CAPABLE workshop | 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 explored 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.

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

00:00:43 Welcome & Introduction
00:13:55 Module 1: EU Climate Policies and Implications for Local Authorities
00:14:37 Policy Assessment: What Works? (Kai Lessmann and Jan Minx, PIK and Marie Raude, EUI)
01:09:00 The roles of cities in addressing climate change (Yann Françoise, City of Paris)
01:50:18 Module 2: Perception and acceptability of Climate Policies
01:52:00 Social Acceptability and Feasibility of Fit-For-55 Policies (Keith Smith, ETH )
02:35:03 Local Policymakers’ Perceptions (Pablo Núñez Yebra, UAB and Alessia Casamassima, EUI)
03:20:13 Conclusions