The RethinkAction project, coordinated by CARTIF, has officially started the 1st of October 2021 as part of the Green Deal Research and Innovation Programme, contributing to making EU the first climate-neutral continent.
In particular, it proposes a cross-sectoral planning decision-making platform to foster climate action, focusing specifically on climate mitigation and adaptation solutions related to land use.
RethinkAction’s main aim is to support the objectives of the EU Green Deal translating its action plan in relevant and practical actions and solutions related to land use, as opportunities able not only to support climate neutrality and adaptation, sustainable use of the land resources, and biodiversity restoration, but also actions for social improvement, fostering equality and just transition for all designing the road map to green recovery after COVID.
Indeed, global land resources are fundamental, even critical, to reach climate objectives and specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), being a key driver in the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and also essential to sustain life. Moreover, land cover and land use have been the most visible indicator of the human footprint and the most important driver of loss of biodiversity and other forms of land degradation. In addition, it should also be noted that the land system is recognised as a “planet boundary” at risk of being exceeded, thus already threatening the “safe operating space” of the Earth system which allows the society development as we know it today.
However, the last and most important mile to tackle in the climate change challenge is the need for an informed and participatory society. Therefore, RethinkAction puts citizens and decision-makers at the core of the climate change action, by developing a cross-sectoral user-friendly decision-making platform tailored to the needs of different end-users for delivering clear and valuable information on climate change, increasing awareness and attractiveness of mitigation and adaptation solutions to reach climate change objectives.
RethinkAction moves beyond just informing users about the desirable future and what needs to be changed, but guiding them in the decision-making process by showing how to do it through practical land-use based solutions, while at the same time building awareness and attractiveness of new lifestyles and behavioural change, and how barriers can be overcome. By co-creating of the solutions through participatory processes, RethinkAction will unquestionably promote climate change action and acceptability of the measures.
RethinkAction platform will allow users to assess land use-based adaptation and mitigation solutions, understand climate change impacts over time, linking local, EU and global scales based on 6 representative case studies, covering the main regional differences related to climate change:
- Boreal Case Study: Gotland region (Sweden)
- Atlantic Case Study: Gers (Occitanie region, France)
- Continental, East of EU Case Study: Southern Great Plain (Hungary)
- Alpine Case Study: Valle d’Aosta region (Italy)
- Mediterranean Case Study: Almeria province (Spain)
- Small islands Case Study: Azores archipelago (Portugal)
The kick-off meeting was held the 13 and 14th October, counting with representatives from all the consortium, formed by 13 partners from 9 countries, leveraging vast knowledge on social sciences and humanities, climate change, mitigation and adaptation options, Earth Observation and satellite imagery analysis, local and global modelling with Integrated Assessment Models, as well as ICT knowledge, communication, dissemination and exploitation. In particular:
- CARTIF, coordinator
- University of Valladolid (UVa)
- Svenska Miljoeinstitutet AB (IVL)
- RINA Consulting (RINA)
- Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui cambiamenti climatici (CMCC)
- Climate Media Factory (CMF)
- Ethniko Asteroskopeio Athinon (NOA)
- GMV Aerospace and defence (GMV)
- FCiencias.ID – Associaçao para a investigaçao e desenvolvimento de ciencias
- ICLEI – Local governments for sustainability
- United Nations University (UNU-EHS)
- Geonardo environmental technologies
- Institut national de recherche por l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (INRAE)
Sound bases were established after two full days of fruitful meetings among partners. Let’s continue fostering climate action !