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Objective: Despite improved understanding of the links between ecosystem health, provision of ecosystem services and human well-being, further conceptual and empirical work is needed to make the ideas of ecosystem services (ESS) and natural capital (NC) operational. OpenNESS will therefore develop innovative and practical ways of applying them in land, water and urban management: it will identify how, where and when the concepts can most effectively be applied to solve problems. To do this, it will work with public and private decision makers and stakeholders to better understand the range of policy and management problems faced in different case study contexts (ranging across locales, sectors, scales and time). OpenNESS will consolidate, refine and develop a range of spatially-explicit methods to identify, quantify and value ecosystem services, and will develop hybrid assessment methods. It will also explore the effectiveness of financial and governance mechanisms, such as payments for ecosystem services, habitat banking, biodiversity offsetting and land and ecosystem accounting. These types of interventions have potential for sustaining ESS and NC, and for the design of new economic and social investment opportunities. Finally, OpenNESS will assess how current regulatory frameworks and other institutional factors at EU and national levels enable or constrain consideration of ESS and NC, and identify the implications for issues related to well-being, governance and competitiveness. OpenNESS will analyse the knowledge that is needed to define ESS and NC in the legal, administrative and political contexts that are relevant to the EU. The work will deliver a menu of multi-scale solutions to be used in real life situations by stakeholders, practitioners, and decision makers in public and business organizations, by providing new frameworks, data-sets, methods and tools that are fit-for-purpose and sensitive to the plurality of decision-making contexts.
Transitions to low-carbon societies take place at multiple and complementary scales. Transition processes are highly dependent on the innovative potential of community-based initiatives and their articulation with appropriate institutional architecture. Community-based initiatives are potentially more adaptable and less constrained by current structural circumstances than top-down policies and can give impetus to large-scale and technology driven changes. TESS will provide an understanding on the upscaling possibilities of such high-potential community-based initiatives by addressing two main questions: What is the impact of community-based initiatives in terms of carbon reduction potential and economic effect? What institutional structures (values, policies and mechanisms) support these initiatives in persisting beyond the initial phase and moving into an acceleration phase, spreading desired impacts? Answers will be provided through (1) a novel measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) framework for benchmarking community-based initiatives. This will enable quantifiable, comparable and standardised evaluation, and (2) the identification of success factors for the emergence, persistence and diffusion of promising initiatives, including online initiatives. We will identify these initiatives through case studies across regions and sectors and produce a systemic understanding of their impact on societal transitions towards sustainability. Our research will be integrated and transdisciplinary, with the unique opportunity to bring together social and natural scientists to foster a transition towards European societal sustainability. Our work will feed into and extend the Climate Adapt database to facilitate reconciliation of mitigation and adaptation and connect to Europe wide evaluation approaches such as the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) of the Rural Development Programmes.
Objective: BioEcoSIM comprises R&D and demonstration of an integrated approach and business model that has wide EU27 applicability in the agriculture sector. The new European Bio-economy Strategy aims to increase the use of bio-based raw materials. Thus, large quantities of fertilisers will be required. Therefore, this project targets to produce sustainable soil improving products that can be easily handled, transported, and applied. BioEcoSIM will valorise livestock manure as an important example of valuable bio-waste into 1) pathogen-free, P-rich organic soil amendment (P-rich biochar), 2) slow releasing mineral fertilisers and 3) reclaimed water. By doing this, we will i) reduce negative environmental impacts (eutrophication of water bodies, and NH3 and N2O emissions) in intensive livestock regions, ii) help to decrease NH3 produced by the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process, (iii) mitigate EUs dependency on the depleting mineral sources for P-fertilisers, (iv) increase water efficiency use in agriculture and (v) support European Strategies and Directives, while generating economic benefits in the agriculture and bio-economy sector. The project will combine three innovative technologies 1) superheated steam drying and non-catalytic pyrolysis to convert carbon in manure into P-rich biochar and syngas, 2) electrolytic precipitation of struvite and calcium phosphate and 3) selective separation and recovery of NH3 by gas-permeable membrane. Energy required in-process will be generated through combustion of syngas, thus reducing the pressure on finite fossil fuel. Water reclaimed from manure will be utilised for livestock production and/or irrigation. The sustainability of this approach will be validated against standards ISO14040 and ISO14044. Implementation of the R&D results will help fulfil the need for economically viable and environmentally benign practices in European agriculture to move towards a more resource-efficient and circular economy.
Objective: The main objective of the NAWADES project is to study, design, produce, and test new water desalination filter technology from four points of view: 1. the structure of multi-layer membrane filter, including UV light distributed by glass fibres inside the membrane stack; 2. the materials used to build the filter, including fouling and scaling monitoring; 3. the coating treatments applied to the surface of the filter using plasma and nano-TiO2 fibres; 4. the filtration process with integrated removal of bio-fouling. The new filter technology shall provide long-life and antifouling filters to be used in Reverse Osmosis (RO) water desalinisation processes with a higher efficiency and life-time, less energy consumption (lower pressure), and less maintenance (lower cost).
This coordinating action will focus on climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials issues and will aim to enhance collaboration between researchers in the EU and the ASEAN region. Addressing these issues in a coherent way is vital for sustainable development that leads to economic prosperity, social cohesion and environmental integrity. Both regions have developed innovative ideas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to adapt to climate change, improve resource efficiency and manage raw materials. SUSTAIN EU-ASEAN will draw primarily on EU funded projects focusing on these issues from various programmes, such as the FP7, SWITCH-Asia, International cooperation and others and will also feed in experiences from the ASEAN region and bilateral projects into the mutual learning process. The approach taken by project is driven primarily by the assumption that a wealth of knowledge has been generated by EU-funded projects and other initiatives relevant for the ASEAN region. However, the exploitation and uptake of these research results and potential joint innovations can still be improved and so can the collaboration between researchers from the EU and the ASEAN region. To facilitate this, but also to advance research initiated by Europe, SUSTAIN EU-ASEAN will: - Identify and cluster EU-funded projects on climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials issues relevant for the ASEAN region, analyse thematic gaps and funding and cooperation opportunities (WP1); - Provide a number of services, such as project twinning, access to mobility funds, showcasing and training to interested projects and institutions which aim to enhanced cooperation with ASEAN counterparts, initiate pilot Actions to enhance uptake and implementation as show cases for EU-ASEAN cooperation (WP2); - Facilitate vision building and the development of concrete proposals for more sustainable collaboration (WP3).
Climate change mitigation now focus on production, where upward drivers of GHG emissions come from consumption. Demand side oriented policies hence can complement domestic GHG reduction efforts. The core aim of this project is to - 1. Stimulate innovative demand side oriented climate policies by improved shared insight in consumption emissions. - 2. Realize a more effective policy mix for achieving the objectives of the EU policy packages (e.g. Low carbon economy roadmap) There are significant questions about consumption based carbon accounting (CBCA) systems (Gap 1: CBCA reliability) and demand side policies (effectiveness (Gap 2) and societal impacts (Gap 3)). Stakeholders hence can easily question their added value (Gap 4). Our project will overcome this problem via the following responses - 1. (WP4). Comparing the major CBCA databases (EXIOBASE, WIOD, GTAP, EORA), identifying key factors causing uncertainty, assessing upward drivers, resulting in CBCA that can be implemented by formal players in the climate community (UNFCCC, IEA, others) - 2. (WP5 and WP6). Providing an in-depth analysis of the feasibilities of consumption based and trade related policies, assessing their effectiveness, and compatibility with e.g. WTO rules (WP5). Specific case studies will zoom in on practical improvement options and implications for specific sectors (WP6) - 3. (WP7). Improving some of the most ambitious global economic models, E3ME/E3MG, EXIOMOD and IPTS's FIDELIO relation to point 1 so that they capture side-effects and rebound effects, impacts on trade, investment etc. of consumption based policies - 4. (WP8 and WP2). Creating an implementation roadmap for consumption based accounts and policies (WP8) endorsed by a critical mass of stakeholders via policy-science brokerage activities (WP2). The project is complemented by Management (WP1) and an inception phase (WP3) and executed by a group of the most renowned institutes in CBCA, economic modeling and climate policy.
Urban regions in the EU face increasing but uncertain flood risks due to urbanization and the effects of climate change. In European (a.o. the Flood Risk Directive) and in national and regional policies, attempts are made to diversify and align different Flood Risk Strategies (FRSs). In our proposal, five such strategies are distinguished: risk prevention; flood defense; mitigation; preparation; and recovery. We assume that vulnerable urban agglomerations will be more resilient if multiple FRSs are applied simultaneously, linked together and aligned. At the same time, the application of a diverse cluster of FRSs has to be appropriate, i.e. attuned to the physical and social context. The latter asks for innovative Flood Risk Governance Arrangements (FRGAs). In the proposed program, insights from governance and legal scholars will be integrated and combined, leading to policy design principles for FRGAs as well as concrete recommendations for policy and law at the level of the EU, its member states, regional authorities, and public-private partnerships. Across different EU countries and regions, we expect to identify different mixes of FRSs. We will analyze, explain and evaluate the emergence and dominance of the FRGAs through which these FRSs are institutionally embedded. For this, a comparative analysis of FRGAs in six EU member states will be carried out. This analysis will reveal good practices, provide understanding of the resilience of FRSs as well as their appropriateness in different physical, social and legal contexts. The design principles thus derived, will be brought together in a design-oriented framework for ex-ante evaluation of FRGAs. As part of the program, various target group specific knowledge dissemination activities will be carried out, aimed at regional stakeholders, high level policymakers and EU officers. To this end, Grontmij, a consultancy company, and CEPRI (The European centre for flood risk prevention) have been included in the consortium, apart from universities in the six EU member states.'
Objective: WAHARA will take a transdisciplinary approach to develop innovative, locally adapted water harvesting solutions with wider relevance for rain-fed Africa. Water harvesting technologies play a key role in bringing about an urgently needed increase in agricultural productivity, and to improve food and water security in rural areas. Water harvesting technologies enhance water buffering capacity, contributing to the resilience of African dry lands to climate variability and climate change, as well as to socio-economic changes such as population growth and urbanisation. To ensure the continental relevance of project results, research will concentrate on four geographically dispersed study sites in Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Zambia, covering diverse socio-economic conditions and a range from arid to sub-humid climates. The project emphasizes: i) participatory technology design, i.e. selecting and adapting technologies that have synergies with existing farming systems and that are preferred by local stakeholders, yet tap from a global repertoire of innovative options; ii) sustainable impact, i.e. technologies that combine multiple uses of water, green and blue water management, and integrated water and nutrient management. Using models, water harvesting systems will be designed for maximum impact without compromising downstream water-users, contributing to sustainable regional development; iii) integration and adaptability, i.e. paying attention to the generic lessons to be learned from local experiences, and developing guidelines on how technologies can be adapted to different conditions; and iv) learning and action, i.e. a strategy will be developed to enable learning and action from successes achieved locally: a. within a region, to upscale from water harvesting technologies to water harvesting systems, and b. across regions, promoting knowledge exchange at continental scale.
Objective: The ECO2 project sets out to assess the risks associated with the storage of CO2 below the seabed. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is regarded as a key technology for the reduction of CO2 emissions from power plants and other sources at the European and international level. The EU will hence support a selected portfolio of demonstration projects to promote, at industrial scale, the implementation of CCS in Europe. Several of these projects aim to store CO2 below the seabed. However, little is known about the short-term and long-term impacts of CO2 storage on marine ecosystems even though CO2 has been stored sub-seabed in the North Sea (Sleipner) for over 13 years and for one year in the Barents Sea (Snhvit). Against this background, the proposed ECO2 project will assess the likelihood of leakage and impact of leakage on marine ecosystems. In order to do so ECO2 will study a sub-seabed storage site in operation since 1996 (Sleipner, 90 m water depth), a recently opened site (Snhvit, 2008, 330 m water depth), and a potential storage site located in the Polish sector of the Baltic Sea (B3 field site, 80 m water depth) covering the major geological settings to be used for the storage of CO2. Novel monitoring techniques will be applied to detect and quantify the fluxes of formation fluids, natural gas, and CO2 from storage sites and to develop appropriate and effective monitoring strategies. Field work at storage sites will be supported by modelling and laboratory experiments and complemented by process and monitoring studies at natural CO2 seeps that serve as analogues for potential CO2 leaks at storage sites. ECO2 will also investigate the perception of marine CCS in the public and develop effective means to disseminate the project results to stakeholders and policymakers. Finally, a best practice guide for the management of sub-seabed CO2 storage sites will be developed applying the precautionary principle and valuing the costs for monitoring and remediation.
Objective: 'LCA to go' develops sectoral methods and tools for bio-based plastics, industrial machinery, electronics, renewable energy, sensors and smart textiles. These sectors have been chosen, as the manufacturers show a high interest in making clear the environmental benefits of their products to customers ('Green industries') and in prioritizing so they can reduce their environmental impacts. This is particularly the case for SMEs. Free webtools ('apps') will serve dedicated needs of these sectors, addressing the specifics of the technologies and implementing parameterised models, such as calculators for energy-break-even-point of photovoltaics, Product Carbon Footprints (PCF) based on technology parameters of printed circuit boards, and Key Environmental Performance Indicators (KEPIs) for smart textiles. Selected Product Category Rules will be developed to provide a robust LCA guidance for SMEs. Practically, the project website will provide an exchange of scientifically validated data templates, to assist SMEs to pass the right questions to their suppliers. Carbon Footprints are a perfect entry point for SMEs to LCA strategies. Thus, implementation of an SME-compatible PCF methodology is a key element of the project. The approaches will be tested in 7 sectoral case studies, involving suppliers, end-product manufacturers and engineering companies. Inter-linkages between the sectors (on a technical and data level) will be thoroughly addressed. A broad dissemination campaign includes a mentoring programme for 100 SMEs, which will act as showcases for others, boosting use of LCA approaches among European SMEs at large. RTD and dissemination activities will be complemented by policy recommendations and liaison with standardisation activities. The web-tools, being compatible with ILCD data and other external sources, will be made available as open source software, to be adapted to other sectors. The project will have a direct impact on sectors representing nearly 500,000 SMEs.
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