In our critical reflexion on typical causes for delaying, downgrading, or rejecting climate change action, we explore “All talk, little action”, which falls under the category of overoptimism fallacies.
Recently, the news has been spreading that greenhouse gas emissions in Europe have fallen slightly by 3%, according to economic estimates. It was particularly emphasised that a decline in greenhouse gas emissions is not accompanied by a decline in the economy (GDP) – a concern previously expressed by many. Even though this is good news and is important to be communicated, it is not enough!
The European Union voiced the European Green Deal – stating to be climate neutral (among other goals) by 2050 and is pushing the economy towards environmentally sustainable economic activities via the EU Taxonomy. Globally speaking, the Paris Agreement represents the common goal of ensuring climate neutrality by 2050 – and thus a liveable future for all of us.
To reach the stated goals, countries are required to set up strategies on how they plan to decrease their emissions and even though the targets are clearly defined, the actions required to reach them are missing. KNOWING will provide pathways to climate neutrality for different types of regions: rural regions with focus on agriculture and forestry (#SWF, #Lauenburg), coastal, densely built regions (#Naples, #Valencia), rural regions along a river (#Granollers, #Tyrol) and urban regions (#Tallinn, #Zagreb). The pathways will give clear indications when to set which measures, quantifying their effectivity and considering inter-sectoral and human-behaviour dependencies – thereby enabling people, cities, regions and countries to take urgently needed action.