Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RESPIN (REinforce Science-Policy interfaces in innovative ways to boost effectiveness and INterconnectedness of biodiversity and climate policies)
Période du rapport: 2024-01-01 au 2025-06-30
Climate change and biodiversity loss are among the most pressing global challenges and they are deeply interconnected. Yet, scientific knowledge and policy responses often remain siloed. This fragmentation persists despite the existence of robust knowledge platforms, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which synthesise scientific evidence to inform decision-making. Although a strong knowledge base exists, decision making remains fragmented and does not yet approach biodiversity and climate relevant sector policies in an integrated way. The RESPIN project - short for REinforcing Science-Policy INterfaces for integrated biodiversity and climate knowledge and policies – is a Horizon Europe- funded initiative addressing this critical disconnect. Bringing together 11 partners from 10 countries across Europe, Latin America, and Africa, RESPIN strengthens the interface between science and policy to support more coherent, inclusive, and impactful governance for climate and biodiversity. RESPIN supports knowledge exchange between IPBES and IPCC experts and strengthens links with policymakers to improve the uptake of scientific findings. The project also advances inclusive expert participation, capacity building, and encourages collaboration across local, national, and international levels. To achieve this, RESPIN is structured around five core functions:
1. Empowering knowledge holders
2. Empowering knowledge users
3. Strengthening SPI at the EU level
4. Upscaling and communication
5. Coordination and consulting
1. Empowering knowledge holders
2. Empowering knowledge users
3. Strengthening SPI at the EU level
4. Upscaling and communication
5. Coordination and consulting
During the first initial funding period, RESPIN focused on improving expert engagement in global biodiversity and climate processes, strengthening science-policy connections at national and subnational levels, and supporting the use of IPBES and IPCC knowledge in EU policy and international negotiations. To identify who is involved in global biodiversity and climate assessments and what prevents wider participation a survey was conducted across Europe, Central Asia, Colombia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This highlighted key barriers and opportunities for involving more experts in science-policy work. In March 2025, the PESC-RESPIN meeting in Brussels brought together national focal points (NFPs), scientists, and stakeholder to connect biodiversity and climate communities in Europe and Central Asia. To explore how scientific findings are actually used in decision-making, a social network analysis in seven countries mapped information flows between ministries, researchers, and civil society, and highlighted gaps in communication. Workshops in three regions—Catalonia (Spain), Valle del Cauca (Colombia), and Wiesbaden (Germany)—brought local actors together to identify common challenges, including low visibility of IPBES/IPCC outputs, poor coordination between climate and biodiversity efforts, and limited institutional capacity. RESPIN also assessed how the work of MAES (Mapping Europe’s ecosystems) could address knowledge gaps identified in global assessments. At the EU level, a workshop with European Commission staff explored how to make global assessments more useful for policymaking. Key takeaways are the importance of clear and timely information, and of intuitional changes that better connect science and policy. RESPIN also analyzed how well EU climate, biodiversity, agriculture, and trade policies reflect global science findings, and conducted interviews to understand how these policies are put into practice. Finally, RESPIN supported the EU delegation during the 2024 IPBES 11 plenary in Namibia and shared project findings through stakeholder events, ensuring that decisions at EU and international level are informed by the best available knowledge on biodiversity and climate change.
RESPIN has advanced SPIs for biodiversity and climate at global, national, and subnational levels. To improve expert’s engagement in global assessments, RESPIN conducted the first comprehensive landscape analysis comparing capacity-building activities for IPBES and IPCC. Based on a survey of 700 experts, RESPIN developed recommendations for targeted materials and topics to strengthen expert participation. To strengthen collaboration between biodiversity and climate communities, RESPIN organized the first joint PESC-RESPIN event. This event brought biodiversity and climate communities together to exchange on cross-cutting issues such as institutional engagement and capacity-building strategies. To support the design of more inclusive, context-sensitive SPI mechanisms, RESPIN delivered the first comparative analysis of subnational knowledge uptake barriers through 3 multi-stakeholder workshops. These revealed shared obstacles such as institutional silos and the undervaluation of biodiversity, as well as context-specific dynamics like decentralization gaps and political resistance. The social network analysis mapped national knowledge uptake strategies allowing RESPIN to target interventions and future guidance more precisely. Additionally, RESPIN conducted a novel policy coherence analysis, which revealed that while IPBES and IPCC messages are partly reflected in the European Green Deal, growth-related drivers remain insufficiently addressed. To ensure further uptake and long-term success, key enablers include institutionalization and sustainable funding, such as permanent SPI platforms and hybrid knowledge roles, beyond the project. Scaling and replication of participatory approaches are also crucial: subnational workshop formats and capacity-building activities should be demonstrated, adapted, and replicated across Europe and internationally.