Regions for Sustainable Change
The Regions for Sustainable Change (RSC) project is a partnership of 12 organisations working together to develop the potential of regional development programmes to stimulate mitigation and adaptation to climate change in order to deliver sustainable socio-economic development. European regions have great potential to contribute to the overall sustainability of growth in Europe through lower emissions, the implementation of innovative climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, and a move towards low carbon economies. At the same time, regions tend to focus on economic growth, and lack concrete reasoning for the integration of climate change issues into their policies and practices, as well as practical tools to help them reach these objectives. The RSC project will address this issue by analysing current regional practices, developing benchmarks, criteria, and indicators for regions,
and preparing a methodological handbook which will guide regions in integrating climate change issues and a move towards low carbon economy into their regional development programmes.
Several RSC partners already have a history of successful cooperation on issues impacting sustainability and regional development programmes. The Interreg IIIC project “Greening Regional Development Programmes” produced a definitive methodology on integrating environmental sustainability into programmes through tools like partnership, networking, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), greening projects, and using the environment as an economic driver. The RSC project expands this partnership and takes the work further by focusing on climate change and low carbon economies, a critical political and environmental topic which is only just beginning to appear on priority agendas at the regional level.
The RSC partnership will hold three capacity-building/thematic seminars, to provide partners’ staff the opportunity to learn more about the issues and project results, and to transfer good practices between partners. The seminars will also provide a networking opportunity. The project will carry out a macro-economic analysis of three partners’ carbon economies, to identify opportunities for and the costs and effects of moving to a low carbon economy. The project will investigate and compare SEA and sustainability assessment approaches across the partnership, and identify how these tools can best be used to meet the project objectives. The RSC project will also offer partners the chance to carry out pilot actions, such as the preparation of a carbon footprint of regional development programmes. A final conference will disseminate the project results and impacts to the wider European economic development community in 2011.