CO-OP4CBD aims to enhance coordination of the EU support to advance the implementation of the CBD, and doing so make more effective use of existing expertise and initiatives. This will lead to greater coherence in the ways in which the EU, its Member States and associated countries identify and draw on available expertise, improved advice and support to a range of CBD processes, and a more coordinated and cooperative approach in the engagement of experts in supporting implementation of other intergovernmental agreements and processes. Therefore the core focus of CO-OP4CBD is to support the increase facilitation of technical and scientific cooperation in European countries and elsewhere. This will be achieved through the implementation of a set of Coordination and Support Actions: 1) building on existing networks of experts and institutions; 2) engaging experts into the CBD processes; 3) supporting the implementation of monitoring, reporting and review; and 4) increasing technical and scientific cooperation. These actions are targeted at and will benefit the EU, its Member States and associated countries. Many actions and outputs of CO-OP4CBD however will be of interest and use to other Parties to the CBD.

The CLIMAREST project - Coastal Climate Resilience and Marine Restoration Tools for the Arctic Atlantic basin - integrates multiple expertise into a holistic approach, to develop a toolbox designed to establish guidelines for ecosystem restoration and to enhance climate resilience in coastal communities. The concept is to develop, test and optimise a modular toolbox that integrates expert knowledge, scientific information, multilevel stakeholder and community involvement, ecosystem service improvement analysis, cost-benefit analysis, priority of actions, and custom designed protocols for restoring and monitoring multiple coastal habitats. The toolbox framework will have common and specific tools that will be tested, optimised and demonstrated in five different ecosystems, across a latitudinal gradient of the Arctic-Atlantic basin, ranging from the high-Arctic Svalbard (79° N) in the North to the Madeira archipelago (33° N) in the South. The variety of environmental conditions and restoration needs of the five demonstration sites will provide different restoration scenarios with particular specificities in terms of biodiversity, pressures and threats, ecosystems services and stakeholders. The diversity in restoration scenarios will create a unique opportunity to develop a modular toolbox, that integrates common tools with tools that are specific for each restoration scenario into a collective framework. Ecosystem-specific innovations in nature-based solutions for habitat restoration that improve local climate resilience will also be developed, tested, and integrated into a general toolbox framework, establishing guidelines and innovative workflows. The toolbox and tools developed in each demonstration site, for different restoration scenarios, will be made available and tested for replication and upscaling in comparable ecosystems and similar communities, with particular emphasis in promoting stakeholder involvement.

COREu will demonstrate key enabling technologies in a CCS value chain and support the development of three new CCS routes in Central-East Europe (CEE), helping accelerate CCS development . COREu will (a) provide the means for development of an open-access, trans-national network (infrastructure and logistic) to connect emitters with storage sites in Europe, by identifying multimodal transport requirements, and developing emitters’ clusters to create the demand and the investment rationale, (b) increase the knowledge of the CCS value chain across Europe through interconnected initiatives, sharing of experience, knowledge and data to create a common framework that encompasses all key aspects of CCS deployment: technological know-how, business models, consensus management, monitoring, reporting and validation, policy framework, transport and storage safety. COREU will contribute to 6.8Mt/year in CO2 reduction by 2035 and 36Mt/year by 2050, develop 8 innovations for Measurement Monitoring Verification, interoperability and Value Chain Monitoring, and improve the Internal Rate of Return of CO2 infrastructure investment by 6% through de-risking core technologies.

A-AAgora aims to develop the implementable NbS (Nature based Solutions) through innovative governance structures and technological architecture. It targets to boost resilience to climate change and mitigating its impacts in coastal areas. It identifies synergies by promoting a deliberative process to complement other priority areas within the EC Mission - by setting a Community of Practice and developing a digital knowledge system. It develops NbS at three replicable demonstrators (Demo-PT, Demo-IE, Demo-NO), which can upscaled. The project seeks improved public engagement and enhanced decision-making processes at different political levels based on scientific knowledge and targeted social and economic awareness, using an EBM approach. It builds on the successful implementation of NbS at the Demo’s to which the necessary socio-technological tools will be produced as required for a realistic EBM planning cycle (up to TRL/SRL 7). The Living Lab concept will foster the exchange synergies at multiple scales between researchers and users, decision-makers and local communities, industry and SMEs. A-AAgora will demonstrate that restoration of aquatic ecosystems is possible at a large scale through reduction of pressures, EBM, and effective NbS including blue reforestation to boost coastal resilience to climate change impacts. As well, the A-AAgora will make the most of cross-Mission synergies, by targeting marine ecosystem restoration in coastal communities particularly vulnerable to the risks of sea level rise that urgently need to adapt to ensure their population and infrastructure are safe, climate-proof and weather-resilient. The design of innovative architecture, enabling interoperability with other systems and will also foster a more ‘digital ocean’.

WENDY aims at unravelling the factors triggering social acceptance of wind farms through an in-depth analysis at three dimensions: social sciences and humanities, environmental sciences and technological engineering. For that, the project will implement a series of local actions promoting the wider adoption of the project solutions, including guidelines, reports and handbooks which will be created to boost the understanding of wind farms decision making processes and enhance energy citizenship. This will be supported by the spatial multi-criteria WENDY toolbox. A tool able to identify the optimal turbines’ siting with the minimum environmental impact and highest social acceptance likelihood. All developed models, methods, guidelines and tools will be implemented within 10 wind projects spread across 4 countries. These have been selected considering: geography (north vs. south Europe), maturity stage (viability phase / planning phase / short-term operation phase / long-term operation phase); type of wind energy (onshore / offshore – floating, fixed-); and co-existence with other activities (agriculture, fisheries, energy communities). In these locations, outreach activities tailored to their specificities will be performed, creating the WENDY Knowledge Hubs which will incorporate citizens, local authorities, business owners and value chain actors of wind energy. WENDY Hubs will serve as a baseline for the WENDY Knowledge Exchange Platform, a forum that will be developed to facilitate the exchange of knowledge between decision makers and key stakeholders within wind farms planning processes. For a successful implementation of the project activities, all the value chain and the best-in-class expertise is involved in the project consortium including 9 partners from 6 European countries: 1 Large Company (EGP), 2 SMEs (WR, Q-PLAN), 1 University (CBS), 2 RTO (CIRCE, NINA), 1 Energy Community (MEC), 2 Non-profit organisations and associations (NOWC, APPA).