The European Green Deal
The Commission's President Ursula von der Leyen presented on 11 December 2019 the European Green Deal, a plan to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The Green Deal is a new growth strategy to make the EU's economy sustainable and create sustainable industry and transport, without leaving anyone behind. A European Climate Law will have an aim to turn this political commitment into a legal obligation.
The Green Deal is a step towards a more holistic and integrated approach to address climate and environment-related challenges. It also attempts to mainstream environmental policy by bringing together, and improving, several existing policies, initiatives, and funding programmes dedicated to addressing sustainability and climate change.
Green Deal call for proposals
The European Commission has launched the Horizon 2020-funded European Green Deal Call which addresses the biggest climate issues and aims to protect the ecosystems and biodiversity. The call will also support the EU recovery by creating innovation opportunities to solve the ecological challenges.
The call tackles eight thematic and two horizontal areas. Due to the urgency of the current challenges, this Green Deal Call differs from previous Horizon 2020 calls: it aims for results in short period with a perspective of long-term impact. The actions focus on rapid scalability, dissemination and uptake.
As the Green Deal call is of interest to several ERRIN working groups, a project facilitation workshop has been organised on the Area 6: Farm to Fork. Following the growing interest, a space for expressions of interest in joining a consortium has been created and more similar events will be organised in the coming months.
Green Deal call for proposals - ERRIN noticeboard
Space for connecting members who are interested in applying for the Horizon 2020-funded European Green Deal Call.
The European Climate Pact
An opportunity that emerges from the Green Deal proposal is the European Climate Pact, which aims to engage citizens and communities in action for the climate and environment. The Commission will promote pledges (public commitments) and support initiatives with knowledge/capacity-building to raise awareness and build understanding of climate change. The European Climate Pact will be launched in November 2020.
The Pact offers a great opportunity to strengthen collaboration and accelerate the green transition embracing this ecosystem approach, which is close to the ecosystem thinking that ERRIN has been strongly advocating for in Horizon Europe: a multi-actor collaboration that would lead to a joint commitment towards decarbonisation.
ERRIN has gathered inputs from members on their expectations towards the Climate Pact and developed a contribution proposal. The document has opened a dialogue on how ERRIN and the members can become an important partner in this initiative and led to an ongoing discussion on their active role.
