Africa-EU CO-FUND action on climate

This Destination contributes directly to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientations ‘Green transition’, ‘Digital transition’ and ‘A more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe’.

In line with the Strategic Plan, the overall expected impact of this Destination is to contribute to the “Advancing science for a transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society”.

Expected impacts:

Research should contribute to closing major knowledge gaps on the changing climate together with their associated impacts and risks, on both society and nature. It should also help develop tools to support decision-makers in designing and implementing effective mitigation and adaptation actions at various time and spatial scales while properly accounting for synergies and trade-offs with other policy objectives, such as just transition, territorial cohesion and leaving no one behind.

The main impacts to be generated by topics under this Destination are:

1. Supporting climate action (both mitigation and adaptation) in Europe and globally, through advancing climate science and the knowledge base underpinning actionable solutions, to accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral, climate-resilient and prosperous society.
2. Closing key knowledge gaps related to climate change, thereby contributing substantially to key European and international assessments such as IPCC, IPBES, EUCRA, and other initiatives such as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) under the World Climate Research Programme.
3. Strengthening the European Research Area on climate change by boosting scientific excellence and capacity in an inclusive manner across the participating countries.
4. Maximising synergies between mitigation and adaptation and with other policy priorities such as biodiversity and ecosystem preservation and restoration, disaster-preparedness, digitalisation, circular economy, prosperity and competitiveness, strategic autonomy, security and resilience, just transition, and the Sustainable Development Goals by exploring co-benefits, trade-offs and potential unintended consequences of climate strategies and policy interventions.

Important components of climate science research are also addressed in other Clusters -particularly Cluster 6 – which addresses the climate-ocean-cryosphere-polar nexus and the climate-energy-land-food-water-biodiversity nexus. Efforts to foster synergies and complementarities across these research activities are strongly encouraged.

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• A long-term collaboration on climate change research between the EU and the African Union is established through development and implementation of the Climate Action pillar of the EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (CCSE),^[1] in co-design between African and European partners;
• Reduced fragmentation by aligning the EU, national and multilateral R&I efforts with increased leverage and impact of funding;
• African scientific, policy and practice communities have knowledge and tools to better understand, withstand and adapt to the accelerating effects of climate change, fostering science-based implementation of the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Nairobi Declaration on Climate Change, the international dimensions of the EU Adaptation and Preparedness Union Strategy, the Global Gateway and the Team Europe Initiative on Adaptation and Resilience in Africa^[2];
• African science is better accounted for and African scientists are better represented in international fora such as IPCC and UNFCCC.

Scope:

The European Commission Political Guidelines 2024-2029^[3] call for new impetus in EU partnership with Africa to jointly address Africa’s concerns which include increasing impacts of climate change. This requires stepping up research and innovation cooperation between Europe and Africa in this crucial domain for securing Africa’s prosperity and resilience, which also aligns with Europe’s interests. With disproportionate burden from climate change risks, high vulnerability and low adaptive capacity, Africa faces unique challenges that require tailored, context-specific solutions.

The action should establish joint collaborative activities between the EU and the AU, their respective Member States and other like-minded countries implementing the Climate Action Pillar of the CCSE Partnership. For framing its activities, the action should use the CCSE Roadmap^[4] and the priorities identified by the Coordination and Support Action funded from the call “HORIZON-CL5-2025-03-D1-07: Implementing the climate action pillar of the EU-African Union Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy”. It should also consider the latest scientific and policy developments for adjusting the course of its activities. The action should address a well-balanced variety of climate issues under the Climate pillar of the CCSE Partnership, with particular emphasis on climate risk reduction and resilience. It should advance availability of climate-related data, data sharing and related information platforms, enhance climate services, and promote an integrated approach to knowledge. This should include awareness raising – in particular for the most vulnerable sectors and parts of the population – while leveraging the opportunities offered by the digital revolution to improve accessibility and impact. Co-design, co-development, and demonstration with end-users should be an integral part of the activities to increase uptake of the outcomes.

The action should organise joint calls and allow sufficient time for the implementation of the co-funded projects. The estimated duration of the action in order to achieve the establishment of the long term, sustainable collaboration is 5-6 years.

As a horizontal requirement, the action should promote collaborations between government, research and academia, private sector, and civil society, including for the sake of valorisation of results from the funded and other relevant activities. It should also prioritise capacity building among African scientists, practitioners and other stakeholders, including development of skills and researcher exchange.

Proposals should specifically consider elements within the FSTP scheme to ensure geographical balance and inclusiveness of a broad range of EU Member States, Horizon Europe Associated Countries, but especially widest possible representation of different African Union member states.

Beyond implementing transnational calls, the action should also design and carry out an ambitious programme of coordination and clustering activities to seek synergies, align efforts, exchange results, and organise joint activities with other relevant Horizon Europe, and other EU, national and multilateral initiatives^[5]. It should provide support to the operation of the CCSE partnership and promoting its activities on international stage to increase the visibility of EU science diplomacy actions in Africa for climate-resilient development.

It is recommended that the action draws on the experience and lessons learnt from the implementation of the energy pillar of the CCSE Partnership^[6].

[1] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/strategy/strategy-research-and-innovation/europe-world/international-cooperation/regional-dialogues-and-international-organisations/eu-africa-cooperation/partnership-climate-change-and-sustainable-energy-ccse_en

[2] Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience - Africa | Capacity4dev

[3] https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/e6cd4328-673c-4e7a-8683-f63ffb2cf648_en

[4] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/document/download/bb5227b4-5573-4078-bf70-2b668f8a573e_en?filename=ccse_roadmap_2017.pdf

[5] Such as ﷟ PRIMA, FNSSA, CS4RRA, ﷟ ClimSA, Regional Centers of Excellence related to the green transition, or climate related components of the Africa-EU Space Programme

[6] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/963530 and https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101172838