REMARKABLE - IRI UL

Call for Proposals

REMARKABLE is an international project co-funded by the European Union under. the Horizon
2020 programme (LC-SC3-EC-5-2020 – Supporting public authorities in driving the energy transition).

Duration

1. 9. 2021 – 31. 8. 2024

Total Eligible Costs

€ 1 653 357,50

Project Website and Social Media

climateleaders.eu

https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/remarkable-climate-leaders/

Contact at IRI UL

Gregor Cerinšek

Project Consortium

Key challenge

In March 2020, the EU adopted its long-term strategy to be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as required under the Paris Agreement. With this strategy, the EU reaffirmed its commitment to the 2050 climate neutrality goal. By agreeing and delivering on the ambitious social and economic transformation, the EU and its member states aim to inspire global climate action and demonstrate that moving towards climate neutrality is not only imperative, but also both feasible and desirable.

“We are in a climate emergency. As President of the European Council, I have a clear goal: to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent on the planet by 2050.” (Charles Michel, European Council President).

In July 2020 the EU’s COVID Recovery Package was approved by the EU Council. Action on Climate Change is at the foundation of this package. However, the Climate Emergency and Energy Transition agendas require clear leadership, ambition, courage and conviction if our 2050 targets and goals are to be achieved. Such Climate Leadership is unfortunately still in short supply.

While initially viewed as a high-level focus by only those at the uppermost levels in government, Climate Leadership has now become viewed as an important issue at all levels – from local community leaders to presidents. Most importantly, REMARKABLE identifies lack of identifiable leaders at a municipality level as a central issue of Climate Leadership across the EU. While some communities are trying to focus on mitigation and adaptation strategies, they are frequently lacking the strong leadership that will help them achieve a robust response. REMARKABLE will help to minimize this issue.

Aim

In order to address the lack of Climate Leadership at the local-level, REMARKABLE will support local leaders to deliver a step change in progress towards carbon neutrality by 2050 in 7 regions across Europe. To this end, REMARKABLE will:

Establish, by 2024, a network of Current and Emerging Climate Leaders who – through their actions and inspiration – will drive their municipalities, public authorities, communities and regions to transform their approaches from ones focused on energy efficiency/renewables to ones focused on the strategic goal of climate neutrality by 2050. Eventually this network will incorporate into EU Climate Leaders Circle, reaching up to 320 members by 2024. Networking activities will, among others, include an innovative Climate Neutrality Challenge for Young Climate Leaders. Furthermore, the REMARKABLE Circle will create synergies with existing networks and initiatives (e.g. COMO, ManagEnergy) to support and enhance their impacts with the ambition of mobilising 10,000 stakeholders by 2030 (2,000 by 2024).
Build new leadership capacity in 120 actors from 7 countries in Europe though a Climate Leadership Programme (CLP). The CLP will be inspired by ethnographic research and will be designed with and for leaders across public authorities.
Facilitate the creation of 60 Roadmaps to Climate Neutrality for public authorities aiming at reaching targets by 2050. These Roadmaps will allow our Climate Leaders to translate strategic aspirations and policy ambitions into concrete and disruptive far-reaching measures stimulating €300m investment by 2030.
Develop a Climate and Energy Check Tool along with a Climate Neutrality Roadmap Guide.
Develop 14 new services in the 7 Regional Energy Agencies involved in REMARKABLE. Services in consideration include Climate Neutrality Training, Climate One Stop Shops, and innovative Financing Solutions. Through such services, participating agencies will expand their roles as change agents in the Clean Energy Transition and Climate Neutrality challenges.

Approach

REMARKABLE will therefore work on fostering the much-needed emerging generation of Climate Leaders, providing them external advice mechanism required for the successful implementation of the European Climate Pact. As part of the European Green Deal, the EC’s Climate Pact aims at giving everyone a voice and space to design new climate and environmental actions, amplify existing actions and interconnect grassroots initiatives. Through its activities REMARKABLE will engage relevant stakeholders who can act as a sounding board for Pact plans. Uniting personalities from a variety of horizons, REMARKABLE will be in a position to provide input for – and feedback on – the Pact’s implementation on the ground, and advise on its further development and implementation in specific contexts.