Regions and cities shaping the European Green Deal 2.0

The report calls for a renewed Green Deal 2.0 agenda that aims at fostering sustainable competitiveness and strategic autonomy, eradicating social inequalities and further exploiting the potential of green innovation. This new agenda should place regions and cities, and their specific contexts and needs, at its centre. It should ensure that regions and cities have the necessary tools and resources to meet ambitious objectives and are empowered to design and govern their own transition pathways.

The report urges to maintain the level of ambition required by science and highlights the cost of no-action. However, it points out that various international crises have occurred since the European Green Deal introduction, showing the need for a strengthened and more flexible Green Deal that is ready to respond to challenges in an evolving context and prevents the green transformation from unequally impacting vulnerable people and regions.

Regions and cities are also expressing concerns about a funding gap for implementing the European Green Deal in the years to come, as many local and regional authorities in the EU are already struggling to provide the investment needed for the green and digital transitions.

Some of the key recommendations include:

• Building a long-term ambitious sustainability strategy and a stable framework that goes beyond a single term, with the level of ambition required by science, and putting stronger attention on the just transition.
• Strengthening the current European Green Deal with territorial impact assessments, at least at regional level, and improving monitoring with focus on asymmetric territorial impacts by developing a Green Deal 2.0 scoreboard which includes socio-ecological and wellbeing indicators beyond the GDP.
• Improving the coordination of EU funds and instruments for the green and digital transitions, reinforcing efforts for better regulation and simplification, promoting a place-based approach and facilitating access for the regions and cities that need these funds the most.
• Bolstering the leading role that the European Union is playing in the global transition and working towards a Global Green Deal built around the participation of cities and regions, while strengthening multi-level governance in all EU Member States and at the EU level.
• Increasing the focus on protecting biodiversity, advancing the transition to sustainable food systems, and addressing the interconnections between human health, climate change, and environmental crises.
• Aligning the priorities and allocations of the next EU multiannual financial framework with the Green Deal 2.0 ambitions, objectives and targets, supported by a mission-oriented approach through specific and time-bound targets and a robust financial package that includes technical assistance and increased direct EU funding to cities and regions.
• Addressing the existing European Green Deal investment gap with a reformed Cohesion Policy that supports climate-related spending with increased and accelerated investments in climate adaptation, biodiversity and resilience and addresses the asymmetric impacts of climate change and different vulnerabilities and needs across EU regions and cities.

Source: European Committee of the Regions