About the project
RethinkAction aims to engage citizens, stakeholders and decision-makers to encourage them to participate in land use-based transformation and actively support climate adaptation and mitigation. Six representative case studies (Sweden, France, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal) located in Europe, form the backbone of the project. Together, with the End User Community, the project partners are creating an Integrated Assessment Platform (web-based, user-friendly platform for the representation and comparison of land-used based solutions to fight against climate change) which will empower citizens, stakeholders and decision-makers to analyse climate change and incorporate climate action into the land-use policies that will affect our lives in the coming decades.
Description of success
As a result of the project, the LAMS Catalogue was developed as a core part of the RethinkAction Integrated Assessment Platform. The LAMS Catalogue is a collection of 60 land-based solutions that have the potential to enhance climate change mitigation and/or adaptation (e.g. agroforestry, reforestation/afforestation, shift in people's diet, photovoltaic plants). The purpose of the catalogue is to foster effective climate action by providing easy-to-access information to citizens, farmers, investors, consultancies, renewable energy companies and policymakers. With its multi-sector (e.g. agriculture, energy, forestry, biodiversity and ecosystems, water management, buildings), multi-scale (global, EU and local) approach, it allows users to take advantage of synergies and minimise trade-offs, fostering the successful implementation of solutions that affect the land sector.
Highlights
- Development of LAMS Catalogue: The solutions of the catalogue were identified based on an extensive review of policy documents at global, EU and case study level, complemented by a participatory refinement process with relevant stakeholders and experts. The identified solutions were analysed according to a broad set of specifications, including their mitigation and adaptation potential, synergies and trade-offs, drivers and barriers to their implementation and cost of their execution. The resulting catalogue is a self-standing science-based repository of multi-sectoral, multi-scale land-based solutions, to be used as reference for consultation for all interested users (e.g., researchers, climate modellers, farmers, policymakers, citizens) who play a role in the framework of climate action in the land sector. More specifically, through the LAMS catalogue, end-users can obtain relevant information about adaptation and mitigation solutions related to land use and land management. Then, they will be able to access the results of the simulation of the LAMS in an integrated assessment model. Lastly, end-users will be able to examine policy recommendations that summarise the results and provide meaningful suggestions on how to take action and how implementing certain LAMS can affect adaptation or mitigation to climate change at different scales.
- Evaluation and simulation of LAMS in the RethinkAction Integrated Assessment Model: The modelling of solutions contained in the catalogue allows the simulation and evaluation of their effects and effectiveness in relation to local (case studies) and EU climate objectives, both in terms of climate change mitigation and adaptation. This is paramount to guide the decision-making process, which is supported by RethinkAction through policy recommendations.
- Integration of LAMS in the RethinkAction Integrated Assessment Platform and compiling LAMS Factsheets: The LAMS Catalogue is integrated in the Platform, allowing end-users to search and access key information about the LAMS included in the catalogue. Each LAMS is complemented with a factsheet, which delivers the most relevant information about each solution in an easy-to-read format. The Integrated Assessment Platform will be widely accessible to the end-users by September 2025, concurrently with the end of the RethinkAction project, since its implementation requires several steps of testing, monitoring and improvements with the RethinkAction end-users community.
Outputs
LAMS Catalogue is an Excel document accompanied by an explanatory note, to be integrated in the Platform, and used for simulating the effects of the solutions.
LAMS Factsheets have information about each LAMS that enable a comprehensive overview of the LAMS, including the following:
- General description and characterisation of the solution;
- Co-benefits and possible negative effects in terms of impacts and resource requirements;
- Contribution to specific SDGs;
- Drivers and barriers in the following categories: institutional/legal, financial/investment, economic/market, socio-cultural, technical, organisational/governance;
- Related policy documents and relevant scale;
- References.
Watch a video explaining the purpose of LAMS, the 11 sectors that they cover and the research methodology.
Impact
The LAMS Catalogue increases the accessibility of quantitative and qualitative information for sustainable management of the land sector, empowering all interested users (e.g., researchers, landowners and managers, policy makers, citizens). At the same time, by providing detailed specifications about each LAMS, their effect can be simulated, which is paramount to guiding the decision-making process, providing possible scenarios for the achievement of climate targets.
Lessons
The project partners encountered several challenges in realising the LAMS catalogue. One of these is the level of detail required for the solution simulations at different scales. They were able to tackle this issue thanks to the input from different stakeholders, gathered through several consultations. In addition, attributing quantitative specifications to each LAMS was challenged due to the lack of or inconsistency in data from the literature. This issue was addressed by consolidating some of the solutions and by referring mostly to studies, such as reviews and meta-analysis. Lastly, reaching an agreement among partners related to the LAMS list and data needs was possible thanks to a close and constant dialogue with all stakeholders and Consortium partners. This allowed them to find a good trade-off between technical, environmental and social aspects, as well as to identify any incompatibly as soon as possible.
Other information
The land sector plays a key role in the greenhouse gas (GHG) exchange with the atmosphere and as such in the consequent climate target. However, actions in many sectors (e.g. energy, transport, agriculture, urban planning) can affect the land sector in its capacity to face climate change. The multi-sectoral approach that was implemented by the project partners in building the LAMS catalogue allowed them to consider the effects of land-based climate solutions in a broad and comprehensive way. Furthermore, the project partners identified synergies between solutions that can be exploited to maximize the success of the solutions.
Another ongoing Horizon Europe project (NEVERMORE) is taking inspiration from the LAMS catalogue to develop a more comprehensive cross-sectoral portfolio of policies and measures for climate change mitigation and adaptation including the land sector and beyond.
Figure 1: LAMS Process © RethinkAction 2024
