Policy instruments
Discover the policy instruments that the partners of this project are tackling.
A means for public intervention. It refers to any policy, strategy, or law developed by public authorities and applied on the ground to improve a specific territorial situation. In most cases, financial resources are associated with a policy instrument. However, an instrument can also sometimes refer to a legislative framework with no specific funding. In the context of Interreg Europe, operational programmes for Investment for Growth and Jobs as well as Cooperation Programmes from European Territorial Cooperation are policy instruments. Beyond EU cohesion policy, local, regional, or national public authorities also develop their own policy instruments.
Launched in 2015, the HCP set the goals to reduce the city’s CO2 emission by 80% until 2050 and is the core political instrument for steering subordinated regulations in all sectors. It influences finance instruments, transport and mobility plannings, port development plan, land use plans, public procurement procedures, waste management, all construction measures in design, building phase, technical specifications, energy consumption in construction and operation phase. Crucial part is a detailed Action plan for short term actions (3 years) and the formulation of long-term perspectives (10-15 years). While the current version (2019) highlights energy transition as main action field with focus on sustainable grids, higher share of renewables, energy efficiency and consumption, the reviewed versions (update 2022+2025) will explicitly specify Circular Economy (CE) measures and operational regulations for Waste Management and in particular for Circular Construction. Building-Information-Modelling (BIM) is going to get standardized with high potential for interregional transfer, and Circular Construction-requirements and potentials with regard to e.g. building permission regulations, cost efficiency, technical issues, effectiveness are to be defined and elaborated. In this regard, the interregional exchange within KARMA feed the improvement and review of the HCP and support Hamburg to become a forerunner in CE.
Partners working on this policy instrument
The ICP was released in November 2021, determining the climate policy goals and measures for the southern Region and County Council of the State of Hessen, Germany. It was developed by the County Bergstrasse together with the Sustainability Advisory Board of the County and cross-sectoral representatives from politics, associations and administration. With the motto “County Bergstrasse goes zero”, the County wants to become climate neutral by 2045, focusing on four main topics: Energy transition, Heat transition, Mobility turnaround and Social change related to a climate-friendly and sustainable lifestyle.
While 114 measures had been listed to be further conceptualised to achieve the climate goals, CE and, in particular, CE in the construction sector as a crucial action field has not been recognised. The climate plan currently only foresees a ‘study on material cycle: Cradle-to-Cradle (KS 010)’ to be conducted in 2024 by a designated climate protection manger to evaluate the climate protection potentials of circular economy approaches Funding for these measures is to be requested for fiscal year 2024. The success rate would be the recycling rate of construction waste
Thus, within KARMA, the aim is to improve the Climate Plan by integrating CE approaches, good practices and developing concrete measures and projects for the waste management and construction sector of the county.
Partners working on this policy instrument
The SECAP was released in 2021 and sets out the goal to reduce the municipality’s greenhouse gas emissions by 55% until 2030. This shall be reached by the introduction of sustainable energy management practices – e.g., improving energy performance, developing energy-efficient buildings, installations, equipment and technologies for public buildings, and the promotion of renewable energy production – in diverse intervention areas, such as buildings and related facilities, centralized supply system, public and private energy production, transport, waste management, public procurement of products and services. In addition to sustainable energy management, the transition to a Circular Economy (CE) is mentioned as a further goal and current plans foresee related future investments in efficient waste management – with the exploitation of CE approaches for other potential intervention areas. An exchange on good practices to specify the CE transition and integrate specific measures into the SECAP is therefore needed.
Activities within the SECAP and approved by the Local Council are covered by ERDF, municipal and nation budget and partly by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Currently, a revision of the SECAP is intended at the end of the OP (2030), but a more periodical review is already discussed to efficiently improve and integrate outcomes of KARMA into the policy instrument.
Partners working on this policy instrument
The overall goal of the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) of the City of Szombathely is to foster climate and energy policies to reduce CO2 emissions by 35% until 2030. Main municipal properties relevant for energy consumption, an Emission Inventory Assessment grouped by main sectors and an assessment of adaptive capabilities lay out potential action fields to reach the emission target. While a strategic target is set on energy saving as well as carbon-free and renewable energy consumption to be implemented for all SECAP-focus areas, a specific focus area of the SECAP mitigation plan relates to waste management and the promotion of waste recycling following the national development priority of "Protecting the environment - Shifting to an environmentally friendly economy". In this regard, Circular Economy (CE) approaches and the construction sector are not yet recognised as promising action fields, nor are waste recycling practices common standards in the region yet. SECAP activities will be funded from either Hungarian Economic Development Project Plus or Territorial Operational Program. A part of SECAP will be financed by local and regional city development sources.
Partners working on this policy instrument
The waste management plan was formulated and updated as required for the Calabria Region to comply with EU regulations in 2016 and successively reframed to incorporate a CE policy approach, introducing innovative technologies to reduce waste and increase the sector performance as well as introduce new governance schemes.
The waste management plan is core to the Regional Programme of Calabria 2021-2027 supported by ERDF and ESF+ and is allocated in one of the strategic policy objectives (“OS2 - a Greener Calabria Region: Climate, Energy, Natural Resources and Circular Economy”).
Further, due to delays when implementing the current Waste Management Plan, incremental updates are additionally required, hence, the Calabria Region aims to update guidelines that will serve to streamline the new Waste Management Plan. The waste sector in Calabria requires urgent intervention to reduce emissions and debris disposal. It is required to maximize waste sorting efforts by updating regional norms. Especially for construction waste management, the Regional Waste Management Plan must also incorporate innovation frameworks to foster technological upgrade so the waste processing facilities increase their capacity and their technological assets. For construction waste, once the policy framework is improved, it must be rolled out across the region homogeneously so that the stakeholders can engage and achieve the milestones set for reducing construction waste while increasing the recycling rate.
Partners working on this policy instrument
The LECP, launched in June 2021 and governed by the Agency for Internal Affairs (ABB - Agentschap Binnenlands Bestuur), is a binding agreement between the Flemish Government and Flemish cities and municipalities to speed up energy and climate transition in the region.
297 municipalities and cities (99%) signed the LECP and agreed by this to follow the Covenant of Mayors 2030 and implement a sustainable energy and climate action plan (SECAP).The Flemish Government in return supports them by project support, learning network and funding.
The Cities and Municipalities commit to:
1. an average annual primary energy savings of at least 2.09% in their own buildings, including technical infrastructure;
2. reducing CO2-emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 2015, mainly by establishing a real estate strategy in their own buildings and in their technical infrastructure;
3. installing publicly accessible LED lighting for all the 1,2 million public lighting points by 2030;
4. increasing the acceptance of renewable energy and drawing up local heat and demolition policy plans;
5. encouraging citizens, businesses and associations to achieve concrete and visible targets in 4 fields:
5.1. Let’s plant a tree (more trees and greenery)
5.2. Enrich your neighbourhood (energy-saving renovations, cooperative renewable energy projects)
5.3. Water- the new gold (rainwater collection)
5.4. Each neighbourhood shares and sustainable accessible (charging points, cycling paths).