On 12 September, IEEP organised a workshop ‘Climate change mainstreaming in the 2014-2020 EU Cohesion Policy’ for Polish authorities, which took place in Warsaw, Poland. The aim of the workshop was to provide authorities with better understanding and knowledge how to take into account climate change impacts and advance climate change objectives in the future Partnership Agreements, Operational Programmes and investment projects.

 The workshop was divided into three main sessions:

• Session 1: Climate change trends and impacts in the EU; role and importance of EU budget and Cohesion Policy for tackling climate change in European regions; overview of Commission proposals on the 2014-2020 EU Cohesion Policy and climate change mainstreaming; implications for the forthcoming programming process, eg the Partnership Agreements, Operational programmes, project development/selection/implementation, reporting and monitoring;
• Session 2: Menu of possible investment priorities for both mitigation and adaptation activities that could be financed under the future Cohesion Policy. Overview of different procedural tools and institutional approaches to horizontally integrate climate change considerations into decision-making processes;
• Session 3: Group exercise where participants developed an implementation strategy for climate change mainstreaming in Operational Programmes.

The workshop was co-organised with the Polish Ministry of Environment and was attended by 28 national authorities from the Ministry of Regional Development and the Ministry of Environment plus representatives of the regional authorities. The event was organised with the financial support of the European Climate Foundation

IEEP offers workshops and training courses to environmental and managing authorities responsible for programming of EU Structural and Cohesion Funds in Member States and accession countries in order to help them comply with requirements for climate change mainstreaming in the future Cohesion Policy. 

For more information, please contact Keti Medarova at kmedarova@ieep.eu