Prime Minister Janez Jansa from Slovenia, which will host the next EU presidency, said that he would put the issue of “Climate Change” on top of the EU presidency agenda. In January 2007 the European Commission issued a communication “Limiting Global Climate Change to 2 Degrees Celsius - Policy options for the EU and the world for 2020 and beyond” which highlights the current concerns and the need for community and international action. More recently on June 29 the Commission published a policy document on actions to be taken to alleviate the impacts of climate change; the Green Paper “Adapting to climate change in Europe – options for EU action” for the European Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. The paper is intended to be a wake-up call to prevent climate change having catastrophic dimensions later this century. Four lines of action are proposed here:

• Acting early to develop adaptation strategies in areas where current knowledge is sufficient;
• Integrating global adaptation needs into the EU’s external relations and building a new alliance with partners around the world;
• Filling knowledge gaps on adaptation through research and exchange of information at EU level;
• Setting up a European advisory group on adaptation to climate change to analyse coordinated strategies and actions.

Because of the global character of environmental problems, international cooperation is of great relevance in this field.
This topic is covered mainly in the programme “Cooperation”. The 2008 calls for proposals for the theme “Environment (including Climate Change)”, which opened on November 30, 2007 with a deadline on February 25, 2008, show no specific focus on the region of the Western Balkans (e.g. SICAs), but associated countries (from January 1, 2008 all WBC but Bosnia and Herzegovina will be associated) participate on the same grounds as EU Member States. In sub-activity 6.1.1. “Pressures on environment and climate”, EUR 42 million are available for large scale, as well as small and medium scale research projects, including coordination and support actions. In addition, other sub-activities in the Environment work-programme are also of relevance to the “Climate Change” focus, e.g. ENV.2008.3.2.1.1 dealing with methods to monitor and assess climate change impacts on cultural heritage.
The theme “Transport” is also of specific interest as, in 2008, it puts special emphasis on climate change and CO2 emissions reduction targets. Eco-innovations, greening of surface transport and other activities towards climate-friendly transport and mobility shall support both short to medium term CO2 reduction targets as well as contribute to the development of a new vision of transport systems and solutions beyond 2050. All proposals submitted to every topic need to ensure at least a neutral impact on climate change.
The “Energy” theme has a less prominent focus on technologies addressing climate change, e.g. in the field of sustainable gas networks and energy efficiency and savings as well as CO2 capture and storage.
Last but not least, also the new workprogramme on the theme “Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology” calls for eco-efficiency, fossil fuels substitution as well as topics of biodiversity under the influence of climate change.
Another relevant open call in FP7 is the “Regions of Knowledge” call in the programme “Capacities”, which opened on November 30, 2007 and runs to March 14, 2008 where “Regional contributions to the reduction of CO2 emissions” can be funded under the line of “Analysis, mentoring, integration of research agendas and definition of Joint Action Plans”. Projects should aim to contribute to defining strategies and action plans to reduce CO2 emissions at regional level. (fg)

Article published in eJournal fall/winter 2007.

Further links:
The EC Green Paper /doc/2481.html
Environment Call /link/2483.html
Regions of Knowledge Call /link/2482.html