CAPABLE workshop | Improving climate policies through better assessment & public acceptance

Achieving climate neutrality in the EU and globally requires ambitious and effective climate targets and the ability to implement widely accepted policies. The road to net-zero is hindered by fragmented policymaking, uneven public support, and limited tools to assess climate action’s broader social and political implications. Many existing assessments focus narrowly on effectiveness, overlooking critical dimensions like feasibility and public perception.

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 draws on economics, sociology, political science and psychology to capture climate policy’s multidimensional outcomes and implications.

This CAPABLE capacity-building workshop shared project findings for effective and acceptable climate policies at the European level. Organised online by the European University Institute (EUI) with contributions from leading experts in the CAPABLE consortium, it focused on climate policies, their effectiveness and their acceptability. The lectures were complemented with extensive question-and-answer sessions and some testimonials from practitioners.

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

00:01:32 Welcome & Introduction
00:09:56 Module 1: EU Climate Policies and Their Effectiveness
00:11:09 Introduction to EU Climate Policies (Simone Borghesi, EUI)
00:45:03 Policy Assessment: What Works? (Kai Lessmann and Jan Minx, PIK and Marie Raude, EUI)
01:55:38 Module 2: Perception and acceptability of Climate Policies
01:57:08 Determinants of Public Acceptance of Climate Policies: A Multi-disciplinary Overview (Mary Sanford, CMCC)
02:33:24 Social Acceptability and Feasibility of Fit-For-55 Policies (Keith Smith, ETH )
03:19:57 Science for EU climate policies (Vicky Pollard, DG Climate Action, European Commission)
03:49:43 Conclusions