Collective projects

Regional differences with respect to the forest management systems implemented and long production cycles characterise the forestry sector in the EU. Forests generally provide for a range of goods and services, some valued by existing markets (i.e. wood and non-wood products), others not. Of the latter, some are "public goods" (i.e. they are non-excludable (everyone benefits from them) and are not subject to consumption rivalry), such as carbon sequestration and landscape, while others are "common-pool resources" (i.e.

In order to integrate electromobility in their Sustainable Mobility Plans, European cities need to equip themselves with a network of electric recharging stations for electric cars and L-category vehicles. This will help the market to grow, as potentially interested consumers tend not to buy electric vehicles because they are not confident enough about the opportunities to recharge them. However, the real business models do not yet exist.

It is essential to diversify the technology portfolio and feedstock basis to allow competitive production of advanced biofuels for use in transport.

The following sub-challenges should be addressed:

Decarbonisation of the aviation transport sector and reducing its dependence on fossil fuel requires liquid biofuels even in the longer term. Accelerating the deployment of advanced biofuel technologies for use in aviation will allow competitive production of biojet fuels on commercial scale, increase their attractiveness and facilitate achievement of the EU Biofuel FlightPath targets. Therefore, the specific challenge is to enable commercial production of sustainable and cost-competitive advanced biofuels aimed for use in the aviation sector.

Today Europe fails to capitalise fully on participatory innovation; more models and blueprints are needed to lead to new ways to produce collective intelligence in key sustainability areas, leveraging on open data, knowledge networks, open hardware and Internet of things. The challenge is to demonstrate that innovative combinations of existing or emerging network technologies enable new Digital Social Innovation which can better cope with emerging sustainability challenges, achieving mass adoption and measurable global impact.

Since the adoption of RES Directive in 2009, most Member States have experienced significant growth in renewable energy consumption and the EU and large majority of Member States are on track towards 2020 RES targets. Considering Member States' current and planned policy initiatives, their current implementation rates and the various barriers to renewable energy development, the need for improvements for some RES technologies, like offshore wind, advanced biofuels, CSP and geothermal, however, becomes apparent.

Arctic permafrost contains twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, stored in the upper metres of the ground. Thawing of permafrost may trigger the release of this carbon and its transformation to greenhouse gases, reinforcing global warming (permafrost carbon feedback). Moreover, permafrost coasts make up 34% of the world's coasts. Increasing sea-level in combination with changing sea-ice cover and permafrost thawing expose these coastal areas to higher risks.

Debris, chemical and microbial pollution and algae jellyfish blooms are huge and increasing problems in the oceans, seas and coasts. For plastics alone, the economic and ecological cost is considerable when including beach clean-ups, tourism losses, and damages to the fishing and aquaculture industries. In spite of strong legislation such as EU directives, sea and coastal pollution remains high, and prevention and innovative coast and sea clean-up schemes remain a challenge.

The sustainability of food systems is challenged by various interrelated factors, such as the changing socio-economic and political context, the scarcity of natural resources, environmental degradation and climate change. These challenges cannot be met by individual action, but require multi-stakeholder action and coordinated initiatives along the value chain. A new holistic, systemic approach to the design of processes within agro-food chains is needed to unlock their full potential and deliver economic, social and environmental benefits.

Specific Challenge