The ONEPlanET project aims to develop a common nexus modelling framework to simulate and evaluate pathways to define a more sustainable future in Africa through the deployment of renewable energy infrastructure. In this way, it will be possible to stimulate a green energy transition in the continent as well as a decarbonization of existing energy plants. The ONEPlanET model will be tailored to the needs of different stakeholders and end-users (public and private actors, policy and decision-makers, experts, and citizens) and will be totally open source to stimulate its future upgrades. The model will include information on Water, Energy, Food (WEF) and interlinkages with other sectors as Economy, Ecosystems, Society, Climate and Land for delivering a multi-sectoral assessment consistent with socio-economic and climate scenarios. The ONEPlanET modelling approach will integrate Earth Observation data (e.g., Copernicus, ESA or GEOSS), statistical data and information from basins to national and regional, via three representative case studies in the Songwe (Malawi/Tanzania), Inkomati-Usuthu (South Africa) and Niger (Nigeria) river basins, which show different types of basins and socio-ecological systems. ONEPlanET will help to better understand the interactions between Nexus sectors to deliver sound technical and policy recommendations towards the implementation of energy infrastructure to build a more climate neutral and resilient society.

We aim to build digital decision-making tools based on Copernicus data to monitor, forecast, analyse and track tools environmental impacts such as deforestation or water stress all along the supply chains. These new innovative tools will help food and agribusiness companies to transform their existing supply chain models becoming more sustainable and transparent.

The rising concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, currently about 420 ppm, is already causing extensive damage globally. Thus, there´s an urgent need to deploy CO2 removal (CDR) at very large scale to help to keep the temperature rise under 2C° (1.5C° would be better). Until recently, apart from academic research into a wide portfolio of approaches, little has been done to launch the necessary exponential growth of CDR over the next few decades. The current self-regulated market relies on an unsatisfactory patchwork of third-party verification of the removals achieved at individual sites. The sector has been negatively influenced by a lack of regulation and high-quality standards. This has allowed low-quality carbon credits to enter the market, lowering credibility and prices to levels at which high-quality permanent removals cannot compete. The Member States need the EC to intervene to kick-start a transparent and properly regulated market for high-grade CDR delivery. The purpose of the C-SINK project is to deliver to the EC a complete package of worked-up proposals to support a new or amended European legal/regulatory framework to bring high quality CDRs into the market. That package will contain pre-standards (in CEN format) covering requirements and methodologies for sampling, testing and QMS (ISO9000) upon which to build monitoring, reporting and verification systems. It will also include proposals to cover (a) environmental, social-impact and governance issues, and (b) the means of building trust in the market. This will encourage entrepreneurs to demonstrate effective and safe CDR projects and to make large investments, thus allowing the market to evolve to tackle the climate crisis. The C-SINK consortium includes organizations from 11 countries with complementary skills and expertise in the different CDR technologies, the writing of CEN and ISO standards, climate law, carbon trading, and in all of the relevant environmental and social issues.

Achieving a sustainable development trajectory in Amazonia is one of the key challenges facing Brazil, and is also an important international concern. ODYSSEA assembles an internationally renowned European and Brazilian multidisciplinary and intersectoral team. We aim to produce fundamental science and tools in order to build an innovative multi-and interdisciplinary observatory to monitor and assess dynamic interactions between Amazon societies and their environments. This observatory will serve as a basis for policy development that integrates social, environmental, political-economic and human health dimensions. Our methodology puts the society at the heart of the observatory’s building process, engaging stakeholders and decision makers in the research to favour advancement of their objectives and commitment to sustainable development issues. Building on knowledge framed around ongoing bilateral projects, ODYSSEA brings together several independent networks of international and Brazilian researchers which all have long-term experiences in the Amazon of environmental and social research, each with their own expert skill-sets. We expect significant advances in our understanding of the different feedbacks and linkages between the panoply of pressures exerted on the environment, the factors determining the vulnerability of local populations to environmental shocks and in the evaluation of governance and institutional arrangements aiming at promoting adaptation. We aim to enhance the capacity of Brazilian institutions to assess and reduce the vulnerability of populations in Amazonia. ODYSSEA will help unify an increasing number of bilateral arrangements for research and innovation between individual European countries and Brazil. Whilst these connections are proving fruitful in their own right there is a largely untapped opportunity to upscale the intensity and diversity of connections between Europe and Brazil on all levels of education, research and development.

The CARISMA project has two overall objectives. First, through effective stakeholder consultation and communication leading to improved coordination and assessment of climate change mitigation options, it aims to benefit research and innovation efficiency as well as international cooperation on research and innovation and technology transfer. Second, it seeks to assess policy and governance questions that shape the prospects of climate change mitigation options, and discuss the results with representatives from the CARISMA target audiences to incorporate what can be learned for the benefit of climate change mitigation. The experienced, interdisciplinary and diverse CARISMA consortium has an extensive track record of collaborating in Framework Programme projects. It combines capacity for technological, environmental, economic and social assessment with deep expertise across a range of climate change mitigation options, encompassing mature and emerging technologies as well as practices and governance, which are increasingly identified as important areas to achieve deep greenhouse gas emission reductions. Communication with, and support to, the CARISMA target audiences are an integral part of the project. In all inventory and assessment activities envisaged in the project, interaction with stakeholders is a key part. To facilitate coordination and avoid overlap, these activities are overseen by a dedicated work package. The target audiences include national and local policymakers, innovation and strategy managers in business and industry, research funding organisations and the research community. The CARISMA project will result in online platform services, face-to-face interactions, policy briefs and publications and increased capacity in the EU, Accession Countries and beyond, to address the climate change challenge and move towards a green, innovative and thriving global economy.