Deadline: 14-Sep-21
The European Commission (EC) is inviting proposals for improving economic methods for decision-making on climate and environmental policies.
Actions should focus on the improvement of methodologies, practices and techniques for conducting economic appraisal of environmental policies, taking into account the progress in relevant sciences and in the understanding of the limitations of the methodologies and tools used so far, notably in impact studies. The key environmental policies of interest under this topic are those addressing climate change and biodiversity loss and actions should foster integrated approaches for addressing these interdependent challenges. Innovative and out-of-the-box approaches are strongly encouraged.
Actions are expected to investigate limitations of mainstream economic theory and models used for environmental policy assessment, including the evaluation of appropriateness of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses. They should also consider alternative approaches that could be applied to assess environmental policies. Issues such as measurement of environmental/climate damages and the treatment of uncertainty, including overreliance on average and most likely outcomes as well as the non-linear features of climate-related risks are expected to be addressed. Other aspects that could be explored include short-termism, treatment of unpriced values, irreversibility, discounting, inclusiveness and socio-economic inequalities, and broader ethical issues such as inter-generational fairness.
Funding Information
The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:
- public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
- cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).
Expected Outcomes
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- Enhanced operational capacities of the methods of economic analysis for climate and environmental policies, leading to their increased usage in the preparation of decision-making on climate and environmental policies. This includes, but is not limited to, improved cost-benefit, multi-criteria and cost-effectiveness analysis.
- Practical recommendations and conceptual guidelines for improved, methodologically transparent economic approaches and practices for public policy design and evaluation in the domain of climate and environment.
- Proposals on ways to produce a better reflection of the specificities and risks of environmental challenges in public policy and promoting precautionary responses.
- Enhanced efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy of European regulatory and policy decisions by providing decision-makers, stakeholders and the public with more realistic ability to systematically assess the options and their consequences.
- Improved capacity for decision making under the conditions of (extreme) uncertainty.
- New evidence on the effectiveness of various regulatory strategies, instruments and approaches for climate and environmental policies.
- Factual evidence and insights for the design and evaluation of the implementation of major European policies such as in the domain of the European Green Deal, New Generation Europe, national recovery plans, and other relevant policies.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
- eligible non-EU countries:
- countries associated to Horizon Europe;
- low- and middle-income countries.
For more information, visit European Commission.