Summary of Case Studies:
EU Policies on ICT Utilisation & Trends in Green Recovery

September 2021

Summary of Case Studies:
EU Policies on ICT Utilisation and Trends in Green Recovery
Purpose of the Study
This report summarises case studies conducted by the United Nations University Institute for the
Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) as part of the "FY2020 Research Project on Partnership
Facilitation and Civil Society Participation towards Realization of Regional Circular and Ecological Sphere(Local SDGs)." The project is supported by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, and it is part of awider project led by IDEA Consultants Inc. to analyse best practices in realising a “Regional Circular andEcological Sphere (Local SDGs)” through ICT applications and multi-stakeholder partnerships.

The study aims to contribute to discussion on mainstreaming a Regional Circular and Ecological
Sphere (Local SDGs) through ICT and multi-stakeholder partnerships. It summarises ICT strategies andpolicies concerning localisation of the SDGs and examines specific local approaches in detail.

Study Overview & Summary of Key Findings
The first part of this chapter summarises the policy framework of Horizon 2020, the EU Framework
Programme for Research and Innovation for the period 2014–2020. As a case study, the section
analyses a smart city project, "GrowSmarter," which was conducted under the Horizon 2020
framework.
The latter part of the chapter provides a summary of trends on green recovery — a concept that is widely
deployed by many countries aiming to recover from COVID-19 in a greener way. The study finds that
employment will be an important aspect to achieving a green recovery. In the short term, it is importantto address unemployment caused by COVID-19, while in the long term society needs to consider
achieving a “just transition" by making maximum use of ICT. Securing green jobs with the use of ICT is
one of the key approaches to achieving green recovery with the ultimate aim of creating a resilient andsustainable economy.
Major fields of green recovery include introduction of renewable energy, promotion of low-carbon mobility,
increasing high-efficiency building systems, and restoring ecosystems. These are not exactly new areas,
but nature-based approaches and the creation of compact cities that aim at reducing travel distances(“15-minute city”) could be considered somewhat novel approaches in the context of the COVID-19
pandemic.
Application of ICT is another important aspect. Response measures in the above-mentioned fields can
2be enhanced in building sustainable cities through application of ICT. Therefore, in future studies, it would
be highly useful to continue to investigate other Horizon 2020 projects through desk research andinterviews. Additionally, analysis of Horizon Europe 2021–2027, the EU's new research and innovation
funding programme, would be valuable for future studies to consider ICT applications to realise local
SDGs.

Policies that Support Application of ICT under Horizon
Horizon 2020
A. Overview of Horizon 2020
Horizon 2020 is the framework program (FP) conducted across Europe to promote research,technological development, and innovation.1 The program is implemented with public funds,
totalling an estimated EUR 80 billion of funding for 7 years, from 2014 to 2020.
Smart Cities and Communities is a project under Horizon 2020 that aims to bring ICT solutions
to cities. This project aims to demonstrate solutions in 46 “lighthouse cities” through 17
Lighthouse Projects (Table 1), and scale them up to 70 “fellow cities” (fellow cities are where
projects will be implemented at an early stage after pilot projects).
Table 1: Overview3 of Smart Cities & Communities2
No.
1

Lighthouse Project

Pilot Cities

Early Adopter Cities(lighthouse cities)(fellow cities)

ATELIER

Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Bratislava (Slovakia)

AmsTErdam and BiLbao cItizen drivEn smaRt

Bilbao (Spain)

Budapest (Hungary)cities;Copenhagen (Denmark)https://smartcity-atelier.eu/

Krakow (Poland)
Matosinhos (Portugal)

The project aims to create PEDs in eight cities in

Riga (Latvia)

Europe and replicate the approach. At the sametime, it aims to introduce innovative solution
through integration of buildings, smart mobility, andtechnology
2+CityxChange

Limerick (Ireland)

Alba Iulia (Romania)

Positive City ExChange

Trondheim (Norway)

Písek (Czech)

https://cityxchange.eu/

Sestao (Spain)
Smolyan (Bulgaria)

The project aims to develop a framework andVõru (Estonia)

supporting tools enabling sharable energy markets
supported by connected communities.
3

GrowSmarter

Barcelona (Spain)

Cork (Ireland)

Transforming Cities for a Smart, Sustainable

Köln (Germany)

Graz (Austria)

EuropeStockholm (Sweden)

Porto (Portugal)

https://grow-smarter.eu/home/

Suceava (Romania)
Valletta (Malta)

The project brought together cities and industry tointegrate and demonstrate 12 smart city solutions
in energy, infrastructure, and transport, to provide

1

Horizon 2020 is a framework plan to promote EU studies and innovative development conducted all over Europe. The entire work
programme of Horizon 2020 is available at: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/h2020-sections
2
https://smartcities-infosystem.eu/
3valuable insights on practical methods for
replication.
4

IRIS

Göteborg (Sweden)

Alexandroupolis (Greece)

Integrated and Replicable Solutions for Co-

Nice (France)

Focsani (Romania)

Creation in Sustainable Cities

Utrecht (Netherlands)

Santa Cruz De Tenerife

https://irissmartcities.eu/(Spain)Vaasa (Finland)

Each city will draw upon a mix of universities andresearch organizations, local authorities, innovation
agencies and private expertise to accelerate entire
communities to adopt ambitious energy, mobility,
and ICT initiatives
5

MAKING-CITY

Groninge (Netherlands)

Bassano Del Grappa (Italy)

Energy efficient pathway for the city transformation:

Oulu (Finland)

Kadikoy (Turkey)

enabling a positive future

León (Spain)

https://makingcity.eu/

Lublin (Poland)
Trenčín (Slovakia)

MAKING-CITY is a large-scale project to address

Vidin (Bulgaria)

and demonstrate urban energy system innovation
towards smart and low-carbon cities. The purpose
is developing a new integrated strategy, adopting
the Positive Energy District (PED) approach to thetransition of urban energy.
6MAtchUP

Antalya (Turkey)

Herzliya (Israel)

MAximizing the UPscaling and replication potential

Dresden (Germany)

Kerava (Finland)of higher level urban transformation strategies

Valencia (Spain)

Ostend (Belgium)https://www.matchup-project.eu/

Skopje (North Macedonia)

The project aims to renovate cities throughinnovative solutions and technology providing
services to communities.
7

mySMARTLife

Hamburg (Germany)

Bydgoszcz (Poland)

Smart Transition of EU cities towards a new

Helsinki (Finland)

Palencia (Spain)

concept of smart Life and Economy

Nantes (France)

Rijeka (Croatia)

POCITYF

Alkmaar (Netherlands)

Bari (Italy)

A POsitive Energy CITY Transformation

Evora (Portugal)

Celje (Slovenia)

https://www.mysmartlife.eu/mysmartlife/
The project aims to create more inclusive cities thatenable higher quality of life by involving citizens todevelop an integrated urban transformation
strategy and share the experience with other cities.
8

Framework;

Granada (Spain)

https://pocityf.eu/

Hvidovre (Denmark)Ioannina (Greece)

The project aims to deploy positive energy districts

Ujpest (Hungary)(PED) in the urban areas of cities with heritage
sites.
9

REMOURBAN

Nottingham (UK)

Miskolc (Hungary)

REgeneration MOdel for accelerating the smart

Tepebasi (Turkey)

Seraing (Belgium)

URBAN transformation

Valladolid (Spain)

http://www.remourban.eu/
The project aims to validate the European
sustainable urban city model through technicalintegration of energy, mobility, and ICTs.
10

REPLICATE

Bristol (UK)

Essen (Germany)

REnaissance of Places with Innovative Citizenship

Firenze (Italy)

Lausanne (Switzerland)

and Technology

San Sebastian (Spain)

Nilüfer (Turkey)

https://www.connectingbristol.org/projects/replicate/4The project aims to deploy higher energy efficiency
and mobility and ICT solutions in urban areas.
11

RUGGEDISED

Glasgow (UK)

Brno (Czech)

Designing Smart and Resilient Cities for All

Rotterdam (Netherlands)

Gdansk (Poland)

https://ruggedised.eu/home/Umeå (Sweden)

Parma (Italy)

Sharing Cities

Lisbon (Portugal)

Bordeaux (France)

https://www.sharingcities.eu/

London (UK)

Bourgas (Bulgar)

Milano (Italy)

Warsaw (Poland)

SmartEnCity

Sonderborg (Denmark)Asenovgrad (Bulgaria)

Towards Smart Zero CO2 Cities across Europe

Tartu (Estonia)

Lecce (Italy)

https://www.smarter-together.eu/

Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)

Three lighthouse cities and three fellow cities
cooperate with companies and research centers todemonstrate how to combine IC, e-mobility andenergy solutions to design smart and resilient cities
for all.
12

The project aims to address today`s urgent urban
issues including energy utilisation, low-carbon
transportation and buildings, and data applications
for urban cities.
13

The project aims to create smart zero-carbon cities
that are more sustainable and inclusive, improving
citizens` quality of life, creating jobs and wealth,and offering equal growth opportunities.
14

SMARTER TOGETHER

Lyon (France)

Kiev (Ukraine)

Smart and Inclusive Solutions for a Better Life in

München (Germany)

Santiago De Compostela

Urban Districts SMARTER TOGETHER

Vienna (Austria)(Spain)Sofia (Bulgaria)

The project aims to prepare the ground for large-

Venezia (Italy)

scale replication and to transfer detailed knowledge

Yokohama (Japan)

and know-how on sustainable smart city businessmodels and user-centric innovation for positivesocial dynamics.
15

SPARCS

Espoo (Finland)

Kifissia (Greece)

Sustainable energy Positive &Leipzig (Germany)

Kladno (Czech)

zero cARbon CommunitieS

Lviv (Ukraine)

https://www.sparcs.info/

Maia (Portugal)
Reykjavik (Iceland)

The project aims to create a network of sustainableenergy and positive and zero carbon communities
through integrated energy systems through multistakeholder partnerships.
16

STARDUST

Pamplona (Spain)

Cluj-Napoca (Romania)

Holistic and Integrated Urban Model For Smart

Tampere (Finland)

Derry (UK)

CitiesTrento (Italy)

Kozani (Greece)

https://stardustproject.eu/

Litoměřice (Czech)

The project aims to develop an integrated
approach towards the transformation of carbon
supplier cities into smart, highly efficient, intelligent
and citizen-centred cities through a holistic
replication model.
17

Triangulum

Eindhoven (Netherlands)

Leipzig (Germany)

The Three Point Project / Demonstrate.

Manchester (UK)Praha (Czech)5Disseminate. Replicate.

Stavanger (Norway)

Sabadell (Spain)
Tianjin (China)

The project demonstrates solutions andframeworks implemented in three lighthouse cities,
disseminating the design to facilitate wider
replication in future smart cities.

B. Programme for ICT Promotion, Funded by Horizon 2020
GrowSmarter3 was a research and innovation programme conducted from January 2015 to
December 2019, funded by the European Commission’s Smart Cities and Communities project
under Horizon 2020. The programme was conducted in the cities of Stockholm, Köln andBarcelona, with a total budget of EUR 25 million. It suggested that clear goals should be set, andnecessary equipment should be provided by the governments of local communities including solar
power systems, charging stations and data platforms. It also recommended that local governments
develop plans for citizen involvement. Recommendations for Policymakers and Practitioner4 may
be useful for implementation of similar projects in Japan.

Relevant Efforts on Green Recovery by Countries & Cities(Sustainable Economic Recovery)
The aim of green recovery is not to return to the previous economy and society by rebuilding after
the damage of COVID-19, but rather to create a resilient, sustainable, and environmentally sensitive
economy and society with improved economic indices including revenue and employment.

A. International Trends in Green Recovery
Governments have already announced fiscal stimulus packages amounting to $11.8 trillion in
response to the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, which is more than three times the amountspent in response to the Great Recession of 2008–2009. While most of it prioritises healthcare anddirect support to the unemployed, about 30% of these stimulus packages are being spent in sectorsthat impact the environment.5 According to OECD members and Key Partner countries as of August
2020, the green measures included the energy sector, transportation, building efficiency, andagriculture as targets of recovery.

3

https://grow-smarter.eu/home/https://grow-smarter.eu/fileadmin/editor-upload/Reports/recommendations_for_Policy_makers_and_practitioners.pdf
5
https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/09/coronavirus-green-economic-recovery
4

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Table 2: Number of Recovery Measures with Positive Environmental Implications, by Sector& Type6

Energy Policy Tracker7, a platform that analyses data on energy-relevant expenses from different
countries from the perspective of green recovery, has found three policies all of which are in the
United Kingdom. By sector, "multiple sectors" has the highest number of cases (11), followed by"mobility" with 8 cases.
Table 3: Target Fields of Green Recovery Policy

Buildings

Mobility
28MultiplePower

sectors

generation
11

Resources

Other
sector4

1

1

Although clear green recovery packages by specific countries are still under development, there
are a few examples, mainly in Europe. The following is a summary of the packages that havebeen announced.

(i) EUThe EU announced a proposed recovery fund, "NextGenerationEU" as part of a comprehensive
Recovery plan for Europe8 to commit EUR 750 billion in the budget over 7 years, from 2021 to 2027.
About 37% is supposed to be spent on "green recovery" policy as the top priority.

(ii) United Kingdom
In November 2020, the Government of the United Kingdom unveiled the 10-Point Plan for a Green
Industrial Revolution,9 as a policy for green recovery. It is estimated that a GBP 12 billion economic
6

https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/view/?ref=136_136201-ctwt8p7qs5&title=Making-the-Green-Recovery-Work-for-Jobs-Income-andGrowth_7
https://www.energypolicytracker.org/
8 https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/recovery-plan-europe_en9https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-ten-point-plan-for-a-green-industrial-revolution
7

stimulus would create 250,000 new jobs, which is expected to mobilise significant private sector
investment in support of the United Kingdom’s 2050 goal of net-zero carbon. The plan also covers
carbon capture, hydrogen, nuclear energy, electric vehicles, renewable energy, green protection andrecovery, and promotion of low-carbon mobility, aiming to place London at the centre of the green
financial industry.

(iii) France
In September 2020, the Government of France unveiled a EUR 100 billion Recovery Plan 10 for
2020–2022 (EUR 40 billion of direct subsidies from the EU), and EUR 30 billion of the plan is
supposed to be dedicated to policy for transitioning to a green economy.

B. Country Comparisons — Greenness of Stimulus Index
Vivid Economics and Finance for Biodiversity Initiative evaluated responses to COVID-19 of G20
members and other major countries by using various indices. The report, released in February 2021,
reveals that Japan is one of the countries having negative impacts on the environment rather thanpositive ones (Figure 1). It mentions as one of the reasons that there are some systems of subsidies
and lower taxes in place for products that have high environmental impacts in the transport sector.
Figure 1: Greenness of Stimulus Index

10 https://www.tresor.economie.gouv.fr/Articles/6d1ad9be-1ac4-4088-9b02-c1ce0ccef988/files/5c419c24-a340-47ea-b47ae8cd63ecf977

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C. Considerations for Green Recovery Policy
The COVID-19 pandemic delivered a serious blow to employment. In the short term, labour-intensive
and green measures are required. On the other hand, recovery programmes with environmental
considerations can also be expected to create jobs. For instance, the IEA reported that every US
dollar invested in the solar power sector will create double the number of jobs compared toinvestment in fossil fuels and gas. 11 According to IRENA, the renewable energy industry is be
expected to create over 40 million jobs by 2050. In the energy industry as a whole, there is potential
for an increase in employment from the current number of 58 million jobs to 100 million by 2050.12
The IEA also estimates that there is a potential for about 2.5 million jobs per year to be created in
the field of high energy efficiency.13 Protection of nature and organic farming also have high potential
as a source of employment. Additionally, it is critical to ensure a "just transition" in enabling
employment to realise a resilient and sustainable economy.
ICT has a key role in the transition to a green economy and society. Promoting digital transformationin sectors that have high environmental impact — including transportation, energy, construction, andagriculture — enables an increase in both economic and ecological benefits. The World Economic
Forum reports that there is potential to avoid an estimated 26 billion metric tons of net CO2 emissions
from just three sectors of electricity, logistics and automotive by 2025. Furthermore, if smart asset
planning and management and energy storage integration were universal in the electric powerindustry, it is estimated that up to 8.8 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions could be reduced by 2025
and USD 418 billion of value for the economy will be created.14

11

https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/09/coronavirus-green-economic-recovery
https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/making-the-green-recovery-work-for-jobs-income-and-growth-a505f3e7/
https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/making-the-green-recovery-work-for-jobs-income-and-growth-a505f3e7/
14
https://reports.weforum.org/digital-transformation/enabling-the-transition-to-a-sustainable-world/
12
13

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D. Advanced Initiatives by Cities on Green recovery — Selected Cases(i) Report by C40 on Green Recovery
In July 2020, the city network group C40, consisting of large cities addressing climate control
measures, released the C40 Mayors’ Agenda for a Green and Just Recovery15. The report specifies
what actions cities commit to take and presents nine principles to realise a green and just recovery.

(ii) Approaches Led by Local Governments
Canada (Province of Québec)In November 2020, the government of Québec announced the 2030 Plan for a Green Economy16,
which indicates eight articles as specific goals including reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by
37.5% from 1990 levels and achievement of carbon neutrality by 2050.

United Kingdom (Glasgow)

An analysis in the Glasgow City Region (GCR; Scotland, UK) on opportunities and priorities forgreen recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic17 illustrates the prioritisation in response to needs at
the regional level (Table 4).
Table 4: Rating of Illustrative “Green” Recovery Interventions for Glasgow City Region

15 https://c40.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#36000001Enhz/a/1Q000000kVoY/kuR1PLHMGR2K9eEbo8aivV.xPegZVTqwt.EjX.4a.hk
16https://www.quebec.ca/en/government/policies-orientations/plan-green-

economy/#:~:text=The%202030%20Plan%20for%20a,climate%20change%20and%20more%20prosperous
17

http://climatereadyclyde.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Climate-Ready-Clyde-Delivering-a-Green-New-Deal-for-Glasgow-City-Region-Final-.pdf

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