D4.4 ClimaGen Policy 1 is the first iteration of ClimaGen’s policy-oriented work. It sets out the initial framework for identifying, structuring and communicating policy-relevant learning from the project’s city-level activities, cross-city exchanges and transversal work.
The deliverable clarifies the policy context and relevance of ClimaGen, including the local, regional, national, European and international levels at which climate-resilient regeneration and renaturing may interact with policy by requiring support or providing recommendations. It also identifies relevant target groups, outreach pathways and policy frameworks, including EU Missions, the New European Bauhaus, the European Green Deal, the EU Adaptation Strategy, biodiversity and circular economy agendas, and potential standardisation pathways.
The ClimaGen Policy deliverable draws on city demonstrations, city reports, City Dialogues, Sense-Making Sessions, partner discussions, finance-related work and transversal work. These support the identification and prioritisation of policy-relevant challenges, bottlenecks, and shared barriers, and help translate them into suitable governance, financing, and policy responses.
A core element of the ClimaGen Policy methodology is a structured process for moving from identified challenges to possible policy and governance responses. This approach helps ensure that future policy outputs are based on a clearer understanding of the issues affecting implementation, rather than on surface-level barriers alone. Internal Sense-Making Session #5 provided an initial operationalisation of this methodology by working with cities to prioritise governance challenges and develop possible policy or governance responses. This included consideration of relevant actors, governance levels, expected benefits, barriers and initial action plans. In later stages, these inputs will be consolidated through the Challenge and Problem Tree, Objective Tree and Policy Matrix.
The deliverable also presents preliminary city-level policy profiles and cross-city patterns. The recurring challenges identified include limited long-term financing for nature-based solutions, fragmented coordination across municipal departments, conflicting stakeholder priorities, lack of impact measurement tools, limited municipal capacity and expertise, limited political ownership, lack of institutionalised mechanisms for meaningful participation, and limited space and land-use constraints. Additional cross-cutting issues include fragmented land ownership, post-project ownership responsibilities, integration with existing strategies and opportunities for territorial replication. Overall, the comparison suggests that the main barriers to climate-resilient regeneration and renaturing are not only technical. Across the ClimaGen cities, policy relevance emerges most clearly around the enabling conditions for implementation: who coordinates across departments and governance levels, who finances and maintains nature-based solutions over time, how communities are meaningfully involved, how benefits are measured and communicated, and how local interventions are anchored in wider strategies.
ClimaGen Policy 1 is the initial documentation of the ongoing work. Future versions will continue to iterate the work with more detailed assessments based on more developed implementation and demonstrations, deeper finance-related analysis and further validation with cities, partners, policy makers and relevant external communities.
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