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Science for successful, high-integrity voluntary climate initiatives
Funding Program | Cluster 5 - Destination 1: Climate sciences and responses for the transformation towards climate neutrality | |
Call number | HORIZON-CL5-2023-D1-01-05 | |
deadlines | Opening 13.12.2022 | Deadline 18.04.2023 17:00 |
Funding rate | 100% | |
Call budget | € 5,500,000.00 | |
Estimated EU contribution per project | € 5,500,000.00 | |
Link to the call | ec.europa.eu | |
Link to the submission | ec.europa.eu |
Call content
Call objectives | To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement global GHG emissions should reach “net-zero” by mid-century and be halved by 2030 compared to current levels. This requires immediate, rapid and large-scale emissions reductions across all sectors of the economy. Voluntary initiatives and pledges by non-state actors, such as the private sector, financial institutions, civil society, cities and subnational authorities could help fill the gap, mobilise finance and accelerate the transformation process. However, the integrity-related concerns of these actions must first be overcome and require better understanding of the actual climate impacts and other potential side-effects. This action should advance the knowledge about the role of voluntary initiatives in achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal, including consistency and interactions with global/national government commitments, regulated markets and between each other. It should address barriers and weaknesses associated with voluntary initiatives, such as inconsistency of definitions and claims (e.g. net-zero, carbon positive, carbon negative, climate neutral, etc.), their environmental integrity, fragmentation, complexity, poor measurement, verification and reporting practices as well as concerns related to additionality, double counting, transparency, governance, and accounting of the wider social and ecological consequences. The action should evaluate the role of compensation schemes in voluntary climate initiatives, and the implications for transition pathways. To this end, it should improve the understanding of the impacts of carbon offsets, assess their risks and limitations, investigate how offsets affect and interact with other emission abatement options, and under which conditions they could accelerate cost-effective mitigation. It should analyse the scientific integrity of various existing offsetting schemes, identify their strengths and weaknesses and develop clear scientific guidance about their proper use to safeguard climate-positive outcomes. This should include identification of synergies and avoidance of trade-offs with other policy objectives, such as biodiversity related ones, and full respect of the “do no significant harm” principle. Any promotion of offsetting schemes is out of scope of this call. The action should also explore and assess different options for improved monitoring, reporting and verification of various voluntary climate initiatives, including through leveraging of satellite-based earth observation such as Copernicus/ Galileo/EGNOS. Finally, it should enhance the modelling tools and integrated assessment frameworks to better integrate voluntary climate initiatives into transition pathway analysis and to address the specific needs of non-state actors (but not necessarily with a single model/tool). Co-creation with various stakeholders in the private and public sectors, including actors from developing countries, is expected under this action to ensure that the outcomes produced remain relevant for the end-users. Actions should envisage clustering activities with other relevant ongoing and selected projects for cross-projects cooperation and exchange of results, including as participation in joint meetings and communication events. read more |
Expected results | Projects results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
read more |
Regions / countries for funding | EU Member States, Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Georgia (საქართველო), Island (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Montenegro (Црна Гора), Morocco (المغرب), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна), United Kingdom |
eligible entities | EU Body, Education and training institution, International organization, Natural Person, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) |
Mandatory partnership | Yes |
Project Partnership | To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
Only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:
Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic. A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality. Specific cases:
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other eligibility criteria | If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). |
Additional information
Topics |
Administration & Governance, Institutional Capacity & Cooperation, Air Quality, Biodiversity & Environment, Climate & Climate Change, Water quality & management |
Relevance for EU Macro-Region | EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region |
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) |
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Additional Information | All proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funders & Tenders Portal electronic submission system (accessible via the topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible. Proposals must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents, e.g. plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results including communication activities, etc. The application form will have two parts:
Annexes and supporting documents will be directly available in the submission system and must be uploaded as PDF files (or other formats allowed by the system). The limit for a full application (Part B) is 45 pages. Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional obligations regarding open science practices: Open access to any new modules, models or tools developed from scratch or substantially improved with the use of EU funding under the action must be ensured through documentation, availability of model code and input data developed under the action. |
Call documents | HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 5, Destination 1 (664kB) |
Contact | National Contact Points for Horizon Europe Website |
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