Climate-4-CAST

Status: Ongoing projects

The project Climate-4-CAST provides authorities with a tool to visualize and analyze various action scenarios for meeting climate goals to better plan public budgets with climate neutrality measures and monitor results of their implementation. In addition, project foresees knowledge exchange in climate budget planning and city’s attempts reaching towards climate neutrality.  

Climate-4-CAST contributes to climate neutrality by empowering local public authorities who struggle to integrate climate concerns into urban governance processes with limited municipal funding. High levels of uncertainty about emissions impact, timing and cost of impact, and potential of feedback effects are a barrier to climate action. Decision-makers are not climate subject experts: they speak a different language. Climate specialists need to translate their analyses in terms that municipal budget-makers understand; the decision-makers need a reliable science-based foundation on which to base their financial allocations and to monitor results. To tackle these problems, Climate-4-CAST equips local public administrations with an open source decision support tool to allow both a visualization of individual measures’ emissions impacts in different scenarios and a cost-benefit analysis of the measures’ performance against city goals.

Through transnational co-development and piloting, the tool will be adapted to local contexts and needs while allowing better cross-border coordination, e.g. on data. The operationalization will be proof-tested with key decision-makers to ensure usability as a governance instrument for climate budgeting. Thus, the project accelerates cities’ climate actions and improves policy implementation for climate neutrality. Swifter progress towards climate goals supports overall sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region and also benefits citizens and businesses.

Climate-4-CAST in Rīga:

Within the framework of the project, a digital solution for climate budget planning adapted to the specifics of the city of Riga will be developed, in order to visually and easily understand the planned and possible GHG emission reduction measures and their impact and contribution to achieving climate neutrality, as well as the timeline for the implementation of the measures. This emission planning tool will be publicly available and will help energy efficiency specialists and politicians to calculate the costs of GHG emission reduction measures and set annual carbon emission targets, ensuring better energy and climate planning in municipalities.

Guidelines for emission calculations and assumptions will be developed to promote standardization and a more comparable approach to climate budgeting, allowing cities to better understand climate budgeting processes and share experiences on progress towards climate neutrality.

Duration, funding, partners:

Funding: Interreg Baltic Sea Region
Budget: Total € 3 770 000, EU contribution € 3 020 000, Riga Municipality budget € 112 320, EU contribution € 89 856
Duration: 01.11.2023. – 30.10.2026.
Partners: Lead partner – HafenCity University Hamburg (GE); City of Tampere (FI), Aarhus Municipality (DE), Rīga City Council (LV), Kausal Ltd (FI), Union of the Baltic Cities Sustainable Cities Commission c/o City of Turku (FI), Uppsala University (SE), Municipality of Östersund (SE), City of Norderstedt – The Lord Mayor (GE), City of Bytom (PL). Associated organizations: City of Bergen (NO), Växjö municipality (SE), Municipality of Luleå (SE), Vejle Municipality (DE), Public Administration of the County of Herzogtum Lauenburg (GE), Ministry of Environment, Climate, Energy and Agriculture (City of Hamburg) (GE), City of Turku (FI), City of Gothenburg (SE), City of Copenhagen (DE), Municipality of Oskarshamn (SE), City of Gdansk (PL), Municipality of Randers (DE), Skanderborg Municipality (DE), Municipality of Krakow (PL).