EUKI Project Interview: Capacity Building for Ambitious Long-Term Strategies
by GIZ/EUKI,
For our new EUKI brochure we spoke with Kasia Ugryn from Climate Action Network Europe about her EUKI project Capacity Building for Ambitious Long-Term Strategies. The project aims to improve the quality of long-term strategies for decarbonization in the Visegrad 4+2 countries. The interview is part of the EUKI brochure published in 2021.
Your project intends to improve the quality of long-term strategies (LTS). What is included in these
strategies and what are their goals?
The EU wants to be climate-neutral by 2050. This European long-term climate goal needs to be translated into national long-term strategies that define how the respective country will reduce its GHG emissions. This includes measures to reduce certain industries’ emissions, but also ideas on how to encourage citizens to adopt more sustainable lifestyles.
The project emphasises the role of civil society organisations in developing LTS. How does your
project support them?
We help to communicate the view of civil society on national long-term strategies to various national decision-makers as well as to the European Commission. There has been a lot of interest in the civil society perspective, as it helps decision-makers to work together in making the strategies more ambitious. Furthermore, our project regularly organises discussion events and workshops where politicians, representatives from civil society organisations and academics come together and exchange their views on national long-term strategies and on how to best move forward. Together with climate experts and NGO representatives, we at the Climate Action Network (CAN) have also developed an assessment method that allows a structured analysis and comparison of the strategies produced in the individual member states.
© CAN Europe, Portrait Katarzyna Ugryn
“There has been a lot of interest in the civil society perspective, as it helps decision-makers to work together in making the strategies more ambitious”
Kasia Ugryn, Climate Action Network Europe
From your experience in the project: what needs to happen to reach ambitious long-term climate goals?
We need to strengthen and increase the dialogue and exchange between political actors and broader civil society as well as youth movements. The more we talk with these different groups, the more we understand how to develop a strategy for long-term climate goals that have the support of the entire society.
This interview is part of the EUKI Brochure “Climate Action Connecting Europe” released in August 2021. Read more about major EUKI milestones of the past two years, the steadily growing EUKI Academy and project successes across Europe.