Climate sciences and responses for the transformation towards climate neutrality (2023/24)

Europe has been at the forefront of climate science and should retain its leadership position to support EU policies as well as international efforts for a global uptake of climate action in line with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including biodiversity objectives. Advancing climate science and further broadening and deepening the knowledge base is essential to inform the societal transition towards a climate neutral and climate resilient society by 2050, as well as towards a more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target by 2030. It will involve research that furthers our understanding of past, present and expected future changes in climate and its implications on ecosystems and society, closing knowledge gaps, and the development of the tools that support policy coherence and the implementation of effective mitigation and adaptation solutions.

The activities implemented under this section will enable the transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society and economy through improving the knowledge of the Earth system and the ability to predict and project its changes under different natural and socio-economic drivers. This includes a better understanding of society’s response and behavioural changes, allowing a better estimation of the impacts of climate change and the design and evaluation of solutions and pathways for climate change mitigation and adaptation and related social transformation.

This Destination contributes directly to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientation D ”Making Europe the first digitally led circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy through the transformation of its mobility, energy, construction and production systems” and the impact area “Climate change mitigation and adaptation”.

In line with the Strategic Plan, the overall expected impact of this Destination is to contribute to the “Transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society and economy enabled through advanced climate science, pathways and responses to climate change (mitigation and adaptation) and behavioural transformations”, notably through:

• Advancing knowledge and providing solutions in the any of following areas:
  • Earth system science;
  • Pathways to climate neutrality;
  • Climate change adaptation;
  • Climate services;
  • Social science for climate action; and
  • Better understanding of climate-ecosystems interactions.
• Contributing substantially to key international assessments such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) or the European Environment Agency (e.g. European environment - state and outlook reports, SOER).
• Strengthening the European Research Area on climate change.
• Increasing the transparency, robustness, trustworthiness and practical usability of the knowledge base on climate change for use by policy makers, practitioners, other stakeholders and citizens.

Coordination and synergies should be fostered between activities supported under this destination and those under other destinations of cluster 5, as well as with other clusters of Horizon Europe.

In particular, complementarities with cluster 4 and cluster 6 should be taken into account by planning for adequate resources for co-ordination and clustering activities. Following a systemic approach, this destination concentrates on activities related to climate science and modelling, whereas cluster 4 supports activities in the area of low-carbon and circular industry, and cluster 6 contributes to R&I on the implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions in the areas covered by cluster 6 (notably Intervention Area (IA) 1 on biodiversity and nature-based solutions (NBS), Earth observation, IA 4 on seas, oceans and inland waters…).

Coordination and synergies are also encouraged with the activities funded under the work programmes on the Horizon Europe missions, in particular the Mission “Adaptation to Climate Change”, the Mission “Climate Neutral and Smart Cities” and the Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030”. While this destination supports upstream research activities on climate science, the Missions focus on the testing, demonstration and scale up of solutions to address the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation.

Actions should envisage clustering activities with other relevant ongoing and selected projects for cross-projects cooperation, consultations and joint activities on crosscutting issues and share of results, as well as participating in joint meetings and communication events. To this end, proposals should foresee a dedicated work package and/or task and earmark the appropriate resources accordingly.

Synergies are also sought throughout this destination with the work of the European Space Agency (ESA), in order to ensure complementarity and mutual benefit regarding research and innovation actions conducted at the ESA.