Local Green Deals

Expected general impact of the project under this call are the following:

• Increasing better, high-quality employment (tackling regional or local unemployment);
• Mobilising the regional or local stakeholders towards a new, green, sustainable, inclusive and socially fairer post-COVID-19 recovery;
• Supporting the green, social and digital transition at local level;
• Supporting resilient and sustainable business models based on social economy;
• Boosting the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy;
• Ensuring more community resilience and better living conditions for the population;
• New ecosystem thinking based on active engagement of all actors.

Indicators for expected impact under the topic “Local Green Deals” are the following:

• Increased number of local economic operators and SMEs who have better awareness of sustainability, improved sustainable business models alternatives and existing support for their transition;
• Increased number of SMEs who are more innovative in terms of products and services, and how they manage their innovation processes, and integrate green and digital technologies and processes;
• Increased number of SMEs who are aware of sources of EU funding (including for research and innovation) and other sources of finance for expanding their business internationally, and what they need to do to apply and/or to establish fruitful contacts with potential investors;
• Enhanced preparation for an effective deployment for a Local Green Deals movement. Improved capacity to identify solutions for scale ups, comparability and coherence of outcomes across Member States and effective and timely deployment.

In order to contribute to the European Green Deal objectives of climate-neutrality, sustainability, prosperity and inclusiveness and in parallel develop more sustainable regional or local strategies and resilient business models, SMEs and companies will have to undergo a rapid and radical transformation and come up with creative, sustainable and collaborative solutions. The general objective of this topic is to provide support to SMEs, regional and local economic operators to lead the twin green and digital transition and implement actions aiming to direct the local economy towards a sustainable and inclusive pathway, create new jobs, mitigate the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis and accelerate a new, green and fairer recovery.

To achieve this, this call will support projects that boost transnational and cross border cooperation among local administrations and local businesses to co-create, co-design and deliver Local Green Deals (LGDs). The local green deals should be in line with the overarching objectives and specific targets established by relevant EU strategies, namely: the European Green Deal, the EU Industrial Strategy (that also supports the transition towards more sustainable industrial systems, cleaner technologies, less polluting business models and consumption habits), the Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, the Renovation Wave for Europe Strategy, the New European Bauhaus, the European Climate Pact, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the 2030 Climate Target plan.

The specific objectives to be achieved through this call for proposals for topic “Local Green Deals” are the following:

• Supporting transnational and cross-city cooperation, exchange of good practices, collaborative business models between industry, SMEs and other economic operators, mapping of existing examples and opportunities in the local green deals development and implementation;
• Supporting learning between the project partners and co-creation of sustainable, smart and inclusive practices and solutions for the most pressing urban and local challenges related to the green transition of the local economy.
• Supporting local administrations, industry, business and other local stakeholders in the development and implementation of Local Green Deals, as part of transnational and cross-city cooperation. These local agreements (“deals”) between stakeholders to cooperate, should clearly identify the key actions that each stakeholder commits to lead, the support offered by all actors, and timeframes for delivery.
• Raising awareness and applying the Local Green Deals Blueprint in the development and implementation of the Local Green Deals.