WP7

WP7. Ranking and mapping transition pathways in islands and enabling networking and information system for regional and EU policy design

The overall objective for WP7 is to create and rank tailored transition pathways for EU islands. It aims to identify critical decision points and their associated uncertainties in the development of adaptation and mitigation pathways that better fit the socio-economic characteristics and policy context within the 11 SOCLIMPACT islands, for decision-makers acting at global to local scales This will be achieved through the following sub-objectives:

• Design a stakeholder-led methodology applied to EU islands, which incorporates tipping points and uncertainties, to construct effective adaptation and mitigation transition pathways;
• Develop a thorough understanding of the stakeholder network structures within the different archipelagos to assist in decision-making and capacity-building for coping with decarbonisation and adaptation strategies;
• Identify synergies and trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation strategies and foster synergies between pathways across social, ecological and institutional scales, developing nature-based solutions to promote resilience.
• Promote interactions between mitigation, adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and the integration of adaptation with other sustainable development goals.
• Rank the more appropriate integrated options and related technologies attending to the structural conditions of the archipelagos (islands case study), greenhouse emissions reduction potential, cost-effectiveness, socio-economic benefits, local technical and environmental conditions and market and non-market barriers.
• Identify science and policy gaps at different scales (countries, islands and archipelagos, small state islands) and contribute to inform European and national policies.

This WP will generate science-based information which will be included in an information exchange platform which will include a decision-making tool (WP8), and transferred to national and regional policy-makers and practitioners for each participating territory, to support them in making well-informed and balanced decisions. Considering that the lessons learned from case studies can be advantageous for national policy (Burton et al, 2007) and also that a great variety of locality-specific circumstances offers an opportunity to learn about causes, consequences, and alternative strategies (Wilbanks, 2003). The design of downscaled participative and evidence-based policies will promote the creation of a common policy framework for islands, able to inform policies at the EU level.

The downscaled participative and evidence-based polices will allow a level of detail relevant to ensure each islands specificities are taken into account and in turn identify relevant priorities that will inform policies at the EU level.

Mitigation and adaptation information will be tailored to address EU policies at several levels (sectoral, thematic etc) while being framed by the geographic, economic and social context of the islands. The work will also promote mainstream of the adaptation outcomes developed by the project into EU climate change policy instruments such as EU.

Adaptation Strategy, integrating climate adaptation into sectoral policies and potentially providing guidance to Cohesion
Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy.

In addition, it will contribute to influence EU policy contributing to minimize climate risks to economy, communities and biodiversity. It will bring to light the local expertize and innovation on, for example, local industries and energy production.

The project will also provide information on areas relevant for funding in order to enhance research and knowledge and better-informed decision-making. These results can be cross-comparable and produce general understanding on the ways of implementing adaptation in the EU for different sectors. These could inform the EU when defining and designing the funding framework for islands and outermost Regions.

This approach will include a bottom up input from local policy makers’ experience, integrating the wider EU context besides the coastal areas.