Introduction
The Workshop is intended to showcase relevant research on Climate Change and Climate Action supported by the ERC under Horizon 2020 and FP7, to provide a forum of networking between Principal Investigators leading ERC-funded projects, and to position ERC as a contributor to ‘climate action’ through its ‘bottom up’ approach.
More specifically, it aims at:
- Highlighting examples of frontier research across the three domains of “Physical Sciences and Engineering”, “Life Sciences”, and “Social Sciences and Humanities” that contribute to the understanding of climate change, its drivers, its impacts on the natural world and society, and how to mitigate these impacts, or to adapt to them
- Illustrating how ERC funded research can inform the research agenda in other parts of the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, in particular research into Societal Challenge 5 “Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials”
- Bringing together ERC-funded researchers working in the broad field of climate change and climate action from all disciplines of science and scholarship.
Background
Climate change has been identified as one of the major challenges facing humanity on a global scale and on time scales spanning years, decades, and centuries to come. In its fifth and most recent Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that “Recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems” and that “since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia”.
The need to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts” is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals identified by the United Nations2, and in order to achieve this goal at the intergovernmental level, 195 countries adopted the Paris Agreement at the Paris Climate Conference (COP21) in December 20153. The Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016, after at least 55 Parties to the Convention, accounting for at least 55% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions, have ratified it. As of 1 December 2016, 115 parties have ratified the Agreement, and the UN climate conference 2016 held in Marrakech (COP22) has underlined that implementation of the Paris Agreement is underway.
At the research level, the Paris Agreement asks the signing parties to “[strengthen] scientific knowledge on climate, including research, systematic observation of the climate system and early warning systems, in a manner that informs climate services and supports decision-making” and that adaptation action “(…) should be based on and guided by the best available science (…)”.
Climate action is a key Horizon 2020 objective and cross-cutting priority, and projects from across the programme are expected to contribute to it. The European Commission aims for at least 35% of Horizon 2020’s total budget to address climate action.
Within Horizon 2020, climate action is clearly embedded in Pillar III, i.e. in Societal Challenge 5 “Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials”, Societal Challenge 2 “Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy”, Societal Challenge 3 “Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy” and Societal Challenge 4 “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”. Pillars I and II contribute to climate action with bottomup, researcher-led actions as well as in thematic areas such as “Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies: Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology”.
While the ERC, with its curiosity-driven, bottom-up approach, is not being led in its funding decisions by any predefi ned priority areas, ERC-funded Principal Investigators in their frontier research projects frequently address pressing global societal challenges, both in terms of generating fundamental knowledge as well as in developing solutions for these challenges.
The present workshop is therefore designed to showcase examples of ERC-funded frontier research projects, which contribute to our understanding of climate change phenomena, and which study their impacts and possible actions with regard to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Structure
The workshop is organised as a one-day event in 4 thematic sessions, each of them covering research that spans all three ERC domains. The thematic sessions are structured in three presentations, of 20 min each, followed by a Question & Answer section at the end of the session
Session 1: Understanding the drivers of climate change
Ample evidence already exists for anthropogenic climate change but, as Earth’s climate system depends on non-linear feedbacks between its various components, more light needs to be shed onto how greenhouse gases impact atmospheric chemistry and enhance global warming, how climate parameters correlate with changes in natural and anthropogenic pressures at various scales and, ultimately, how long have human activities been aff ecting the climate system. This session presents ERC-funded projects that contribute to our better understanding of such non-linearities, allow reconstructions of climate change in the past, and help to predict future changes.
Session 2: Natural responses to climate change
Climate change and its consequences are already aff ecting natural systems in many diff erent ways. Around the globe, ecosystems are facing pressures due to climate change, pollution, and biological invasions, among others. As a result their structure, functions and distribution are rapidly changing, and this has the potential to signifi cantly disrupt the many goods and services ecosystems provide. Having a better understanding of the capacity of ecosystems and species to withstand change (resistance) and to recover from it (resilience) is vital in the face of the increasing impacts on the natural world. In this session, three ERC grantees will shed light on the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and their responses under different global scenarios.
Sessions 3 and 4: Climate action for mitigation and adaptation
There is a clear need to take decisive action to mitigate the causes of climate change and to adopt strategies to adapt to climate change, in order to minimise its adverse eff ects on natural and human systems, and to reduce the vulnerability of society. Mitigation and adaptation go hand in hand and are necessarily tied into wider societal goals (such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals).
The two final sessions will highlight ERC-funded projects, which contribute to fi ghting climate change and its adverse impacts on a multitude of levels, from improving sustainable energy technologies and developing potential mitigation approaches, discussing the role of social infl uences on the adoption of disruptive low-carbon innovations, to considering legal and governmental aspects to identify the best policy options to reduce emissions. The speakers will discuss adaptation to changes in ecosystem services and cutting-edge research on the consequences of future climate change on human wellbeing and the adaptive capacity of societies.
Speakers
12 ERC Grantees will be presenting their ERC-funded research in the area of climate change. Their presentations will showcase their projects in a manner accessible to an informed broad audience.
Target audience / participants
- Members of the relevant Horizon 2020 Programme Committee on Societal Challenge 5.
- Colleagues from the European Commission, Directorate General for Research & Innovation, Directorate I “Climate Action and Resource Efficiency”, and from other interested Directorates General.
- Interested staff in the ERC Executive Agency and in other EU institutions.
The initiative is being jointly developed by the European Research Council and DG Research & Innovation, Directorate I “Climate Action and Resource Efficiency”.
Agenda
08.30 Registration
08.30 Welcome address
Klaus Bock, Vice-President of the European Research Council (ERC)
Jack Metthey, Director, Directorate I: Climate Action and Resource Effi ciency, Directorate General for Research & Innovation
Session 1: Understanding the drivers of climate change
09.30 Carlo Barbante,
University Ca’Foscari Venice, IT, ERC Advanced grantee
How long have human activities been aff ecting the climate system?
09.55 Ted Hewitt,
President Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
"A Canadian perspective on science diplomacy and the EU-Canada Implementing Arrangement as tool of science diplomacy"
10.20 Christiane Werner,
University of Freiburg, DE, ERC Consolidator grantee
Biochemical link between plant volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and CO2 metabolism - from sub-molecular to ecosystem scales
10.45 Q&A
11.00 COFFEE BREAK
Session 2: Natural responses to climate change
11.30 Katharine Hendry,
University of Bristol, UK, ERC Starting grantee
Isotope cycling in the Labrador Sea
11.55 Fernando Maestre Gil,
Rey Juan Carlos University, ES, ERC Consolidator grantee
Ecological impacts of climate change in global drylands
12.20 Jordi Bascompte,
University of Zurich, CH, ERC Advanced grantee
Robustness of the web of life in the face of global change
12.45 Q&A
11.00 LUNCH BREAK
Session 3: Technological and management aspects for climate change mitigation and adaptation
14.00 Eleni Chatzi,
ETH Zurich, CH, ERC Starting grantee
Smart monitoring, inspection and life-cycle assessment of wind turbines
14.25 Boran Kartal,
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, DE, ERC Starting grantee
Greenhouse gas mitigation through advanced nitrogen removal technology
14.50 Elena Ojea,
University of Vigo, ES, ERC Starting grantee
Climate adaptation to shifting stocks
15.15 Q&A
15.30 COFFEE BREAK
Session 4: Societal and legal aspects of climate change mitigation and adaptation
16.00 Wolfgang Lutz,
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, AT, ERC Advanced grantee
Forecasting societies adaptive capacities to climate change
16.25 Kati Kulovesi,
University of Eastern Finland, FI, ERC Starting grantee
Slowing down climate change: combining climate law and climate science to identify the best options to reduce emissions of short-lived climate forcers in developing countries
16.50 Charlie Wilson,
University of East Anglia, UK, ERC Starting grantee
Social influence and disruptive low carbon innovations
17.15 Q&A
17.30 Concluding remarks
18.00 END OF WORKSHOP
