DialoguE on European Decarbonisation Strategies

Project Information

DEEDS

Grant agreement ID: 776646

DOI

10.3030/776646

Project closed

EC signature date 30 October 2017

Start date 1 October 2017

End date 30 September 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Total cost

€ 2 993 831,25

EU contribution

€ 2 993 831,25

Coordinated by

NEDERLANDSE ORGANISATIE VOOR TOEGEPAST NATUURWETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK TNO
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DEEDS (DialoguE on European Decarbonisation Strategies)

Reporting period: 2019-04-01 to 2020-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Climate change is a major challenge for society. In the Paris Agreement of December 2015, 195 countries agreed to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. In 2019, the European Member States agreed on the Green Deal, an environmental and growth policy that provides the framework for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. To respond to the crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU has worked on a recovery plan which is placed firmly in the context of the Green Deal. Hence, the transition to carbon neutrality becomes the main mean for the recovery from COVID-19 pandemic and, further, for the economic growth of Europe.
The European Commission will extensively mobilise the means of science for supporting EU climate action towards a low-carbon future, by launching – under Horizon 2020 – a European Decarbonisation Pathways Initiative (EDPI): a comprehensive portfolio of dedicated research and innovation actions. In order to “assist the Commission in the preparation of legislative proposals and policy initiatives” a High-level Panel of the European Decarbonisation Pathways Initiative (EDPI) was established in October 2016.
An overarching goal of the DEEDS-project is to create a broad dialogue on the vision for a carbon-neutral Europe by 2050 and associated decarbonisation pathways. To this end the project creates a network of leading scientists and relevant research projects related to European decarbonisation pathways. It furthermore supports the EDPI and its High-level Panel in their tasks, through delivering state-of-the art knowledge on selected decarbonisation pathways and related topics. It fosters the uptake of the report and recommendations of the High-level Panel through dedicated co-creation workshops with policy makers (at different levels), business representatives, scientists, NGO’s and other stakeholders and through the communication and dissemination channels of DEEDS. Moreover, the DEEDS project contributed in the public debate on recovery after the COVID-19 crisis with Research & Innovation (R&I) policy recommendations for a green recovery towards the decarbonisation of Europe.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

"The project has built-in flexibility in planning and addressing topics, to be able to align with the activities of the High-Level Panel and with the new developments in the European policy context (Green Deal, Recovery plan after COVID-19) in the best way. This worked out quite well and DEEDS was able to consistently contribute to the actual discussions on recovery after COVID-19 and decarbonisation targets. However, this resulted in some deviations in the execution of the activities (some ahead of schedule and some postponed) and in the content of the deliverables. All deliverables have been produced within the duration of the project.
In the first part of this reporting period, the activities of the DEEDS-project focused mainly on the realisation of the Research Agenda, which could be downloaded from the DEEDS-website. The delivery of the Research Agenda has been anticipated with respect to the original plans defined in the Grant Agreement. Thanks to the work done by the High Level Panel and the consulting workshops organized by the DEEDS-project, the Research Agenda provided insights on the research gaps and R&I recommendations, linked to the Green Deal, related to energy, industry, cities, mobility, agriculture, finance, fair energy transition and cross cutting topics.
In the second part of the reporting period the DEEDS-project focused on the elaboration of the policy briefs for the six Decarbonisation Pathways. In addition, a special policy brief on the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on Decarbonisation Pathways. Furthermore, Knowledge and Scenario databases were produced. The knowledge base constitutes the quantitative backbone on which the different activities of this project can rely. The Scenario Explorer presents an ensemble of quantitative, model-based climate change mitigation pathways. Moreover the Business Guide was produced that summarises the fast-moving energy policy, technology and societal landscape in Europe.
Last but but not least, several events took place throughout the current reporting period. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic these events had to be organised online. On June 25th, 2020 a session at EUropean Sustainable Energy Week 2020 took place on the topic ""Towards carbon neutrality in a thriving EU industrial sector – markets, investment and financing"". The session discussed financing and de-risking green markets, research and innovation activities, and policies. The session was organised by DEEDS and the sister projects REINVENT and INNOPATH in collaboration with Solar Heat Europe and Bioenergy Europe. The session was followed by more that 250 participants. The Final Conference took place on 15-16 September 2020. Because online, the conference consisted of four different sessions: 1) Decarbonisation pathways for European Member States and Regions; 2) Workshop: Scenario and Knowledge databases for Decarbonisation Pathways in Europe; 3) Decarbonisation: the role of businesses and the pathways for the industrial sector; 4) Decarbonisation challenges for the Green Deal and how to solve them. Overall the DEEDS final conference was followed by more than 190 viewers."

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project delivered within the project duration all the products expected by Grant Agreement. Through events and workshops the activities of the DEEDS-project were disseminated and discussed with different audiences: Member State policy makers, local and regional policy makers, businesses, science & knowledge institutes, NGO’s and other types of civic organisations. These were very important to produce conclusions and recommendations.
The project went even further bringing its contribution to the discussion on the recovery after COVID-19, the Green Deal, the opportunities and challenges.
All results of the project can be found on the DEEDS website.

DEEDS @ COP24 Katowic dec 2018