The aim of the climate actions is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dealing with climate change effects mainly in relation to raw material circularity but also plastics, waste and energy. In our climate initiatives, we are striving to work towards a zero-carbon economy and a climate resilient society with the vision of enabling Europe to lead the global transformation towards sustainability. Our access to relevant networks such as the EIT-Climate-KIC or the Climate Change Center Austria enables us to tap into the needed expertise for our partner’s challenges.
We share the EIT Climate-KIC vision which focuses to tackle climate change through innovation. For preventing even a more drastic climate change and achieving the ‘well below 2°C’ Paris Agreement target, requires a speed of decarburization at least six times faster than anything the global community has achieved so far. The recent IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C calls for a global 45–50 per cent reduction in GHG emissions for no later than 2030, if we are to have a hope of staying below 1.5°C (IPCC, 2018). The report highlights the importance of a combination of technological innovation, radical policy reforms and behaviour change. Therefore, among the others, we foster system innovation promoting projects which link technology and research with stakeholder engagement and behavioural change, also through education.