Aligning EU Climate Policies with Regional and Local Action

Achieving climate neutrality requires ambitious and effective climate targets and the ability to implement widely accepted policies. Many existing assessments focus narrowly on effectiveness, overlooking critical dimensions like feasibility and public perception. Furthermore, the success of the EU in reaching its net-zero goals depends not only on global and European policy action but also on the capacity of local and regional authorities to implement these policies. Cities and regions are at the forefront of the climate battle, yet they often face challenges in acting.

In this context, the Horizon Europe project CAPABLE aims to provide recommendations for designing socially and economically acceptable climate policy measures for 2030 and beyond. CAPABLE also provides insights on how local policy actors perceive their contribution to major EU strategies such as the European Green Deal.

Hosted online by the European University Institute (EUI) with expert contributions from the CAPABLE consortium, this capacity-building workshop will explore how EU climate policies work, how they intersect with local realities and how cities and regions can shape and support a just and effective transition. The workshop is tailored for local and regional policymakers, civil servants, and stakeholders engaged in climate and energy governance.

Target audience:

Local and regional policy-makers, civil servants, and stakeholders already familiar with energy and climate policies.

Learning outcomes:

• Assess the main EU climate policies and their local implications
• Grasp the potential and limits of different policy assessment methods
• Understand determinants and factors that influence the acceptability of climate policies, and propose policy design features to make policies acceptable
• Understand how local actors perceive their roles and EU policies on climate policies

Draft programme:

14:00 – 14:10 | Welcome & Introduction

14:10 – 15:40 | Module 1: EU Climate Policies and Implications for Local Authorities

• Policy Assessment: What Works? (Kai Lessmann and Jan Minx, PIK and Marie Raude, EUI)
• The roles of cities in addressing climate change (Yann Françoise, City of Paris (tbc))

15:40 – 15:55 | Coffee Break

15:55 – 17:20 | Module 2: Perception and acceptability of Climate Policies

• Social Acceptability and Feasibility of Fit-For-55 Policies (Keith Smith, ETH Zurich)
• Local Policymakers’ Perceptions (Pablo Núñez Yebra, UAB and Alessia Casamassima, EUI)

17:20 – 17:45 | The role of Local Authorities in the European Green Deal and Competitiveness Compass

• Brooke Flanagan, Eurocities (tbc)

17:45 – 17:50 | Conclusions

A first capacity-building workshop is scheduled on Thursday 30 October morning with a focus on climate policies at the EU level. Click here to learn more about it.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101056891.