) require modification of current policies within the EU?
As an impact of POLIMP, the societal discussion for the best set of economically feasible, socially acceptable and environmentally friendly regulation options under a longer term EU climate policy package will be based on more reliable information. Especially the aspect of public acceptance has been discussed in detail with stakeholders, and key lessons learned on this topic have been distributed through the first POLIMP Policy Brief.
Business community
Including progressive business that have invested in low emission production technologies, innovation, or techniques and have developed an advantage under an ambitious international climate policy regime, businesses covered by the EU ETS which have to internalize external costs of GHG emissions in their pricing, and internationally operational businesses that would face an unequal playing field if the EU climate ambitions are not matched by other major economies. What are the socioeconomic impacts of different climate policy choices, but also opportunities in terms of technology transfer?
With the information packages, businesses can decide on their future course of action using best available insights and are better able to avoid negative perceptions, assess uncertainties and mitigate risks related to a low emission business operation. Moreover, feedback from the groups will be useful for policy makers to learn what they could do to create an enabling environment.
Society as a whole
In terms of increasing knowledge of the relationship between low emission and climate resilient policies and improvement in local environment quality, job creation due to climate-related innovation, reduced energy costs, etc., and how climate policy may strengthen or weaken this relationship.
The European society could be impacted by an ambitious climate policy in a number of ways. The impact could be positive as low emission and climate resilient policies and measures have a number of co-benefits, such as job creation in innovative sectors, lower environmental pollution due to low emission technologies in transport, industry and energy sectors, and reduced energy bills due to increased energy efficiency. A negative impact could be that jobs may be lost due to ‘carbon leakage’ if business is replaced to countries where climate policy is less ambitious or if relatively carbon intensive business loses market share. Moreover, low emission technologies may be relatively expensive with a relatively long pay-back period, which makes a decision for households on which technology to take difficult. What exactly the balance of these impacts depends on whether an ambitious climate policy will be an EU-only or a global activity. As a result of POLIMP, society will eventually be better able to judge the benefits and costs or risks of future climate policy making for taking their own decisions.
Development of EU and international shared visions on climate policy making
POLIMP has support the exploration of the future developments of international climate policy making, thereby considering recent developments since the Copenhagen Climate Conference of 2009 which show a trend that climate change mitigation and adaptation actions are increasingly embedded in countries’ longer term environmental, economic and social priorities. POLIMP has supported EU stakeholder in understanding these dynamics and their impacts on the EU societies.
A key output in this framework has also been a report on policy transfer, showing how the EU’s policy and decision makers can learn from climate policy-making in non-EU frameworks, including non-EU countries such as the US and China, but also international frameworks such as the UNFCCC negotiations, NAMAs, national adaptation plans, and the Technology Needs Assessment project. Conversely, the EU’s experiences with climate policy-making, both at EU level and in the Member States, provide valuable lessons for non-EU countries. POLIMP has therefore analysed the EU policies and identified the key policies and practices that can be ‘exported’, including lessons from the EU ETS, and renewable energy support schemes.
Performance indicators
In the Description of the Work, POLIMP has presented a set of performance indicators, linking objectives, outputs, impacts, and monitoring means for the project. The key impacts of the POLIMP project can be synthesized by discussing these key performance indicators.
Identify knowledge gaps on the implications for EU stakeholders of possible directions of international climate policy making: It was considered that in fact the problem is often not a ‘gap’ in the available knowledge, but difficulty for stakeholders to find or access the right knowledge. Therefore, rather than a knowledge gaps identification, a ‘knowledge needs analysis’ has been undertaken. Key knowledge needs have been identified based on a stakeholder consultation in the form of both interviews and a questionnaire. Throughout the project duration, stakeholders have been consulted to assess whether the knowledge needs as had been identified remained relevant, ensuring relevant impact on policy and decision making. With a key focus on renewable energy, emissions trading, general EU policy, and financing, POLIMP could impact the key areas of interest for European stakeholders. However, also knowledge needs that were less frequently mentioned, such as on agriculture/forestry, energy efficiency, industry, adaptation, and transport, have been discussed by POLIMP in order to ensure a wide coverage.
Collect and synthesise knowledge of possible climate policy directions and their implications: Based on the knowledge needs analysis, as explained above, the key themes to address have been identified. For all of these themes, a set of knowledge packages has been created to synthesise the available knowledge in a clear and easy-to-read manner, both for policy makers and for other stakeholders and decision makers (see also the next performance indicator). Key outputs informing stakeholders have also been an identification of the key trends and drivers of international climate policy-making and the climate change negotiations; an analysis of climate policy scenarios, both for the EU and internationally; and criteria to evaluate these scenarios, including for example ‘political acceptability’, ‘systemic coherence’, ‘level of ambition’, ‘participation’, and ‘equity’. The impact of these outputs (reports and events) has been monitored by questioning stakeholders that attended POLIMP meetings and events, on the usefulness of these outputs for them.
Well-informed decisions, reducing uncertainties: In the end, the key goal, and also the key impact, of POLIMP has been the influencing of climate policy-making. POLIMP has supported policy and decision makers in taking well-informed decisions, thereby reducing uncertainties and mitigating the risks that decisions are taken against poorly-understood climate policy contexts. The key output to achieve this has been the publication of the clear and concise knowledge packages on the Climate Policy Info Hub, but also the interactive sessions in POLIMP workshops, webinars, the UNFCCC COP side-events, and the publication of policy briefs. Policy and decision makers have steered this process (amongst others through their participation in the knowledge needs assessment), but have also indicated that such knowledge provision has been useful for them in their daily work. For this, the POLIMP team has assessed the usefulness during POLIMP workshops and events, and analysed the use of its online output (knowledge packages, publications, and webinars).
Track down links between UNFCCC negotiations and EU/domestic policy actions: The POLIMP project team has closely followed the UNFCCC negotiations throughout the project duration, and attended the annual COP events in Warsaw (COP19), Lima (COP20), and Paris (COP21). Through the POLIMP workshops, UNFCCC COP side-events, webinars, policy briefs, and briefing notes, the negotiations progress and outcomes, and their implications, have been communicated to and discussed with a wide group of stakeholders. In the run-up to and after the Paris conference, especially, a series of special ‘Guide towards COP21 in Paris’ briefing notes have been published, to keep policy and decision makers at several levels up-to-date with the latest developments, and their implications.
Facilitate communication among research components, and knowledge dissemination: the POLIMP project has used a very wide range of communication and dissemination tools, in order to increase communication both among the research community, and between researchers and other stakeholders specifically policy and decision makers (see below for an overview of all dissemination activities). Links have been established with other EU-funded relevant research projects, in order to coordinate climate (policy) research. A key output of this has been the collaboration with the EU Horizon 2020 project ‘CARISMA’, publishing a joint briefing note on the results of the Paris climate summit. By entering into this collaboration, POLIMP has also ensured that this series of publications (known as the ‘Guide towards COP21 in Paris’) continues into the future (as the ‘CARIMSA Climate Change Mitigation Monitor’).
The Dissemination and Communication Activities were constant throughout POLIMP implementation. The dissemination tools exploited for the communication and promotion of POLIMP are described below.
POLIMP website - www.polimp.eu - is a constant node aiming not only to present and disseminate the POLIMP results but also to be a referenced site containing important disseminating material, as well as useful links related to the field of POLIMP. In particular the POLIMP website contains the following: General information about POLIMP (objectives, work structure, expected results, participants, etc.), Information and material on POLIMP events (stakeholder worshops, webinars, side events, final conference), as well as related news, POIMP synergies with releval projecta, POLIMP dissemination and communication material (leaflet, newsletters, presentation etc.). All POLIMP publications targeting at policymakers and stakeholders were also hosted by POLIMP website, available for download, in order to mobilise acquired, processed and accumulated knowledge for policy debate. Important resources, such as POLIMP Web tools with related studies and publications, social media, links to POLIMP Platform “Climate Policy Info Hub” and POLIMP Database in order to keep all interested parties informed on the latest developments and achievements.
POLIMP Official Logo, Platform & Database Logos
The official POLIMP Logo was developed and finally selected, among various others, while its use is guaranteed through the implementation of a Graphic Guidelines Handbook. Apart from the POLIMP logo, three more logos were designed - two for the Climate Policy Info Hub and one for the Climate Policy Database - in order to be used in the platform and database own websites, as well as to be promoted further from the official POLIMP website.
POLIMP Flyer/Leaflet
The POLIMP Flyer has been designed in order to further assist in the POLIMP dissemination. It offers a brief, yet thorough description of the POLIMP goals and challenges, as well as the expected results and contact details, while it has been disseminated in more than 40 events (More than 1,00 brochures were distributed), as well as through the POLIMP website and social media.
POLIMP Standard Presentation
POLIMP standard presentation has been created in the beginning of the project, in order to serve the detailed POLIMP communication in a customary way. This presentation, apart from POLIMP dissemination to the public, as it is published in the POLIMP website, also assists the POLIMP partners to further present the project in their various interventions in external events. For the further convenience of the partners, a second, alternative version of the POLIMP standard presentation has been created, with major adjustments particularly in its format.
POLIMP Poster
Various versions of POLIMP posters have been developed in order to disseminate the implementation of POLIMP events. In particular, a POLIMP poster was implemented in order to disseminate the POLIMP/IGES Joint Side Event at the COP 19, in Warsaw, Poland. A second version of the POLIMP poster has been implemented for the communication of the 1st POLIMP Stakeholders Workshop in Brussels, on 25 April 2014 while a third one has been elaborated to disseminate the 2nd POLIMP Stakeholders Workshop in London, on 15 October 2014. Three (3) more posters have been designed for the POLIMP COP20 Side Event, the 3rd POLIMP Stakeholders Workshop in Brussels, on 11 February 2015 and the 4th and final POLIMP Stakeholders’ Workshop in Berlin, on 15 September 2015.
POLIMP Social and Collaborative Networks
The POLIMP Social Media accounts in Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn were created, maintained and constantly enhanced with new material increasing POLIMP visibility, while improving and strengthening the consortium links with stakeholders. POLIMP Facebook account counts 94 likes, the Tweeter account has 164 followers, the LinkedIn account has 114 members.
Additionally, POLIMP Channel on YouTube has first been created to disseminate the 1st POLIMP Video produced in order to promote the project, its challenges, objectives and expected results. The YouTube account has been enhanced with one more video dedicate to Climate Policy Info Hub, a Webinars playlist with the recordings of 8 POLIMP webinars, and three playlists including the presentations of each session of the Final Conference. POLIMP videos (1st POLIMP video, video on Climate Policy Info Hub, Webinars videos, Final Conference videos) in YouTube have more than 2,050 views.
Moreover, POLIMP is fully exploiting other communication platforms, as an account has been created into My Europa platform and into My Meedia. Furthermore, POLIMP has joined the Capacity4Dev.eu network, which is an EC online knowledge sharing and collaboration platform that offers the necessary tools to help development practitioners to exchange information, share ideas and experience online. POLIMP is a member of “Environment in the EU’s Eastern Neighbours” group, which offers useful information regarding policy and relevant projects, events and the opportunity to network with practitioners in its field and counts 83 members. POLIMP reports, publications and events have been announced in capacity4dev reaching more than 2,072 views.
POLIMP Videos
The 1st POLIMP Video has been created in order to promote the challenges and objectives POLIMP, its implementation framework, as well as the expected results. The 1st POLIMP video is available not only through the POLIMP website, but also through POLIMP Channel on YouTube. A 2nd POLIMP video was developed, dedicated to the newly launched Climate Policy Info Hub. It has been uploaded to the POLIMP website and it is also available on the POLIMP YouTube channel. This video aims at introducing the Platform to the wide audience and give brief information on its functionalities and way of use. The two POLIMP videos have more than 225 views.
Publications targeting at Policy Makers & Stakeholders
POLIMP Commentaries
Commentaries were initially provisioned to be 1-3 pages-long documents, while 5-6 documents would be published in total. However, during the last year of POLIMP, it was decided among Consortium partners to incorporate this publication in the Briefing Note Issues, as an extra 2-page presentation of comments by various partners. Thus, the increasing popularity of the Briefing Note Series were highly exploited, while the Commentaries gained more visibility and also added more and interesting points of view to the subject handled by the Briefing Note.
POLIMP Policy Brief Series
Main objective of the POLIMP Policy Brief Series was to facilitate policy discussions among wider groups of stakeholders, based on the outcomes of the Stakeholder Workshops preparation and implementation. In total, three thematic Policy Briefs, discussing “Public Acceptance of Clean Technology”, “Financing of Renewable Energy”, “European Stakeholders’ Perspectives on the EU ETS”, respectively and a final Policy Brief with synthesis of recommendations upon emissions trading and financing renewable energy were produced, throughout the POLIMP implementation. Dissemination of POLIMP Policy Briefs included press releases, announcements in newsletters, in the POLIMP website and social media, as well as in Energy-L and Climate-L. A template for the POLIMP Policy Brief Series was designed making the development of Policy Brief more flexible and easy to update.
POLIMP Working Document Series
Complementing the Policy Briefs, POLIMP Working Documents focus on the more technical results of POLIMP, providing a sound basis on which policy options could be formulated. Two working documents have been published: The 1st POLIMP Working Document on Criteria for Evaluating Global Climate Regime Scenarios and the 2nd POLIMP Working Document on how Stakeholders view the EU ETS. The Working Document Series were further disseminated through press release, as well as announcement in social media, website and Climate-L and Energy-L, a templates was prepared in order for all Working Documents to have unified appearance.
POLIMP Climate Change Monitor Series
Main objective of the POLIMP Climate Change Monitor Series is to inform readers about sources of information on the developments in the UNFCCC negotiations as well as the EU climate change policy, which will be of interest to policy makers, stakeholders and interested citizens. For the implementation of the Climate Change Monitor Series, specific guidelines were disseminated to partners in order to ensure the appropriate format, timing and overall quality. The 1st issue of the POLIMP Climate Change Monitor presented the latest developments in POLIMP and external sources of information, in a unique package to interested observers. The 2nd issue welcomes Stakeholders to Dialogue and the Brussels Workshop, and presents the latest development in POLIMP and external sources of information and the 3rd POLIMP Monitor issue introduced the newly launched Climate Policy Info Hub, provided the key sources of information for the previous year, while presenting list of featured projects to interested observers. Dissemination of all issues of the POLIMP Climate Change Monitor was implemented not only through the POLIMP website and social media, but also through the communication of newsletters and press releases to a wide variety of stakeholders and interested parties. A dedicated template was also prepared in order to enable authors’ access to readymade documents which could be easily manipulated to suit POLIMP needs.
POLIMP Expert Response Survey Series
POLIMP Response Survey Series engaged a targeted group of stakeholders and experts on matters relating to EU and international climate and energy policy. They consist of “snap” surveys distributed over the span of a year to an Expert Response Group (43 stakeholders) pre-selected by the POLIMP project consortium. Each survey and report is organized into three parts; EU Climate ‘Barometer’ – Main Topic – “Buzz of the Week”. The POLIMP Survey Series are interconnected with the POLIMP Webinars. Within the 36 months of POLIMP project six (6) POLIMP Expert Response Surveys were issued, following the conduction of the respective POLIMP Webinars. The Survey Series have been uploaded to the POLIMP website and have been widely disseminated through social media, press releases and announcements through Climate –L and Energy – L lists.
POLIMP Briefing Notes
POLIMP Briefing Notes summarise the knowledge packages for priority issues. POLIMP Briefing Notes contain general conclusions from the knowledge collection and procession work, regarding policy implications: socioeconomic aspects, technology transfer, land use, market mechanisms and other policy options. Guidelines and template for their implementation were developed, while they were through POLIMP Website, Social Media, Newsletters, press releases and announcements through Climate - L and Energy - L lists. Within the POLIMP duration six (6) POLIMP Briefing Notes on “Public acceptance of renewable energy”, “Innovative financing of renewable energy”, “INDCs beyond mitigation: TNAs as testing ground”, “Harmonisation of EU renewable energy policies: The case of biomethane”, “Sustainability criteria for biomass: The importance of transparency, sustainability co-benefits, and trade-offs”, “Cost-effectiveness of renewable energy support schemes: The case of bioenergy" and five (5) COP21 Briefing Notes were issued The COP21 Briefing Notes were dedicated to the COP21 that has been held in Paris in November-December 2015. The COP21 Briefing Note Series served as a POLIMP Guide towards COP21 and presented relevant topics of interest in order to provide stakeholders with up-to-date information on critical climate policy issues. It is also important to be mentioned that POLIMP Commentaries (originally planned to be produced in 5-6 issues of 1-2 pages) were combined with the COP21 Briefing Note Series, as noted above.
POLIMP Newsletters
The dissemination and communication of the POLIMP progress and results entail the implementation of various newsletters and their circulation in the more than 2,000 POLIMP stakeholders and interested parties. 7 POLIMP Newsletter have been developed presenting the POLIMP partners, objectives, expected results, and core outcomes, disseminating POLIMP events through invitations, photos and respective links to POLIMP Website, and providing insights on the implementation of the POLIMP Webinar Series and on the POLIMP Reports and Publications. Nevertheless, apart from the POLIMP Newsletters, partners have dedicated articles in their own newsletters and magazines, presenting the POLIMP progress and activities. In particular during the project duration, POLIMP has been communicated through the implementation of articles and promotion of POLIMP events and publications in eighteen (18) newsletters in the JIQ (7), CEPS (6), Climate Strategies (5) Newsletters.
POLIMP Press Releases
Apart from the elaborated Newsletters, POLIMP further announces “on the spot” news through the implementation of press releases and their dissemination in targeted media and stakeholders and interested parties. Forty-seven (47) Press Releases press releases have been designed and disseminated through the POLIMP website and the mailing lists, as well as Energy-L and Climate-L were sent to more than 2,000 recipients. This means that more than one or two press releases (including webinars’ and events’ invitations, reminders, reports’ publications, etc.) were sent in a month during the last 1,5 year of the project further promoting POLIMP events, webinars, publications, deliverables, platform, etc.
Organization of Events targeting at Policy Makers & Stakeholders
POLIMP Events held in EU Member States
POLIMP Dialogue Event back to back with 1st DIA-CORE Regional Workshop on “Best practice policies to finance renewable energy”. By the means of a lively dialogue, POLIMP partners from UPRC communicated POLIMP knowledge to the participants of the DIA-CORE Regional Workshop on “Best practice policies to finance renewable energy” which was hosted by the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) on 6 November 2015. The objective was to contribute to informed debates among national policy-makers and stakeholders by presenting, disseminating and communicating knowledge of POLIMP. More than 80 stakeholders (mainly Greek) relevant to the field of energy and climate actively participated in a fruitful dialogue within the workshop duration. During the workshop POLIMP knowledge was presented and communicated among several regional stakeholders, while informative material was distributed.
POLIMP Final Webinar
The final POLIMP Webinar entitled “Financing Renewable Energy in Europe towards 2030” took place on 20 April 2016. The Final POLIMP Webinar, which replaced the European Parliament event in consultation and agreement with the EC Project Officer, attracted a high number of participants, 96 in total, and increased the outreach of the POLIMP results to many participants outside of Brussels. This POLIMP Webinar looked into the consequences of the new global climate deal for financing renewable energy in Europe.
POLIMP Final Conference
“The Future of EU Climate Policy after Paris”, 21 April 2016, Brussels, Belgium. The aim of the conference, organised by CEPS, was to showcase some of the results of POLIMP and to discuss them with climate policy and other experts. In particular, the conference contributed to improved climate policy making in Europe by observing two issues. Firstly, opportunities for mutual learning from the design and implementation of climate policies globally were assessed, and secondly, how EU climate policy will need to evolve after the Paris climate summit (COP21) was reflected upon. More than 180 stakeholders participated in the conference further highlighting the importance of POLIMP
outcomes. The recordings of the presentations of the three sessions have been uploaded in a dedicated playlist in POLIMP YouTube channel.
Scientific Publications and Outreach
Participations in external conferences
The effective communication and dissemination of the POLIMP activities was an essential parameter for the achievement of its goals and challenges. As so, partners were encouraged to participate into international events and conferences, in order to engage into networking and create bonds, to present POLIMP and disseminate informational material and, in general, to make POLIMP an orotund node in the climate energy and policy agenda. During the POLIMP duration, POLIMP partners (UPRC, JIN, CEPS, UniGraz) participated in 32 external conferences, made interventions about POLIMP, disseminated informational material and communicated POLIMP and achievements through presentations and networking among the participating experts.
Scientific Publications & Policy Papers
Within the framework of POLIMP dissemination and communication activities, a series of publications, targeting at policy makers and the scientific community in general has been implemented. The publications include seven (7) POLIMP articles and publications relevant to the project, submitted and accepted in international conferences and journals:
• Karakosta C., Flamos A. (2016). “Managing climate policy information facilitating knowledge transfer to policy makers”, Energies, in press.
• POLIMP Consortium (2013). “Development of a knowledge platform on post Kyoto climate policy implications”, Book of Abstracts of the 2nd International Symposium and 24th National Conference on Operational Research, 26–28 September 2013, Athens Greece.
• Karakosta C., Ioannou A., Flamos A. (2014). “Mobilizing and transferring knowledge on post-2012 climate policy”, Book of Proceedings of the 7th International Scientific Conference on Energy and Climate Change, Towards Green Economy, 8-10 October 2014, Athens, Greece (ISBN: 978-960-466-142-8).
• Karakosta C., Dede P., Flamos A. (2015). “Identification of knowledge needs on climate policy implications through a participatory process”, Book of Proceedings of the 8th International Scientific Conference on Energy and Climate Change, Contributing to Deep Decarbonization, 7-9 October 2015, Athens, Greece. Dede P., Karakosta C., Flamos A. (2015). “A methodology for the identification of knowledge needs and priorities towards climate policy making”, Book of Abstracts of the 4th Student’s Conference of the Hellenic Operational Research Society 2015, 17-18 December 2015, Athens Greece, Available in Greek.
• POLIMP Article in European Office of Cyprus Newsletter, April 2014, ““Mobilizing and transferring knowledge on post-2012 climate policy implications”
• POLIMP Article in European Office of Cyprus Newsletter, February 2016 “Climate policy knowledge for well-informed decision-making”.
Project outcomes in postgraduate courses
Selected POLIMP outcomes have been used for the update of the course titled: “Energy and Environmental Policy” of the postgraduate programme “Systems of Energy and Environmental Management” of the University of Piraeus.
List of Websites:
The project website is http://www.polimp.eu
The POLIMP platform is http://www.climatepolicyinfohub.eu
The contact person for the project is Dr. Vlasios Oikonomou (vlasis@jin.ngo)
It is acknowledged that much information is already available for climate policy stakeholders, but the way the information is presented is often difficult to access, not in the right format or otherwise of limited use for stakeholders. The POLIMP project has focussed on identifying the key knowledge needs of climate policy and decision makers, and covering these needs by providing knowledge packages derived from a broad range of existing reports, research and climate policy decisions at, e.g. EU and UNFCCC levels.
Through the project, stakeholders were provided with better insights on implications of possible international climate policy directions; so that they can take more informed decisions with reduced uncertainties and mitigated risks. Through that, POLIMP has enhance the implementation of the EU climate targets, strengthened the EU climate policy information, and increased stakeholders’ understanding of the consequences of current and future international climate regimes.
POLIMP has created an online database of climate policy knowledge, the Climate Policy Info Hub, with information on the key climate policy issues as selected through the identification of key knowledge needs of climate policy makers and other climate stakeholders, at EU and Member States level. With a key focus on renewable energy, emissions trading, general EU policy, and financing, POLIMP could impact the key areas of interest for European stakeholders. However, also knowledge needs that were less frequently mentioned, such as on agriculture/forestry, energy efficiency, industry, adaptation, and transport, have been discussed by POLIMP in order to ensure a wide coverage.
The knowledge collection and processing network thus under POLIMP has enhanced the insights of policy and decision makers on possible courses of international climate policy making, which has reduced the uncertainty of policy makers and sector and company level decision makers and helped these stakeholders to better understand the consequences of different policies and climate regimes on economic sectors and the European society as a whole. These insights have increased stakeholders' understanding of the consequences and opportunities of international climate regime and EU climate policies for European citizens, and supported the enhancement of awareness and public acceptance.
The POLIMP project has used a very wide range of communication and dissemination tools, in order to increase communication both among the research community, and between researchers and other stakeholders specifically policy and decision makers. In addition to the publicly accessible Climate Policy Info Hub online platform, POLIMP has published a range of publication types, in order to reach as many relevant stakeholders as possible. For example, while the POLIMP Policy Brief series was specifically focussed on EU and Member State policy makers, other publication types, such as the Briefing Note series and the Guides towards COP21 in Paris, have been aimed at a much wider stakeholder group, including for example business and NGOs. Similarly, the organization of events in Brussels, Berlin, London, Warsaw, Lima, and Paris ensured a broad involvement of stakeholders in knowledge dissemination, but also discussion and knowledge co-creation.
Project Context and Objectives:
In the global complicated modern climate policy context, informing stakeholders about opportunities and pathways on climate policy, and about scientific insights and warnings is important to help creating positive dynamics. Policy makers need digestible information to design good policies, and understand their options and the possible impacts of these options. Policy makers need access to improved knowledge transfer and uptake, as well as appropriate techniques to manage information and data. Also players in the economic sphere will need to understand global changes and the impact on their business. This might comprise big opportunities to be embraced.
The overarching motivation of POLIMP was to facilitate exchange and transfer of information about climate policy and its implications among the policymakers, market actors and general society within the EU. This was performed by identifying where knowledge gaps exist and how these gaps can be filled. The aim was to provide stakeholders with better insights on implications of possible international climate policy directions, so that they can take more informed decisions with reduced uncertainties and mitigated risks. Through that, POLIMP contributed to the implementation of the EU climate targets, strengthening the EU climate policy information and its effects and increasing stakeholders’ understanding of the consequences of current and future international climate regimes.
To achieve that, POLIMP: a) built upon knowledge of the existing and future climate policy developments, which will be efficiently assimilated, b) provided the existing stock of evaluation outcomes of various climate policy scenarios widely in a comparative manner, and c) actively triggered the exchange of targeted information to targeted actors in order to promote effective and efficient climate policy implementation. In terms of significance, the information exchange and outreach of the third component is predominant within POLIMP, but the logical flow of the other two components is required to reach the expected impacts. POLIMP therefore in essence coordinated and facilitated the information exchange and outcomes of existing research on climate policy and climate agreements in order to broaden the knowledge in the field and enable associated stakeholders to extract key policy conclusions. The consortium for this proposal represents a wide range of expertise and knowledge for addressing the above aspects with the required details and feeling for decision contexts. Moreover, POLIMP provided a platform for information exchange of a wider list of contemporary and future climate policy initiatives.
The scientific and technical project objectives originating from the above components of POLIMP are presented below:
• Identify knowledge gaps on the implications for EU stakeholders of possible directions of climate policy making during the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and, after that, as a result of negotiations under the “Durban Platform”.
• Collect and synthesize knowledge of possible climate policy directions and their implications in terms of: governance (centralized multilateral or scope for decentralized, bilateral climate actions), applicability of all current policy mechanisms in climate agreements, such as market based mechanisms (ETS, CDM, JI, DOs etc), embedding of climate change priorities in countries’ national economic, environmental and social priorities in NAMAs, Low Emission Development Strategies, National Adaptation Plans, and potential for and support of international low emission and climate resilient technology transfer within different sectors (energy, transport, industry, land use and forestry).
• With these information packages, support policy and decision makers in taking well informed decisions, thereby reducing uncertainties and mitigating the risk that decisions are taken against poorly-understood climate policy contexts, and build awareness among the society as a whole of costs and opportunities of future climate policies.
• Track down links between the outcome of the UNFCCC negotiations and EU-level and domestic policy actions in selected country-parties and explore how different UNFCCC climate policy directions would impact these policy actions; and to
• Facilitate communication among various research components and knowledge dissemination among various stakeholder groups.
In order to achieve the above objectives, POLIMP considered past developments in climate negotiations, especially the committed and/or pledged mitigation and adaptation actions, the position of different (groups of) developed and developing country Parties on the future direction of an international climate policy regime, policies and instruments used under the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol so far and agreed new mechanisms. Recent climate negotiations have shown a few trends that POLIMP will consider for providing advise on how future climate policy making would impact achieving global mitigation and adaptation goals and decision and policy making processes in the EU.
For the EU the changed climate negotiations perspective creates several new opportunities and challenges. First, it addresses the EU’s concern that it might be the only player to undertake ambitious climate policy actions; although LEDS and NAMAs do not result in quantified national targets, the ambition level could nevertheless be high as successful climate measures defined by LEDS and NAMAs are also in the domestic interest of the developing countries concerned. Second, the actions that could result from LEDS and NAMAs enable the EU to support emissions trading mechanisms as emission reductions are no longer calculated below ‘business-as-usual’ baselines but below ‘do-something’ baselines. Third, the Durban Climate Conference decision to establish a New Market Mechanism enables to the EU to ‘export’ its expertise with carbon credit projects/programmes and emissions trading schemes. Finally, the COP21 outcomes are yet to be implemented in practice.
POLIMP acknowledged that the above climate policy experience and trends and uncertainties about what a future climate policy regime will look could affect policy and decision making internationally and within the EU. Stakeholders need to take purchase and investment decisions under uncertainties about what are greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments or how strongly external costs of emissions will be reflected in commodity and energy prices. POLIMP aimed at providing information packages to a range of stakeholder groups thereby offering clear understanding of possible climate policy directions and their implications. This can reduce uncertainties and helps to mitigate climate-related risks when making investment.
As explained above, POLIMP coordinated and facilitated a process to identify, for different policy and decision making levels, knowledge gaps about implications of possible directions of international climate policies and subsequently cover these by knowledge packages derived from a broad range of existing reports, research and climate policy decisions at, e.g. EU and UNFCCC levels. With these information packages, climate policy associated stakeholders will be better able to extract key policy conclusions. Through series of workshops these packages will be communicated with stakeholders. In addition, POLIMP provided an overall, on-line platform for information exchange of a wider list of contemporary and future climate policy initiatives. The work was organized in seven workpackages (WPs) whereby the first and seventh workpackage cover the management of the project (WP1) and dissemination of the project results (WP7). In WP 2 the process of engaging stakeholders in the project and communicating project results with them is organized. This WP identified the relevant stakeholder groups in developing and developed countries for climate policy making. It is acknowledged that the range of stakeholder groups for which international climate policy-making has implications is broad and at different policy and decision making levels. A first result of WP 2 was the overview of stakeholders’ interests and pressure points which will guide the work in the subsequent WP. A further task in WP 2 was to develop a stakeholder engagement plan where stakeholder inputs are gathered through thematic workshops focusing on climate policy issues. This continued to a plan to continue stakeholder engagements and dialogues beyond the project so that the process of information exchange will continue.In WP 3 knowledge gaps are identified for a range of priority issues related to climate policy making. These issues will be determined in consultation with stakeholders, but as a starting point for discussion the following three (categories of) issues are suggested by the POLIMP partners:
• What would different possible international climate policy scenarios entail for EU society, business, Member States and EU as a whole, in terms of economic, social, and environmental impacts looking especially at likely reactions and resulting political acceptability for different groups such as those impacted by job losses and reductions in welfare as well as potential gains?
• How can EU stakeholders deliberate in an evidence based manner about the pros and cons of these different scenarios?
• How can EU and EU stakeholders learn from design and implementation of climate policies worldwide as well as share the experience the EU has gained in designing and implementing climate friendly actions?
In order to address these issues, WP 3 collected data and knowledge such as:
• Status quo of climate policy negotiations and the EU climate policy discussion (including the climate and energy package 2020 and longer term decarbonisation and energy roadmaps).
• Identification of key trends and drivers, such as key economic, energy and demographic trends in EU and Rest of World, and trends in global land use.
• Collection of possible international climate policy developments/scenarios based on progress in negotiation processes (UNFCCC and other forums), observers’ opinions, papers, interviews, etc., focusing especially on what the literature says about the social, economic and environmental impacts of climate policies and the resulting impact on their political acceptability by different stakeholders.
• Collecting information about how policies and measures proposed in international climate policy making might work in terms of direction, strength and expected effects in different EU stakeholder contexts.
WP 4 subsequently processed the knowledge collected into information packages. Key issues addressed included:
• the effectiveness of the new international regime in addressing the climate change mitigation and adaptation needs and resulting objectives.
• projected socio-economic impacts of possible international climate policy directions for different stakeholder groups within the EU.
• opportunities for the EU and EU stakeholders to learn from design and implementation of climate policies worldwide as well as share the experience the EU has gained in designing and implementing climate friendly actions, including the EU emissions trading scheme, sectoral benchmarking and technology development and transfer.
The information packages were communicated with stakeholders through four stakeholder workshops organized in WP 2. In addition, the information was made available through an online Knowledge Platform, titled Climate Info Policy Hub (http://www.climateinfopolicyhub.eu). The main objective of the platform is to address knowledge gaps by presenting complex facts and data in easily understood language and in intuitively understandable, structure and searchable format.
WP 6 drew lessons learned from the comparison of possible directions of future climate policy making and implications of these for international climate targets and EU climate, economic, environmental and social goals. It incorporated lessons learned from the stakeholders’ assessments in WP 2, knowledge gap identification and data collection in WP 3 and knowledge processing work in WP 4. With these insights recommendations were formulated for stakeholders at different policy and decision making levels within the EU, which can support the formulation of future EU climate, economic, environmental and social policy making and enable stakeholders to effectively and efficiently deal with these policies.
Finally, it is important to underline the strong link, next to the links with the knowledge collection and processing WP3 and 4, between WP2 (preparatory national dialogues), WP5 (access through internet), WP6 (policy implications and recommendations) and WP7 (dissemination).
Project Results:
The main Scientific and Technical results from POLIMP refer to the knowledge extraction, processing and dissemination on the various climate policy issues and each WP has produced their own concrete outcomes relevant for both science and policy making. Below we present these main results categorized per WP.
Work package 2: Stakeholders consultation
The two objectives of work package 2 were to mobilise the collected and processed information to stakeholders and define suitable formats to the effect; and ii) to encourage stakeholders to provide input for policy implications and recommendations for the EU. To meet these objectives, WP2 was structured into four tasks, focusing respectively on: the identification and analysis of relevant stakeholder groups; the elaboration and update on stakeholder engagement plan; the implementation of consultation workshops and events; and sustaining stakeholders’ engagement in the long run and follow up.
Identification and analysis of relevant stakeholder groups
From the beginning of the project, key EU stakeholder groups were identified and mapped according to regions or countries of their origin and to sectors. The list of stakeholders’ contacts was compiled and has been incorporated in a database, to be used for dissemination tasks.
The aim of the task was to identify the different stakeholder groups in order to be able to draw conclusions on what is the rationale and background to the position that each of the groups represents and follows in the negotiations. The key finding from the task as described in the report is that in the course of last twenty years of international climate policy, a complex system of stakeholder interaction on multiple levels has emerged and often policy instruments for climate change mitigation are triggered by a cascade of decision-making. Through this task, POLIMP aimed to aid the consultations throughout the work package, which will was also used throughout the project in various work packages. In addition to these findings, the list of stakeholders’ contacts was compiled and has been incorporated in a database.
Stakeholder engagement plan
The stakeholder engagement plan, as initially sketched out in Annex I, was further elaborated. Based on this, the process for preparatory dialogue was initiated, based on indicative guidelines and time-frames as described in the stakeholder engagement plan. The aim of the dialogue was to identify regional or national stakeholders’ needs for thematic knowledge with a view to feeding into a thematic workshop. By the first workshop at the end of the first year, the topics for thematic workshops could be finalised (public acceptance of technologies; financing renewable energy; the emissions trading system). Throughout the project duration, the stakeholder engagement plan has been updated with minor modifications (e.g. format of preparatory dialogue) and to the schedule of event organisation (e.g. extension of preparatory dialogue).
Consultations workshops and events
The POLIMP project implemented a ‘preparatory dialogue’ process across member states, four stakeholder workshops, and three COP side event under the UNFCCC.
The first side-event took place at COP19 in Warsaw, Poland (November 2013). POLIMP co-organised the event with Japanese organisation IGES. The side-event provided for an opportunity to present the project summary and key findings of the knowledge needs analysis as implemented in WP5, to UNFCCC and EU stakeholders.
After the completion of the knowledge needs analysis, the preparatory dialogue process was started. The first round of dialogue provided key findings at the first workshop on public acceptance to improve predictability about investments in low carbon technologies. The first workshop was held in Brussels in April 2014, attracting about 30 stakeholders from EU institutions, business, research community, and NGOs. Discussions were guided by the outcome of the above dialogue as well as a draft Policy Brief on public acceptance.
The second workshop on financing renewable energy was organized at University College London in October 2014, attracting about 20 stakeholders from member states, business, research community and NGOs. Discussions benefited from presentation of additional preparatory dialogue outcomes and that of a draft Policy Brief on financing renewable energy.
The second COP side-event organised at COP20 in Lima in December 2014 addressed a practical criteria matrix to assist policy makers in evaluating proposals for the 2015 Agreement.
A later preparatory dialogue process focused on the EU ETS in five countries (Poland, Greece, Austria/Hungary, and the Netherlands). The results were presented and feedback from stakeholders was received at the third stakeholder workshop on the EU ETS, organised and implemented in Brussels in April 2015. Based on stakeholders’ perspectives for the EU ETS at both EU and national levels, a Policy Brief was published, a summary of key findings from the dialogue, and a Working Document, a full report.
The fourth and final stakeholder workshop was organised and implemented in Berlin in September 2015. The programme consisted of three thematic sessions, public acceptance, renewables, and the EU ETS and a concluding session to synthesise these thematic findings.
As the final event under this task, the third COP side-event organised at COP21 in Paris in December 2015 looked at means of supporting implementation of national contributions that already exist and could be strengthened, focusing on technology needs assessments (TNAs) and current climate finance flows.
Sustaining stakeholders’ engagement in the long run
The POLIMP Webinar and Survey series were part of the POLIMP project’s efforts to sustain existing engagement with stakeholders by providing additional ways to engage them directly with the project and its contents using web-based tools. The target audience included both previous participants in the project’s stakeholder engagement activities as well as new stakeholders. The topics covered were selected based on the needs of the stakeholders identified during the early phases of the project.
The webinar format allowed for broad dissemination of POLIMP content as well as the ability to bring on external expert speakers from anywhere in Europe. Google Hangouts on Air was selected as the technical platform for the Webinar Series. This format enabled POLIMP to actively engage stakeholders through comments and questions during the webcast and make video recordings available later to a wider stakeholder community, thereby increasing the stakeholder outreach of POLIMP events. Platforms used for the promotion of the webinars and the dissemination of the webinar videos and surveys included the POLIMP website, Twitter, Facebook, as well as targeted advertising, such as the IISD newsletters.
The theme of the webinar series was “POLIMP Climate Policy Webinar Series – Key EU and international issues to facilitate decarbonisation”. As such, topics centered on key issues at the heart of the debate pre- and post-Paris. Webinars were short, interactive, visually appealing, easily digestible and implemented as a moderated discussion—between 45 and 60 minutes in length—which aimed at capturing a range of different views. The moderation of the webinars was done by senior staff at Ecologic Institute (mainly Matthias Duwe). Technical facilitation of the webinars was done by junior staff (mainly Andreas Graf).
In total, eight webinars were planned and implemented (with views up to 28 April 2016):
• Paris 2015: Lessons from the Copenhagen experience – 7 July 2015, 454 views
• Reform of the EU ETS: Making it fit for 2030 – 16 Sep 2015, 308 views
• EU climate policy for 2030: Why are we talking about governance? – 28 Oct 2015, 184 views
• Climate finance: Where do we stand before Paris? – 26 Nov 2015, 138 views
• After Paris: Implications of the Paris Agreement for EU climate policy – 26 Jan 2016, 206 views*
• Beyond feed-in tariffs: The future of renewable energy support – 19 Feb 2016, 123 views
• Sharing the effort for 2030: Main issues for future EU targets – 8 Mar 2016, 73 views
• Are EU climate policies up to the challenge of decarbonising Europe? – 6 Apr 2016, 158 views
• Financing Renewable Energy in Europe towards 2030 – 20 April 2016, 96 views
Video recordings of all eight POLIMP Webinars can be viewed online on a dedicated Youtube channel here.
The POLIMP Survey series ran in parallel to and complimented the POLIMP Webinar series, covering similar thematic material. It allowed for the pinpointed engagement of select stakeholders and knowledge collection on topical matters pertaining to international and EU climate and energy policy before and after Paris. In most cases, surveys were distributed two weeks prior to the accompanying Webinar. Thus results fed into and informed Webinar discussions. Each survey instalment was organized into three parts:
• EU climate policy “barometer” – three reoccurring questions on a general assessment of the status quo. Results on these items were tracked over time and provided insight into the experts’ changing outlook on EU and international climate policy.
• Main topic – thematic questions linked to the topic of the corresponding Webinar.
• “Buzz of the week” – questions on a relevant climate policy topic currently in the news
Surveys responses were elicited from a pre-selected Expert Response Group (ERG) composed of 43 stakeholders, policy-makers, industry representatives and researchers active in the fields of climate and energy policy. Each expert was handpicked and invited to participate. The “snap” surveys were designed to be short and require little time on the part of the expert responder. The online software LimeSurvey was selected as the technical platform for survey distribution for its ease of use, data management and analysis features as well as its capacity to safeguard response anonymity. LimeSurvey distributed each survey instalment via email to the ERG.
In total, seven surveys were distributed over the span of a year and covered the first seven Webinar topics listed above. Survey responses were analysed using basic descriptive statistical procedures and synthesized in a summary report (two pages). The reports were distributed via email to the ERG and published on the POLIMP website. All seven reports are available for download here.
Work package 3: Knowledge collection
The objective of work package 3 was to collect knowledge on the current post-Copenhagen, post-Durban, and post-Doha climate regime, on possible future climate policy scenarios and on key trends and drivers that will affect these scenarios. It then aimed to organise the knowledge gathered into a climate policy database. To this end, we conducted literature reviews, interviews, and stakeholder workshops and also incorporated a wide range of existing know-how from on-going FP7 projects in the field of climate change. To meet these objectives, WP3 was structured into five tasks: Status quo of climate policy negotiations and the EU climate policy discussion; Identification of key trends and drivers; Identification of climate policy developments/scenarios; Criteria to evaluate climate policy scenarios; and organisation of data into a “climate policy database”. This work formed the basis for the work in work package 4, where the gathered knowledge could be processed.
Status quo of climate policy negotiations and the EU climate policy discussion
The objective of this task was to review the current status of climate negotiations and address gaps emerging in policy dialogues. The status of climate change negotiations was analysed at both UN and EU levels. The findings of this task culminated into report D3.1 that presents an overview of the negotiation process and countries positions in the run up to COP19, addressing two major topics, the post-2020 framework (ADP Workstream 1) and pre-2020 pledges (ADP Workstream 2). It was written before the start of COP19 and later updated in March 2016 with the outcomes of the same. The report finds that there are significant contributions in terms of both the number of Parties putting forward voluntary pledges, resulting in the Cancún Agreement, and the level of ambition in commitments by Parties staying in the 2nd Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol. In order to fulfill the gap between ambition and reality, Parties agreed in 2011 on the goal of reaching a new climate agreement in 2015 and launched the negotiation process called the Ad-hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP). The COP19 in Warsaw led to a new decision taking stock of the ADP work and moving forward. More recently, 195 countries successfully adopted the Paris Agreement in December 2015. It is considered to be a legally-binding comprehensive agreement applicable to all parties and based on so-called ‘self-differentiation’ through (I)NDCs. With regard to the EU, this task concludes that the EU made a positive assessment over the COP21 outcome compared to what they had expected, and identified the next steps including signing and ratification of the Agreement. The EU will participate in the facilitative dialogue in 2018 and provide inputs to the IPCC special report aimed at providing a clearer understanding about implications of the aspirational goal of 1.5 °C. By 2020 the EU will also need to prepare a long-term decarbonisation strategy up to 2050 and intend to participate in the first global stocktake in 2023.
Identification of key trends and drivers
The goal of this task was to identify key economic, energy political and demographic trends in the EU and the rest of the world to prepare the backdrop for work in work package 4. The findings of this task are assimilated in the form of the ‘Report on key trends and drivers’. This report discusses and illustrates the key trends and drivers of the current international and EU energy and climate policy. It aims to give insights into the current dynamics and also enabling a better understanding of future developments. The most important findings of the task are that 1) there was a bottom-up development visible in introducing energy and climate policies; 2) oil and coal prices strongly increased over the last decade; 3) the costs for renewables significantly decreased over the last few years and 4) the European energy and climate policy is increasingly influenced by energy security concerns. In its analysis, the report finds that the carbon dioxide emissions of non-OECD/ developing countries can be closely linked to emission reductions (mainly caused by stricter climate policy) in industrial regions, resulting in the so called “carbon leakage”. Also global deforestation continued to increase in the last years although at lower levels than in the past decades. Climate policies in industrial countries are one of the drivers of global deforestation due to increasing demand for biofuels. Another trend that may increase global greenhouse gas emission is the shale gas revolution, made possible by hydraulic fracturing technology, that has helped the US reducing its energy imports and brought down energy prices, thus it is being considered also in Europe. The report concludes that while the bottom-up climate and energy policy initiatives are encouraging, unless a complementary collaborative global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is being made, emissions may further be on the rise.
Identification of climate policy developments/scenarios
This task aimed to identify possible international climate policy developments or scenarios within the UNFCCC and the EU and other forums, including the social, economic and environmental impacts of these scenarios and the resulting impact on the political acceptability by different stakeholders. The output of Work Package 3, summarised in a report, served as input for other tasks within POLIMP. Firstly, it provided material for the knowledge processing work under Work Package 4 (Knowledge Processing). Secondly, it provided input to the online knowledge platform being developed under Work Package 5 (Knowledge Platform). Thirdly, it provided background information for the stakeholder workshops being organised under Work Package 2 (Stakeholder Consultations). Finally, it also served as a basis for the production of briefing notes, policy briefs and synthesis papers under Work Package 6 (Policy Implications and Recommendations).
This work package included the management and review of all the articles prepared for uploading on the POLIMP Platform “Climate Policy Info Hub”. WP 3 partners responsible for the review and editing of the articles were assigned specific articles to be grade according to a number of criteria. Each article went through multiple rounds of review by different partners before being uploaded on the website.
Criteria to evaluate climate policy scenarios
Drawing on the results from the preceding tasks and on broader insights from the evaluation of domestic and international climate policies and measures, as well as the study of broader international environmental governance, this task surveyed existing research on criteria for the evaluation of developments in international climate policy (and international agreements). It then analysed submissions by Parties' under ADP Workstream 1, and contrasted the themes mentioned in those governmental documents with the criteria proposed in literature to see which find support among Parties, and to identify whether relevant criteria have been omitted in literature.
The analysis shows a high degree of convergence for some criteria that were listed in relevant literature, most importantly 'ambition', 'participation', 'compliance' and 'equity or fairness'. In contrast, other criteria, such as 'systemic coherence' did not find mentioning at all in the submissions we analysed. Our analysis further identified criteria that were not reflected in the relevant literature but widely embraced by Parties in their ADP submissions, such as 'assisting the vulnerable', 'durability' or 'flexibility'. Finally, analysing the submissions revealed that some criteria from literature were apparently too vague and broad, subsuming a wide range of interpretations that might better be reflected in distinct criteria. This concerns first and foremost the concept of 'equity or fairness'.
The researchers then proceeded to define a new matrix of criteria for the classification of alternative scenarios for international climate cooperation, which incorporates criteria that are widely reflected in Parties' submissions, and is precise and specific enough to facilitate the evaluation of design proposals for the 2015 Agreement. The proposed matrix includes criteria relating to environmental effectiveness (level of ambition, level of active participation, stringency of MRV system, stringency of compliance check and enforcement), equity-related criteria (differentiation according to historical responsibility, differentiation according to evolving responsibility, differentiation according to capacities and needs, assisting the vulnerable) and other criteria (institutional feasibility, durability, flexibility, cost-effectiveness).
In sum, the analysis undertaken resulted in a practical tool for policy makers to compare the features of the proposal to their preferred negotiated outcome, and to identify common ground with other Parties’ preferred options. In this way, the work contributed directly to the main objectives of POLIMP and to the desired impact. The findings of this task have been reported in a report on the criteria for evaluating climate policies scenarios.
Organisation of data into a “climate policy database”
The existing knowledge on climate policy was collected and clustered, creating the Climate Policy Database (http://147.102.6.97/ontowiki/). The constantly enhanced content disseminated this knowledge to support informed decisions and beliefs of the policy makers, researchers, market actors and general public. The data, which were organised into a “climate policy database” by setting the ontowiki, were regularly updated each time a new article were developed and uploaded in POLIMP Platform “Climate Policy Info Hub”. New keywords and issues of the knowledge packages were also selected. Resources from new knowledge packages were constantly being registered, keeping the database constantly updated. It is worth mentioning that a dedicated logo for the Climate Policy database was designed in order to facilitate the interconnection of the database with the official POLIMP website.
Work package 4: Knowledge processing
WP4 is part of module 2 of the project: Knowledge processing. The structure of the work was largely determined by the knowledge gaps identified from discussions with different stakeholder group and the proposed contents took into account these stakeholder interactions. WP4 coordinated the production of articles and reports that were linked to current climate policy discussions. The results were made accessible to wider stakeholder groups with the help of graphs and pictures, policy briefs, stakeholder Workshops and through the Climate Policy Info Hub but also included stakeholder insights.
Development of a framework to process the findings from the data collected in WP 3
A framework for the processing of data to create articles for the platform was developed. The detailed focus of the individual packages was formulated in parallel with the stakeholder process and the gap analysis and the topics were defined in collaboration with all partners. Topics for a total of 60 articles were defined each with their own logical identifier, following a logical tree structure with five different level. The articles are easily understandable for stakeholders and are a main result of the knowledge processing.
Effectiveness and efficiency of new international climate regimes in delivering the required
Knowledge on the environmental effectiveness and efficiency of new international climate regimes in delivering the required global mitigation objectives (2°C target) was synthesized based on the scenarios identified and their building blocks in WP3 and taking into consideration the criteria identified in WP3 The resulting report D4.1 (‘From Lima to Paris: Effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed new international climate regime in delivering the required global mitigation objective’) aimed to link the contents of this task to the current climate policy development, especially the evolvement of the Paris agreement. It thereby aimed to inform stakeholders ahead of the Paris conference of different climate policy option and their effectiveness. The report summarised mitigation pledges of countries under UNFCCC and the likelihood that they will be achieved; discusses the framework of the new international climate change agreement, evaluates the negotiating text for the Paris 2015 agreement with the help of criteria and assesses unilateral climate policies and their relevance for carbon leakage. Also adaptation measures, and the consequences of different levels of temperature increases are considered.
The main findings of the report are:
• A new international climate architecture will likely differ fundamentally from the Kyoto Protocol. Instead of a legally binding agreement with a limited number of countries having biding GHG remission reduction targets, the new climate agreement may be less biding but more inclusive.
• The so far pledged reduction targets # are not consistent with the reduction requirements to meet the 2°C target.
• New flexibility mechanisms would guarantee the cost-effectiveness of a new climate agreement; however the concrete design and governance have not yet been decided
• If in the short or medium term the EU carries out more stringent climate policies than other regions there is significant risk of carbon leakage
• The consequences of not meeting the 2° target may be far higher cost for adaptation. The damage costs rise disproportionally from 2° to 4° degree warming and impacts on human welfare are likely to occur mostly in countries with low adaptation capacity. It will be of critical importance to keep these trade-offs in mind when agreeing on the ambition of a new international climate agreement.
Socioeconomic impacts of a new climate regime on the EU
The resulting report has shown a range of socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the 2030 greenhouse gas target, most of them are positive, others can be at least partly compensated. Modeling exercises also show the importance of combining several energy and climate related targets such as a greenhouse gas reduction target and an energy efficiency target, even if overlaps of policy instruments need to be carefully considered in policy design. The report compared different models regarding economic impacts of climate change policies. While the model GEM-E3 for example projects negative impacts on GDP from 40% GHG reductions driven by a GHG target and carbon pricing only, the E3ME model projects positive contributions of up to 0.55% in the scenario including ambitious energy efficiency policies, taking into account the positive impact of energy efficiency investments on GDP. Remarkable possible impacts are i) job creation, ii) a technological leadership and iii) a reduction of energy import dependency but also environmental benefits such as reduced emissions of air pollutants.
Again the work was linked to current climate policy issues. The 2030 energy and climate framework is of great importance also in light of the current political crisis between the Ukraine and Russia. It serves the aim of the creation of a European Energy Union that was published in 2015 and aims to give EU consumers - secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy and most importantly aims to increase the EUs energy security. The 2030 energy and climate framework will reduce energy consumption and diversify the electricity mix. While by 2030, 397 Mtoe of natural gas is consumed in 2013 PRIMES reference scenario, the natural gas demand will be only 210 Mtoe in the Greens/EFA framework. Assuming the same domestic production, the import dependency regarding natural gas is thereby reduced to about 50%. Climate policy, as this report has shown, is far more than just about reducing GHG emissions, but can - if well designed - be an important impetus or driver for energy security as well as economic and technological development.
Opportunities for the EU and EU stakeholders to learn from design and implementation of climate policies worldwide as well as share the experience the EU has gained in designing and implementing climate friendly actions
Opportunities for the EU and EU stakeholders to learn from design and implementation of climate policies worldwide were identified, and EU experiences gained in designing and implementing climate friendly actions were shared. The main output of the task was D4.3 “Report on opportunities for exporting EU-based climate change mitigation and adaptation knowledge”. Considering that the task did not only focus on such opportunities for exporting EU-based policy and knowledge, but also on importing of non-EU policies and knowledge, it was decided to integrate this into on deliverable D4.3 titled “Policy Transfer Opportunities for exporting EU climate policies, and adopting non-EU policies within the EU”. Based on a thorough literature review on the theoretical aspects of policy transfer, a framework was created for the analysis of (bi-directional) climate policy transfer. Key questions include “who transfers policy?”, “why engage in policy transfer?”, “what elements of policy are transferred?”, “are there different degrees of transfer?”, “from where are policies transferred?”, and “what factors enable and constrain transfer?” Specifically in the field of climate policy, policy transfer has a significant role to play, as climate change is a relatively ‘new’ problem and climate policy therefore a relatively new policy area. Climate policy transfer is therefore less likely to be hampered by contextual constraints such as path dependency, and it is easier to adopt policies from other contexts.
For the chapter on exporting EU climate policies, three key topics at the heart of the EU’s climate policy framework were chosen: the EU ETS, renewable energy support systems, and transport policies. A clear overview of these policies has been provided, along with policy recommendations for non-EU countries, specifically developing countries, based on the expertise of the POLIMP project team.
For the chapter on importing climate policies from non-EU frameworks to the EU, the choice of topics has been based on the analysis of knowledge needs in the EU as carried out in the project. These include renewable energy (support schemes and public acceptance), emissions trading, climate finance, industrial policies, energy efficiency (including energy efficiency obligation schemes), climate change adaptation policies, transport policies, and in general interaction among climate policy instruments in a climate policy mix. For all of these topics, recommendations have been drawn from non-EU countries (including the United States, Canada, Japan, South Africa, China, etc.) as well as international frameworks (e.g. the UNFCCC, the National Adaptation Plan process, and NAMAs). The transferability of (climate) policies largely depends on technological, political, cultural and socioeconomic preconditions in the host countries. The recommendations from the EU and for the EU are therefore no blueprints. However, also broader policy concepts can be transferred, instead of specific instruments, which are able to be accommodated in more or less modified way in the host country. The respective deliverable (D4.3) can therefore be used as an inspirational guidance for policy development, both in the EU and beyond.
Work package 5: Knowledge platform
The main task of Work package 5 was the establishment of a “Knowledge Platform”, an online tool developed exclusively under the POLIMP project to offer evidence on climate policy options and thus support informed science-based EU climate policy-making – and to do so in a fact-based and neutral manner, having an easily accessible format with a clear user interface.
Knowledge needs analysis
The concept for the Platform was developed following a strict methodical procedure, building on an exercise to identify Knowledge Gaps and Priorities among our core stakeholders and target audiences, so that This exercise thus defined the thematic focus of the Knowledge Platform, using in-depth interviewing and self-completion questionnaires.
The results showed that many stakeholders believe that adequate information is already available but that policy-makers often lack an overview of the information. Others do see a need for additional information. Knowledge needs were identified in eleven areas of expertise, namely Renewable Energy, Emissions Trading, EU climate policy in general, Financing, International climate negotiations, Agriculture and forestry, Energy policy in general, Energy efficiency, Adaptation, Transport, and Industry. Some of the most important knowledge needs appear across several sectors, e.g. international context of climate policies and cost-effectiveness.
With the help of the methodology developed under work package 4 these knowledge need priorities were translated into a knowledge tree of content items for the website – with a system to monitor quality and ensure standardised style and formats.
Knowledge presentation and accessibility
These inputs fed into the definition of the strategy for Knowledge Presentation and Accessibility which defined the cornerstones of the knowledge platform. The strategy was based on a survey of ten existing knowledge platforms, conducted with the objective of identifying good practice examples. The review was performed as an expert evaluation and multi criteria analysis, using criteria such as corporate identity, meta information, information architecture, contents and functionalities. The insights from this review contributed to the development of the concept for the POLIMP Knowledge platform, drawing also from the POLIMP Communication and Dissemination Plan.
As the name for the platform the consortium decided on Climate Policy Info Hub (www.climatepolicyinfohub.eu) and it offers evidence on climate policy options. It explores impacts and implications of international and EU climate policy for decision-makers in policy, business and civil society. The aim is to support informed science-based EU climate policy-making. The knowledge is compiled by a group of independent climate policy researchers.
Knowledge platform
The concept for the knowledge platform was implemented in technical form for online usage – and filled with life through the production of contents to suit the knowledge needs identified. The platform was properly launched in March of 2015 with a significant volume of content in a first batch of articles.
Overall, the content management and development of the platform turned out to be a very ambitious undertaking. The sheer volume of material kept growing with implementation of the platform (as articles were split into several sub-articles due to the complexity of the topics being covered). Individual articles were updated in the course of the operation of the platform to reflect relevant new developments.
UPRC took over the progress tracking and editing as well as finalising for publication for the second batch of articles. The process established delivered new content for the platform on a regular and ongoing basis, at stable levels of quality. Overall, the amount of content developed specifically for the platform significantly exceeded the original plans – to the benefit of its users, but with additional demands on all project partners involved to engage in the production of additional material.
Content from the Knowledge Platform was also used for inspiration for the webinar Series implemented as part of stakeholder outreach under work package 2 – and the webinars frequently made reference to the Platform.
The work on maintenance and further development focused on the development of a sustainability strategy and connecting the Platform to other online fora. The Knowledge Platform has been interlinked with the POLIMP website, for dissemination and promotion purposes, as well as the Climate Policy Database, implemented within work package 3.
Furthermore, the POLIMP consortium and the Horizon 2020 CARISMA (Coordination and Assessment of Research and Innovation in Support of Climate Mitigation Actions) project partners have discussed the establishment of a synergy between the two projects. Within the CARISMA framework, a Knowledge and Networking platform is envisaged to be developed, promoting the exchange of information about Research and Innovation for Mitigation. POLIMP and CARISMA partners have decided to make an interconnection between the two platforms in order to expand the range of users, maximize synergies and optimize exploitation.
Lastly, a connection was developed between the Climate Policy Info Hub with the Clean Energy Info Portal (REEGLE). The REEGLE platform, developed by the Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), is a gateway that provides information and data on various sub-sectors within sustainable energy at a global level.
In summary, the Knowledge Platform has become a lighthouse element of the POLIMP project, that has been highlighted in presentations to external audiences and has received much acclaim for its user-friendliness and informative nature – and it has been built to outlast the project’s duration. It has made a direct contribution to the desired impact of enabling better informed decisions by decision-makers in the project’s core target group – by taking up their most pertinent issues and providing easily accessible and intelligible content for information in the manner preferred by the core audience.
Work package 6: Policy implications and recommendations
The main objective of work package 6 was to draw lessons learned from the comparison of possible directions of future climate policy making and implications of these for international climate targets and EU climate, economic, environmental and social goals. With these insights recommendations could be formulated for policymakers and other stakeholders at the EU, member states and sub-national levels. These practical recommendations support the formulation of future EU climate, economic, environmental and social policy making and enable stakeholders to effectively and efficiently deal with these policies.
The work package focused on two tasks, respectively on policy implications (socioeconomic aspects, technology transfer, land use, market mechanisms, and other policy options), and on policy recommendations for Europe. The main output of the work package is a series of 15 publications: 6 briefing notes, 5 guides towards COP21 in Paris, 3 policy briefs, and a synthesis paper.
Briefing notes
The briefing notes summarise key knowledge on a range of priority issues, based on the knowledge packages and general expertise of the project team members. Two of the briefing notes have been prepared in collaboration with the EU co-funded BIOTEAM project (Intelligent Energy Europe), focused on the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy support schemes established in member states, and sustainability criteria for biomass. One briefing note, focused on the harmonisation of EU renewable energy policies across member states, has been prepared based on results of the German-Dutch biomethane research programme ‘Groen Gas – Grünes Gas’, co-financed through Interreg Iva Deutschland-Nederland. The remaining three briefing notes were on public acceptance of renewable energy on sub-national or project levels, innovative financing of renewable energy, and the intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs), including the plan for the EU and member states, as prepared for the Paris climate summit in 2015 (COP21). The briefing notes have been published on the POLIMP website, and have been circulated throughout the network of the POLIMP project and the project partners.
In preparation of the UNFCCC COP21 climate summit in Paris in November-December 2015, POLIMP has prepared a series of special briefing notes named ‘POLIMP Guide towards COP21 in Paris’. The reason for starting this series was the realisation that the POLIMP project, and its partners, delivered a wide range of publications and knowledge packages related to or relevant for the Paris conference. It was decided to produce a series of briefing notes (‘Paris notes’) with short COP21-relevant articles, with clear references to the underlying knowledge packages and publications. Four issues have been published in the run-up to the conference, from September to November 2015 (M29-M31 of the POLIMP project). These include 4-5 short articles each on topics including INDCs, energy efficiency, carbon markets, climate finance, lessons from past negotiations, and climate technologies. In addition, the notes include references to the POLIMP online platform Climate Policy Info Hub, an overview of key recent publications, and announcements of events, as well as side-events at the COP21 conference. A final brief in this series was published in March 2016, looking back at the Paris conference. This fifth issue was prepared in collaboration with EU Horizon 2020 project CARISMA. The CARISMA project (2015-2018) will continue the publication of this series of notes under the name CARISMA Climate Change Mitigation Monitor, in order to ensure continuity of information provision. The frequency of publication will be approximately 3 times per year.
Policy brief series
Another series of publications under WP6 is the policy brief series. For each of the three policy briefs, a draft version has been published in advance of a related thematic workshop, and a final version after the workshop, incorporating comments and discussions from the event. The 1st policy brief was on the topic of social acceptance, related to the 1st POLIMP stakeholder workshop that was organised in Brussels in April 2014. The 2nd policy brief related to the 2nd stakeholder workshop, organised in London in October 2014, on financing renewable energy for Europe. The 3rd policy brief, on European stakeholders’ perspectives on the EU ETS, related to the 3rd workshop, in Brussels in February 2015. The key outcomes of the work on the three policy briefs were summarized in the synthesis report (see below).
Synthesis report
Upon the end of the project a POLIMP synthesis policy brief was published and launched at the POLIMP final conference. This paper consists of three thematic sections, which summarise and synthesise the key findings of the project, mainly those of the three thematic workshops and policy briefs with a new introduction based on the reflection of the Paris Agreement and the COP outcome.
For accelerating deployment of low-carbon technologies to help the EU achieve the 2030 GHG emission reduction targets, there are three major challenges. The first challenge is how to enhance incentives for private investments across support measures and instruments: for example, the EU ETS carbon price versus that of feed-in tariffs. The second challenge is how to manage and reduce economic risks, in particular those of financing both mature and less developed technologies, and to increase the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy financing and support measures. The third challenge is how to manage social risks of resistance to low-carbon technologies that would have a direct impact on the local environment, and associated policies at the national level. These challenges require an integrated approach to low carbon technology support, combining i) incentives for investments in technology research, development and deployment and ii) mechanisms for risk management and reduction. Such an approach also requires engaging all relevant stakeholders including amongst others citizens, local NGOs, institutional investors, and technology providers, and ensuring a transparent and open consultation process.
Work package 7: Dissemination activities
The main priority of the dissemination and communication strategy was to disseminate acquired knowledge on an on – going basis and communicate it to the targeted groups of potential beneficiaries, e.g. policymakers, stakeholders and scientific community, and the concerned citizens. In order to trigger the interest of an extensive range of target groups a tailor made dissemination approach was adopted.
POLIMP Dissemination and Communication strategy was based on the following elements:
♥ Creation of a pool of specific activities and means, targeting the mobilization and transfer of the knowledge collected, processed and accumulated.
♥ Effective, efficient and tailor-made selection of the appropriate means to address the appropriate communication of each POLIMP activity.
♥ Establishment of maximum impacts of policy implications and recommendations drawn from POLIMP at EU and member state levels.
♥ Provision of information in the scientific community in order to achieve further mobilization.
♥ Establishment of POLIMP as the main communication tool for the promotion and facilitation of knowledge exchange on key policy issues, such as EU climate policy.
A pro-active Dissemination Strategy was elaborated to be undertaken, so as the main outputs of all project results to be effectively disseminated to the following categories of related stakeholders:
♥ Policy makers at EU, national and regional level.
♥ Members of the European Parliament.
♥ Members of the Committee of the Regions.
♥ Public, national or international institutions.
♥ Industrial or trade organizations.
♥ NGO’s.
♥ Academia.
♥ Private sector.
♥ Audience of specialists and concerned citizens.
All the aforementioned actors were continuous recipients of a series of dissemination activities, which aimed to keep them informed for a number of issues concerning POLIMP progress, concept and activities, through awareness raising, knowledge sharing, interest creation, mobilization and various other activities. In brief the main dissemination activities included:
♥ A Dissemination and Communication Plan, which contains tailor-made communication activities, aiming at target groups, with specific objectives and direct messages.
♥ Continuous enhancement of the POLIMP web activities, including the POLIMP website, social media and My Europa and Capacity4Dev accounts, in order to establish POLIMP as a reference point regarding climate policy issues.
♥ Establishment of POLIMP, not only in the academia, but rather to all the aforementioned target groups through the participation in external conferences that led to the communication of POLIMP and the implementation of extended networking among experts and stakeholders and through the implementation of scientific publications.
♥ Implementation of project events, stakeholder consultation workshops and side events in order to increase the visibility of POLIMP, communicate its progress and outcomes and engage the stakeholder target groups in an ongoing direct involvement.
♥ Information promotion through the development of a wide range of dissemination material, including posters, leaflets, videos, social media tools, newsletters, press releases etc.
♥ Publications of the POLIMP results through a series of well-targeted publications targeting at policy makers and stakeholders, as well as scientific publications and policy papers.
♥ Integration of the POLIMP results into the academic curricula and in case of great interest, organization of summer school/seminars for postgraduate students.
The main achievements of the dissemination activities WP are highlighted below.
• 7 Articles & Scientific Publications promoting POLIMP activities and outcomes
• 6 Scientific Article Publications (1,490 views on the website)
• 3 POLIMP Policy Brief Series (2,000 views on the website)
• 2 POLIMP Working Document Series (900 views on the website)
• 11 POLIMP Briefing Notes (4,720 views on the website)
• 3 POLIMP Climate Change Monitor Series (1,280 views on the website)
• 4 POLIMP Expert Response Survey Series (1,230 views on the website)
• Almost 2,000 subscribers to POLIMP Newsletter
• More than 100 announcements in the Climate-L & Energy-L lists
• 13 POLIMP Templates
• POLIMP press material uploaded in 21 web-libraries
• More than 1,000 Brochures distributed to 14 internal and 32 external events
• 47 Press Releases (Invitations, Reminders, Thank you Letters, Announcements)
• 7 POLIMP and 18 partners’ newsletters
• More than 300 Participants in POLIMP Stakeholder Workshops and Side Events
• 276 Participants in POLIMP Final Webinar and Final Conference
• More than 2,050 views of POLIMP videos in YouTube
• More than 380 followers in Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, My-Europa platform)
• More than 2,072 views of POLIMP reports, publications and events announced in EC platform capacity4dev
• According to the Google Analytics, POLIMP has had 13,884 sessions throughout its operation, with 8,526 users and 37,762 pageviews
• 9 POLIMP Webinars with more than 170 participants
Potential Impact:
International climate policy making has been surrounded by many uncertainties. Firstly, upon the beginning of the POLIMP project, in 2013, there was still a considerable gap between the level of mitigation action pledges by countries, and the level that would be required for achieving the 2oC objective. At the same time, while UNFCCC negotiation rounds since Copenhagen (COP15 in 2009) had opened the door towards a new – bottom-up rather than top-down – climate regime, the exact shape and ambition levels remained unclear. For EU policy and decision makers this perspective created an uncertain situation.
Secondly, for citizens, although momentum of building climate change awareness had grown, interests to change to low-emission consumer behaviour have reduced at the same time. At the level of business, the reduction of carbon prices on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme market has reduced incentives to accelerate a shift towards low emission technologies and techniques. Moreover, for European businesses operating on international, global markets, it remains uncertain whether and how their international competitors will face commitments to work towards low GHG emitting technologies and techniques, and to what extent this may affect the levelling of playing fields.
Thirdly, at the level of Member State and EU-level policy makers, there is uncertainty about whether the EU climate policy ambitions will eventually be matched by other countries’ ambitions and whether policy instruments and knowledge could be transferred to other countries, such as the ETS methodologies and benchmarking experience. A process of decarbonising the EU economy will, according to the roadmap calculation, result in new economic opportunities for EU businesses, but it also requires that energy will increasingly be produced within the EU using renewable and biomass-based energy sources. This requires investments in secure energy systems and social acceptance of different ways to produce and consume energy.
The POLIMP project has focused on reducing these uncertainties, by ensuring that at different policy and decision making levels within the EU decisions are taken on the basis of the best available knowledge including an increased understanding of opportunities for business and society. This knowledge has been based on information from a range of current climate policy developments, that were particularly linked to the process towards the Paris climate conference (COP21 in 2015), including:
- What are likely GHG emission reduction commitments and/or actions that other major emitting countries would undertake?
- What are likely GHG emission reduction actions based on current NAMA plans?
- What are the socioeconomic impacts, cost and benefits for the EU?
- What is the potential for technology transfer to non-EU states based on TNA plans, NAMAs, as well as LEDS? The documents show what actions are needed and which technology is prioritized and this gives precise information for EU businesses where potential market opportunities are.
- What are the capacity, training and finance needs for mitigation and adaptation support as identified by, e.g. the Adaptation Framework, Technology Mechanism, and Finance Mechanism, which EU-based institutes could offer?
- How can techniques and tools developed under EU climate and energy programmes, such as the ETS and sector benchmarks, be ‘exported’ to other states for inclusion in, e.g. the New Market Mechanism?
In light of the above, POLIMP has created the Climate Policy Info Hub online thematic knowledge base. The website includes clear knowledge packages on 38 issues, centred around six key themes: EU climate policy, international climate policy and negotiations, emissions trading, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and climate change adaptation. Through these knowledge packages, for which the choice of topics has been based on a thorough climate knowledge needs analysis among stakeholders, the insights of policy and decision makers could be enhanced. By discussing the pros and cons of different options for future climate policy directions, uncertainty of policy makers, and decision-makers at e.g. sector and company levels, could be reduced. By focussing specifically also on newer EU Member States where the climate policy know-how is not yet widespread, such as Hungary or Croatia, climate policy knowledge in these countries could be enhanced.
POLIMP has collected and processed the information on future climate policy trends and impacts in an integrated manner for exchange with decision makers at different levels. Instead of exchanging information about energy security, climate change mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer, natural resource use, etc., through separate channels, POLIMP has integrated these information flows into balanced information packages to support decision makers.
Finally, next to the impacts on business and national/sub-national decision making, POLIMP has provided tangible support towards the enhanced and innovative implementation of policies and processes at the EU-level covering resource efficiency, in particular:
• the EU Strategy for an Energy Union,
• the EC Roadmap for low-carbon economy, as well as
• the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development.
In addition to the distribution of climate (policy) knowledge through the Climate Policy Info Hub, POLIMP has used a wide range of dissemination and discussion tools (see also below). A key aspect in this has been a series of four POLIMP thematic workshops, accompanied by a series of four POLIMP Policy Briefs.
As explained above, POLIMP impacted knowledge and decision-makers of stakeholders at different decision making levels across the EU:
EU-level policy making
The outcome of international climate negotiations may affect the longer term vision towards decarbonizing the EU economy by 2050. And in particular: what do the outcomes of the Paris agreement mean for sub-national policymaking?
In the framework of the pressing need for coherent and sufficient European climate policy, POLIMP has contributed to developing issues in terms of policy research and provide input to the assessment of potential policy alternatives and options. The general framework developed and applied in the context of POLIMP has reinforced an EU-wide dialogue and is expected to act as a reinforced tool to speed up the transition towards more climate-friendly and climate-resilient business options.
National policy making
How would future climate policy actions under the UN (or even in a multilateral setting should the current centralised UNFCCC approached be replaced with a more decentralised approach based on bilateral and multilateral actions) require modification of current policies within the EU?
As an impact of POLIMP, the societal discussion for the best set of economically feasible, socially acceptable and environmentally friendly regulation options under a longer term EU climate policy package will be based on more reliable information. Especially the aspect of public acceptance has been discussed in detail with stakeholders, and key lessons learned on this topic have been distributed through the first POLIMP Policy Brief.
Business community
Including progressive business that have invested in low emission production technologies, innovation, or techniques and have developed an advantage under an ambitious international climate policy regime, businesses covered by the EU ETS which have to internalize external costs of GHG emissions in their pricing, and internationally operational businesses that would face an unequal playing field if the EU climate ambitions are not matched by other major economies. What are the socioeconomic impacts of different climate policy choices, but also opportunities in terms of technology transfer?
With the information packages, businesses can decide on their future course of action using best available insights and are better able to avoid negative perceptions, assess uncertainties and mitigate risks related to a low emission business operation. Moreover, feedback from the groups will be useful for policy makers to learn what they could do to create an enabling environment.
Society as a whole
In terms of increasing knowledge of the relationship between low emission and climate resilient policies and improvement in local environment quality, job creation due to climate-related innovation, reduced energy costs, etc., and how climate policy may strengthen or weaken this relationship.
The European society could be impacted by an ambitious climate policy in a number of ways. The impact could be positive as low emission and climate resilient policies and measures have a number of co-benefits, such as job creation in innovative sectors, lower environmental pollution due to low emission technologies in transport, industry and energy sectors, and reduced energy bills due to increased energy efficiency. A negative impact could be that jobs may be lost due to ‘carbon leakage’ if business is replaced to countries where climate policy is less ambitious or if relatively carbon intensive business loses market share. Moreover, low emission technologies may be relatively expensive with a relatively long pay-back period, which makes a decision for households on which technology to take difficult. What exactly the balance of these impacts depends on whether an ambitious climate policy will be an EU-only or a global activity. As a result of POLIMP, society will eventually be better able to judge the benefits and costs or risks of future climate policy making for taking their own decisions.
Development of EU and international shared visions on climate policy making
POLIMP has support the exploration of the future developments of international climate policy making, thereby considering recent developments since the Copenhagen Climate Conference of 2009 which show a trend that climate change mitigation and adaptation actions are increasingly embedded in countries’ longer term environmental, economic and social priorities. POLIMP has supported EU stakeholder in understanding these dynamics and their impacts on the EU societies.
A key output in this framework has also been a report on policy transfer, showing how the EU’s policy and decision makers can learn from climate policy-making in non-EU frameworks, including non-EU countries such as the US and China, but also international frameworks such as the UNFCCC negotiations, NAMAs, national adaptation plans, and the Technology Needs Assessment project. Conversely, the EU’s experiences with climate policy-making, both at EU level and in the Member States, provide valuable lessons for non-EU countries. POLIMP has therefore analysed the EU policies and identified the key policies and practices that can be ‘exported’, including lessons from the EU ETS, and renewable energy support schemes.
Performance indicators
In the Description of the Work, POLIMP has presented a set of performance indicators, linking objectives, outputs, impacts, and monitoring means for the project. The key impacts of the POLIMP project can be synthesized by discussing these key performance indicators.
Identify knowledge gaps on the implications for EU stakeholders of possible directions of international climate policy making: It was considered that in fact the problem is often not a ‘gap’ in the available knowledge, but difficulty for stakeholders to find or access the right knowledge. Therefore, rather than a knowledge gaps identification, a ‘knowledge needs analysis’ has been undertaken. Key knowledge needs have been identified based on a stakeholder consultation in the form of both interviews and a questionnaire. Throughout the project duration, stakeholders have been consulted to assess whether the knowledge needs as had been identified remained relevant, ensuring relevant impact on policy and decision making. With a key focus on renewable energy, emissions trading, general EU policy, and financing, POLIMP could impact the key areas of interest for European stakeholders. However, also knowledge needs that were less frequently mentioned, such as on agriculture/forestry, energy efficiency, industry, adaptation, and transport, have been discussed by POLIMP in order to ensure a wide coverage.
Collect and synthesise knowledge of possible climate policy directions and their implications: Based on the knowledge needs analysis, as explained above, the key themes to address have been identified. For all of these themes, a set of knowledge packages has been created to synthesise the available knowledge in a clear and easy-to-read manner, both for policy makers and for other stakeholders and decision makers (see also the next performance indicator). Key outputs informing stakeholders have also been an identification of the key trends and drivers of international climate policy-making and the climate change negotiations; an analysis of climate policy scenarios, both for the EU and internationally; and criteria to evaluate these scenarios, including for example ‘political acceptability’, ‘systemic coherence’, ‘level of ambition’, ‘participation’, and ‘equity’. The impact of these outputs (reports and events) has been monitored by questioning stakeholders that attended POLIMP meetings and events, on the usefulness of these outputs for them.
Well-informed decisions, reducing uncertainties: In the end, the key goal, and also the key impact, of POLIMP has been the influencing of climate policy-making. POLIMP has supported policy and decision makers in taking well-informed decisions, thereby reducing uncertainties and mitigating the risks that decisions are taken against poorly-understood climate policy contexts. The key output to achieve this has been the publication of the clear and concise knowledge packages on the Climate Policy Info Hub, but also the interactive sessions in POLIMP workshops, webinars, the UNFCCC COP side-events, and the publication of policy briefs. Policy and decision makers have steered this process (amongst others through their participation in the knowledge needs assessment), but have also indicated that such knowledge provision has been useful for them in their daily work. For this, the POLIMP team has assessed the usefulness during POLIMP workshops and events, and analysed the use of its online output (knowledge packages, publications, and webinars).
Track down links between UNFCCC negotiations and EU/domestic policy actions: The POLIMP project team has closely followed the UNFCCC negotiations throughout the project duration, and attended the annual COP events in Warsaw (COP19), Lima (COP20), and Paris (COP21). Through the POLIMP workshops, UNFCCC COP side-events, webinars, policy briefs, and briefing notes, the negotiations progress and outcomes, and their implications, have been communicated to and discussed with a wide group of stakeholders. In the run-up to and after the Paris conference, especially, a series of special ‘Guide towards COP21 in Paris’ briefing notes have been published, to keep policy and decision makers at several levels up-to-date with the latest developments, and their implications.
Facilitate communication among research components, and knowledge dissemination: the POLIMP project has used a very wide range of communication and dissemination tools, in order to increase communication both among the research community, and between researchers and other stakeholders specifically policy and decision makers (see below for an overview of all dissemination activities). Links have been established with other EU-funded relevant research projects, in order to coordinate climate (policy) research. A key output of this has been the collaboration with the EU Horizon 2020 project ‘CARISMA’, publishing a joint briefing note on the results of the Paris climate summit. By entering into this collaboration, POLIMP has also ensured that this series of publications (known as the ‘Guide towards COP21 in Paris’) continues into the future (as the ‘CARIMSA Climate Change Mitigation Monitor’).
The Dissemination and Communication Activities were constant throughout POLIMP implementation. The dissemination tools exploited for the communication and promotion of POLIMP are described below.
POLIMP website - www.polimp.eu - is a constant node aiming not only to present and disseminate the POLIMP results but also to be a referenced site containing important disseminating material, as well as useful links related to the field of POLIMP. In particular the POLIMP website contains the following: General information about POLIMP (objectives, work structure, expected results, participants, etc.), Information and material on POLIMP events (stakeholder worshops, webinars, side events, final conference), as well as related news, POIMP synergies with releval projecta, POLIMP dissemination and communication material (leaflet, newsletters, presentation etc.). All POLIMP publications targeting at policymakers and stakeholders were also hosted by POLIMP website, available for download, in order to mobilise acquired, processed and accumulated knowledge for policy debate. Important resources, such as POLIMP Web tools with related studies and publications, social media, links to POLIMP Platform “Climate Policy Info Hub” and POLIMP Database in order to keep all interested parties informed on the latest developments and achievements.
POLIMP Official Logo, Platform & Database Logos
The official POLIMP Logo was developed and finally selected, among various others, while its use is guaranteed through the implementation of a Graphic Guidelines Handbook. Apart from the POLIMP logo, three more logos were designed - two for the Climate Policy Info Hub and one for the Climate Policy Database - in order to be used in the platform and database own websites, as well as to be promoted further from the official POLIMP website.
POLIMP Flyer/Leaflet
The POLIMP Flyer has been designed in order to further assist in the POLIMP dissemination. It offers a brief, yet thorough description of the POLIMP goals and challenges, as well as the expected results and contact details, while it has been disseminated in more than 40 events (More than 1,00 brochures were distributed), as well as through the POLIMP website and social media.
POLIMP Standard Presentation
POLIMP standard presentation has been created in the beginning of the project, in order to serve the detailed POLIMP communication in a customary way. This presentation, apart from POLIMP dissemination to the public, as it is published in the POLIMP website, also assists the POLIMP partners to further present the project in their various interventions in external events. For the further convenience of the partners, a second, alternative version of the POLIMP standard presentation has been created, with major adjustments particularly in its format.
POLIMP Poster
Various versions of POLIMP posters have been developed in order to disseminate the implementation of POLIMP events. In particular, a POLIMP poster was implemented in order to disseminate the POLIMP/IGES Joint Side Event at the COP 19, in Warsaw, Poland. A second version of the POLIMP poster has been implemented for the communication of the 1st POLIMP Stakeholders Workshop in Brussels, on 25 April 2014 while a third one has been elaborated to disseminate the 2nd POLIMP Stakeholders Workshop in London, on 15 October 2014. Three (3) more posters have been designed for the POLIMP COP20 Side Event, the 3rd POLIMP Stakeholders Workshop in Brussels, on 11 February 2015 and the 4th and final POLIMP Stakeholders’ Workshop in Berlin, on 15 September 2015.
POLIMP Social and Collaborative Networks
The POLIMP Social Media accounts in Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn were created, maintained and constantly enhanced with new material increasing POLIMP visibility, while improving and strengthening the consortium links with stakeholders. POLIMP Facebook account counts 94 likes, the Tweeter account has 164 followers, the LinkedIn account has 114 members.
Additionally, POLIMP Channel on YouTube has first been created to disseminate the 1st POLIMP Video produced in order to promote the project, its challenges, objectives and expected results. The YouTube account has been enhanced with one more video dedicate to Climate Policy Info Hub, a Webinars playlist with the recordings of 8 POLIMP webinars, and three playlists including the presentations of each session of the Final Conference. POLIMP videos (1st POLIMP video, video on Climate Policy Info Hub, Webinars videos, Final Conference videos) in YouTube have more than 2,050 views.
Moreover, POLIMP is fully exploiting other communication platforms, as an account has been created into My Europa platform and into My Meedia. Furthermore, POLIMP has joined the Capacity4Dev.eu network, which is an EC online knowledge sharing and collaboration platform that offers the necessary tools to help development practitioners to exchange information, share ideas and experience online. POLIMP is a member of “Environment in the EU’s Eastern Neighbours” group, which offers useful information regarding policy and relevant projects, events and the opportunity to network with practitioners in its field and counts 83 members. POLIMP reports, publications and events have been announced in capacity4dev reaching more than 2,072 views.
POLIMP Videos
The 1st POLIMP Video has been created in order to promote the challenges and objectives POLIMP, its implementation framework, as well as the expected results. The 1st POLIMP video is available not only through the POLIMP website, but also through POLIMP Channel on YouTube. A 2nd POLIMP video was developed, dedicated to the newly launched Climate Policy Info Hub. It has been uploaded to the POLIMP website and it is also available on the POLIMP YouTube channel. This video aims at introducing the Platform to the wide audience and give brief information on its functionalities and way of use. The two POLIMP videos have more than 225 views.
Publications targeting at Policy Makers & Stakeholders
POLIMP Commentaries
Commentaries were initially provisioned to be 1-3 pages-long documents, while 5-6 documents would be published in total. However, during the last year of POLIMP, it was decided among Consortium partners to incorporate this publication in the Briefing Note Issues, as an extra 2-page presentation of comments by various partners. Thus, the increasing popularity of the Briefing Note Series were highly exploited, while the Commentaries gained more visibility and also added more and interesting points of view to the subject handled by the Briefing Note.
POLIMP Policy Brief Series
Main objective of the POLIMP Policy Brief Series was to facilitate policy discussions among wider groups of stakeholders, based on the outcomes of the Stakeholder Workshops preparation and implementation. In total, three thematic Policy Briefs, discussing “Public Acceptance of Clean Technology”, “Financing of Renewable Energy”, “European Stakeholders’ Perspectives on the EU ETS”, respectively and a final Policy Brief with synthesis of recommendations upon emissions trading and financing renewable energy were produced, throughout the POLIMP implementation. Dissemination of POLIMP Policy Briefs included press releases, announcements in newsletters, in the POLIMP website and social media, as well as in Energy-L and Climate-L. A template for the POLIMP Policy Brief Series was designed making the development of Policy Brief more flexible and easy to update.
POLIMP Working Document Series
Complementing the Policy Briefs, POLIMP Working Documents focus on the more technical results of POLIMP, providing a sound basis on which policy options could be formulated. Two working documents have been published: The 1st POLIMP Working Document on Criteria for Evaluating Global Climate Regime Scenarios and the 2nd POLIMP Working Document on how Stakeholders view the EU ETS. The Working Document Series were further disseminated through press release, as well as announcement in social media, website and Climate-L and Energy-L, a templates was prepared in order for all Working Documents to have unified appearance.
POLIMP Climate Change Monitor Series
Main objective of the POLIMP Climate Change Monitor Series is to inform readers about sources of information on the developments in the UNFCCC negotiations as well as the EU climate change policy, which will be of interest to policy makers, stakeholders and interested citizens. For the implementation of the Climate Change Monitor Series, specific guidelines were disseminated to partners in order to ensure the appropriate format, timing and overall quality. The 1st issue of the POLIMP Climate Change Monitor presented the latest developments in POLIMP and external sources of information, in a unique package to interested observers. The 2nd issue welcomes Stakeholders to Dialogue and the Brussels Workshop, and presents the latest development in POLIMP and external sources of information and the 3rd POLIMP Monitor issue introduced the newly launched Climate Policy Info Hub, provided the key sources of information for the previous year, while presenting list of featured projects to interested observers. Dissemination of all issues of the POLIMP Climate Change Monitor was implemented not only through the POLIMP website and social media, but also through the communication of newsletters and press releases to a wide variety of stakeholders and interested parties. A dedicated template was also prepared in order to enable authors’ access to readymade documents which could be easily manipulated to suit POLIMP needs.
POLIMP Expert Response Survey Series
POLIMP Response Survey Series engaged a targeted group of stakeholders and experts on matters relating to EU and international climate and energy policy. They consist of “snap” surveys distributed over the span of a year to an Expert Response Group (43 stakeholders) pre-selected by the POLIMP project consortium. Each survey and report is organized into three parts; EU Climate ‘Barometer’ – Main Topic – “Buzz of the Week”. The POLIMP Survey Series are interconnected with the POLIMP Webinars. Within the 36 months of POLIMP project six (6) POLIMP Expert Response Surveys were issued, following the conduction of the respective POLIMP Webinars. The Survey Series have been uploaded to the POLIMP website and have been widely disseminated through social media, press releases and announcements through Climate –L and Energy – L lists.
POLIMP Briefing Notes
POLIMP Briefing Notes summarise the knowledge packages for priority issues. POLIMP Briefing Notes contain general conclusions from the knowledge collection and procession work, regarding policy implications: socioeconomic aspects, technology transfer, land use, market mechanisms and other policy options. Guidelines and template for their implementation were developed, while they were through POLIMP Website, Social Media, Newsletters, press releases and announcements through Climate - L and Energy - L lists. Within the POLIMP duration six (6) POLIMP Briefing Notes on “Public acceptance of renewable energy”, “Innovative financing of renewable energy”, “INDCs beyond mitigation: TNAs as testing ground”, “Harmonisation of EU renewable energy policies: The case of biomethane”, “Sustainability criteria for biomass: The importance of transparency, sustainability co-benefits, and trade-offs”, “Cost-effectiveness of renewable energy support schemes: The case of bioenergy" and five (5) COP21 Briefing Notes were issued The COP21 Briefing Notes were dedicated to the COP21 that has been held in Paris in November-December 2015. The COP21 Briefing Note Series served as a POLIMP Guide towards COP21 and presented relevant topics of interest in order to provide stakeholders with up-to-date information on critical climate policy issues. It is also important to be mentioned that POLIMP Commentaries (originally planned to be produced in 5-6 issues of 1-2 pages) were combined with the COP21 Briefing Note Series, as noted above.
POLIMP Newsletters
The dissemination and communication of the POLIMP progress and results entail the implementation of various newsletters and their circulation in the more than 2,000 POLIMP stakeholders and interested parties. 7 POLIMP Newsletter have been developed presenting the POLIMP partners, objectives, expected results, and core outcomes, disseminating POLIMP events through invitations, photos and respective links to POLIMP Website, and providing insights on the implementation of the POLIMP Webinar Series and on the POLIMP Reports and Publications. Nevertheless, apart from the POLIMP Newsletters, partners have dedicated articles in their own newsletters and magazines, presenting the POLIMP progress and activities. In particular during the project duration, POLIMP has been communicated through the implementation of articles and promotion of POLIMP events and publications in eighteen (18) newsletters in the JIQ (7), CEPS (6), Climate Strategies (5) Newsletters.
POLIMP Press Releases
Apart from the elaborated Newsletters, POLIMP further announces “on the spot” news through the implementation of press releases and their dissemination in targeted media and stakeholders and interested parties. Forty-seven (47) Press Releases press releases have been designed and disseminated through the POLIMP website and the mailing lists, as well as Energy-L and Climate-L were sent to more than 2,000 recipients. This means that more than one or two press releases (including webinars’ and events’ invitations, reminders, reports’ publications, etc.) were sent in a month during the last 1,5 year of the project further promoting POLIMP events, webinars, publications, deliverables, platform, etc.
Organization of Events targeting at Policy Makers & Stakeholders
POLIMP Events held in EU Member States
POLIMP Dialogue Event back to back with 1st DIA-CORE Regional Workshop on “Best practice policies to finance renewable energy”. By the means of a lively dialogue, POLIMP partners from UPRC communicated POLIMP knowledge to the participants of the DIA-CORE Regional Workshop on “Best practice policies to finance renewable energy” which was hosted by the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) on 6 November 2015. The objective was to contribute to informed debates among national policy-makers and stakeholders by presenting, disseminating and communicating knowledge of POLIMP. More than 80 stakeholders (mainly Greek) relevant to the field of energy and climate actively participated in a fruitful dialogue within the workshop duration. During the workshop POLIMP knowledge was presented and communicated among several regional stakeholders, while informative material was distributed.
POLIMP Final Webinar
The final POLIMP Webinar entitled “Financing Renewable Energy in Europe towards 2030” took place on 20 April 2016. The Final POLIMP Webinar, which replaced the European Parliament event in consultation and agreement with the EC Project Officer, attracted a high number of participants, 96 in total, and increased the outreach of the POLIMP results to many participants outside of Brussels. This POLIMP Webinar looked into the consequences of the new global climate deal for financing renewable energy in Europe.
POLIMP Final Conference
“The Future of EU Climate Policy after Paris”, 21 April 2016, Brussels, Belgium. The aim of the conference, organised by CEPS, was to showcase some of the results of POLIMP and to discuss them with climate policy and other experts. In particular, the conference contributed to improved climate policy making in Europe by observing two issues. Firstly, opportunities for mutual learning from the design and implementation of climate policies globally were assessed, and secondly, how EU climate policy will need to evolve after the Paris climate summit (COP21) was reflected upon. More than 180 stakeholders participated in the conference further highlighting the importance of POLIMP
outcomes. The recordings of the presentations of the three sessions have been uploaded in a dedicated playlist in POLIMP YouTube channel.
Scientific Publications and Outreach
Participations in external conferences
The effective communication and dissemination of the POLIMP activities was an essential parameter for the achievement of its goals and challenges. As so, partners were encouraged to participate into international events and conferences, in order to engage into networking and create bonds, to present POLIMP and disseminate informational material and, in general, to make POLIMP an orotund node in the climate energy and policy agenda. During the POLIMP duration, POLIMP partners (UPRC, JIN, CEPS, UniGraz) participated in 32 external conferences, made interventions about POLIMP, disseminated informational material and communicated POLIMP and achievements through presentations and networking among the participating experts.
Scientific Publications & Policy Papers
Within the framework of POLIMP dissemination and communication activities, a series of publications, targeting at policy makers and the scientific community in general has been implemented. The publications include seven (7) POLIMP articles and publications relevant to the project, submitted and accepted in international conferences and journals:
• Karakosta C., Flamos A. (2016). “Managing climate policy information facilitating knowledge transfer to policy makers”, Energies, in press.
• POLIMP Consortium (2013). “Development of a knowledge platform on post Kyoto climate policy implications”, Book of Abstracts of the 2nd International Symposium and 24th National Conference on Operational Research, 26–28 September 2013, Athens Greece.
• Karakosta C., Ioannou A., Flamos A. (2014). “Mobilizing and transferring knowledge on post-2012 climate policy”, Book of Proceedings of the 7th International Scientific Conference on Energy and Climate Change, Towards Green Economy, 8-10 October 2014, Athens, Greece (ISBN: 978-960-466-142-8).
• Karakosta C., Dede P., Flamos A. (2015). “Identification of knowledge needs on climate policy implications through a participatory process”, Book of Proceedings of the 8th International Scientific Conference on Energy and Climate Change, Contributing to Deep Decarbonization, 7-9 October 2015, Athens, Greece. Dede P., Karakosta C., Flamos A. (2015). “A methodology for the identification of knowledge needs and priorities towards climate policy making”, Book of Abstracts of the 4th Student’s Conference of the Hellenic Operational Research Society 2015, 17-18 December 2015, Athens Greece, Available in Greek.
• POLIMP Article in European Office of Cyprus Newsletter, April 2014, ““Mobilizing and transferring knowledge on post-2012 climate policy implications”
• POLIMP Article in European Office of Cyprus Newsletter, February 2016 “Climate policy knowledge for well-informed decision-making”.
Project outcomes in postgraduate courses
Selected POLIMP outcomes have been used for the update of the course titled: “Energy and Environmental Policy” of the postgraduate programme “Systems of Energy and Environmental Management” of the University of Piraeus.
List of Websites:
The project website is http://www.polimp.eu
The POLIMP platform is http://www.climatepolicyinfohub.eu
The contact person for the project is Dr. Vlasios Oikonomou (vlasis@jin.ngo)
