C 421/38
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
4.11.2022
The Mission Platform will assist in particular those cities that are committing to climate neutrality by 2030, ensure overall coherence and coordination throughout the process and report regularly on the progress towards the CCC.
With signature of the CCC, cities receive a ‘Mission label’ acknowledging the rigorous evaluation process and the quality and feasibility of their commitments.
It will unlock targeted funding opportunities in EU funding programmes and offers an opportunity for regions, Member States and other public actors to support highly visible activities on climate neutrality in pioneering cities to help carry forward efforts to meet European Green Deal targets.
Since activities under the CCC will have been already vetted as environmentally sustainable in line with the EU framework to facilitate sustainable investment, the label will boost investor awareness and confidence.
This will make it easier for the cities to attract financing for their climate-related activities from additional public and private investors.
EU Mission Soil Deal for Europe The mission will pioneer, showcase and accelerate the transition to healthy soils through ambitious actions in 100 living labs and lighthouses within territorial settings.
This will be combined with an ambitious transdisciplinary R&I programme, a robust, harmonised soil monitoring framework and increased soil literacy and communication to engage with citizens.
The mission objectives are fully in line the ERDF policy objectives of a greener, low-carbon transitioning towards a net zero carbon economy and resilient Europe by promoting clean and fair energy transition, green and blue investment, the circular economy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, risk prevention and management, and sustainable urban mobility.
The ERDF can play a significant role regarding soil health.
Three-quarters of NUTS 2 regions have smart specialisation strategies in agri-food, which means that there is a sizeable potential for projects contributing to mission’s objectives from the research and innovation angle.
The mission will make use of the thematic smart specialisation platform on agri-food to capitalise on cross-regional cooperation and favour the emergence of common innovation investment projects in areas relevant to the mission.
The thematic priority ‘Greener, carbon-free Europe’ will allow to scale up mission results.
Regions which have identified in their smart specialisation strategies priorities related to sustainable soil and land management may capitalize on solutions developed and tested in the Mission’s Living Labs and Lighthouses and deploy downstream at a larger scale.
Interreg can also contribute very effectively to the implementation of the mission by establishing cooperation on the Mission’s objectives across borders (cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation).
Examples include: pilots or demonstrations of restoration of wetlands in cross-border or in north European transnational areas or cooperation on water erosion in Southern European transnational areas and cross-border river basins (e.g. Danube) or cooperation on spatial planning approaches which take due account of land/soil management.