2. Deputy Director-General, DG Joint Research Centre, European Commission
Informing climate change actions for the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement
by Charlina Vitcheva
Deputy Director-General, DG Joint Research Centre, European Commission
Meeting of the European Committee of the Regions Commission for Environment, Climate change and Energy
Innovative Local action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, Espoo, 8 July 2019

3. JRC role: Support EU policies, incl
JRC role: Support EU policies, incl. in cities, with independent evidence in whole policy cycle
Independent of private, commercial or national interests
6 locations in 5 Member States: Italy, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain
Both Knowledge Production and Knowledge Management
Policy neutral: has no policy agenda of its own
30% activities in policy preparation,
70% in implementation
42 lаrge-scale research facilities, more than 110 online databases
Focus on Commission / Euratom priorities (Activities co-designed with partner DGs / Member States respectively)
JRC
83% of core research staff with PhDs
More than 100 economic, bio-physical and nuclear models
Over 1,400 scientific publications per year,
many highly cited

4. Handbooks to support cities, regions and Member States
Online version:
(available in EN, FR, DE, ES, IT and PL)
Online version:

5. Content:
SDGs and Climate Change
Informing the Transition
City-level Actions
Concluding remarks

6. SDGs and Climate Change

8. Climate Change: the challenges
Global warming already reached 1°C.
18 of the warmest years in the last 2 decades and extreme heat waves in EU for 4 of the last 5 years.
Real impact on EU economy & environment.
IPCC warns about global eco-systems in danger already at 2°C.
Climate change undermines security and prosperity in the broadest sense.

9. 2050 Long-term Strategy The Paris Agreement objective is to keep
temperature increase to well below 2°C and to pursue
efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.
Energy Union sets ambitious 2030 targets.
Commission proposes net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by
Paradigm shift necessary: central role of energy system, buildings, transport, industry, agriculture.
There are different pathways for achieving a climate neutral EU, challenging but feasible from a technological, economic, environmental and social perspective.
Transforming our economy is possible.

10. Informing the transition

11. Understanding climate impacts: JRC PESETA
Projection of Economic impacts of climate change in sectors of EU based on bottom-up analysis:
Heat-related mortality is largest loss, followed by coastal flooding, declines in labour productivity, agriculture and, lastly, river flooding.
Regional pattern of the project impact areas: the North-South divide.
Spillover effects from the rest of the world (due to international trade) increase the EU welfare loss.
Normalised aggregate damage (Northern Europe=1)
A large share of the welfare losses could be largely avoided under a 2°C scenario.

12. Building Blocks and Enabling Framework of the Transition
Energy efficiency
Deployments of renewables
Clean, safe & connected
mobility
4. Competitive industry and
circular economy
5. Infrastructure and inter-connections
6. Bio-economy and natural carbon sinks
7. Tackle remaining emissions with carbon capture and storage.

13. The transition offers opportunities for growth & jobs
Faster growth of EU clean economy than the overall economy.
Impacts on traditional, fossil fuel based industries.
Growing concerns of lower income society and in specific regions expected to be most affected.
Based on JRC GEM-E3 model results

14. A just transition to a climate-neutral economy
The European coal sector
direct jobs
in power stations
in mining
indirect jobs
Up to job losses by 2030
Job Distribution in production of a 50 MW wind farm
Source: JRC (2018). EU coal regions: opportunities and challenges ahead. Science for Policy report. (left map) and IRENA (right figure)

15. City-level actions

16. Global Covenant of Mayors
A first-of-its-kind and
largest global alliance of cities leading the fight against climate change
with support from city networks and other partners.
9, 261
CITIES
120 COUNTRIES
800+ MILLION PEOPLE
10% GLOBAL POPULATION

17. Unlocking urban action: GCoM aggregate Impact
Commitments of GCoM cities could collectively, if fully realised, reduce:
1.4 GtCO2-eq in 2030
2.8 GtCO2-eq in 2050 from baseline scenario.

18. Status of the Covenant of Mayors in Finland
13 signatories
citizens
Name
Population
Commitment
Join year
SE(C)AP
Monitoring
Vihti Municipality, FI
29000
2030&Adapt
2018
Lappeenranta, FI
72868
2016
Jyväskylä, FI
140000 Ö
Vaasa, FI
67620
2020
2014
Kainuu Region, FI
80000
Joensuu, FI
74471
Lahti, FI
119573
2020/2030&Adapt
2012
Oulu, FI
200466
2011
Turku, FI
190000
2010
Espoo, FI
243900
Vantaa, FI
223000
2009
Tampere, FI
231853
Helsinki, FI
628208
3 – CoM TARGET 2020
10 – CoM TARGET 2030 and Adaptation
pillar

19. The City Science Initiative (CSI)
Objective: to strengthen the ways in which science and research can help to address urban challenges via structured approach to evidence-informed policymaking at cities' level.
The CSI is part of the Knowledge Centre of Territorial Policies.
It will inform the Community of Practice of Cities and will function in synergy with the Urban Data Platform and other JRC-related initiatives.
More than 20 cities engaged.
5 working groups: circular economy, mental health, sustainable urban mobility, air quality plus technology and the citizen.
Next meeting, 24 September 2019, Brussels
#CityScienceEU

20. JRC Flagship report: The Future of Cities, Chapter climate and energy
While being responsible for a high level of energy consumption and generating about 70% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, cities are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
EU cities part of the Covenant committed to reducing emissions of 27% by 2020, well above the minimum requested EU target of 20%.
Almost 23% of overall emissions reductions were achieved by 2018 compared to their baseline years.
Good urban governance is crucial due to the complexity and interdependency of energy and other policies in urban areas.
Municipal territories enable additional policy support for mobilising actors.

21. Smart Specialisation as an enabler for sustainable territorial development
Sources: from left to right, and top to bottom: © Wikimedia Commons; European Commission;

22. A Handbook for local authorities
European Handbook for Preparation of Voluntary Local Reviews (LVRs) on SDGs.
Goal:
Provide an overview of methods and data that can support the implementation and monitoring of urban contribution to the 2030 Agenda
Target audience:
Local and regional authorities
Structure – two main sections:
Set of existing indicators at local level that can support the monitoring of the SDGs;
Methodology on how cities can integrate SDGs in their strategic activities.
To be launched:
At the World Urban Forum 10 – February 2020
URBAN Joint project REGIO - JRC

23. To conclude…

24. Thank you for your attention
ec.europa.eu/jrc
@EU_ScienceHub
EU Science Hub - Joint Research Centre
Joint Research Centre
EU Science Hub