1. From damage mitigation to a new consensus – placing EU Bioenergy within an ecologically sound climate and energy transition
Funder: Birdlife Europe
Financing period: May 2020 – March 2021 (extended until May 2021)
Amount: 15,000 EUR
The main objective of the grant was to inform and raise awareness of policy and decision makers, civil society and media about the need to reshape bioenergy policies to ensure sustainability.
In this sense 2C and partners advocated for:
- Creating an understanding and gaining support within the Energy, Agriculture, Economy and Environment ministries (in Romania and CEE) that energy from biomass should play a limited role in reducing emissions from both the ETS and non-ETS activities.
- Creating an understanding among decision makers and the public that large scale, centralized bioenergy deployment is not a sustainable alternative to reducing emissions and that focus should be on encouraging small-scale projects in the heating and electricity sectors using technology upgrades for efficiency and waste and residues for generation, within a transparent and traceable framework with correct carbon accounting rules and strong social and environmental sustainability criteria.
- Creating an understanding among policy makers and the public about the need to gradually phase-out the use of land-based 1st generation biofuels in the transport sector and build up support for advanced biofuels from wastes and residues and biogas from landfills within a similar framework as mentioned above.
2. People’s Climate Case
Funder: Climate Action Network Europe
Financing Period: 2018-2021
Amount (2019-2020): 20,000 EUR
Amount (2020-2021): 35,000 EUR
People’s Climate Case is the litigation action initiated by 10 families from Portugal, Germany, France, Italy, Romania, Kenya, Fiji, and the Saami Youth Association Sáminuorra. Their homes, livelihoods, traditional family occupation and culture are affected by climate change and they are taking the EU institutions to court to protect their fundamental rights and to prevent dangerous climate change.
With support and guidance from CAN Europe, the litigation team, scientific think tank Climate Analytics and funding NGO Protect the Planet, 2Celsius, alongside other NGOs around Europe spearheaded comms, advocacy and support for the families involved in the case. Specifically, we liaised with CEE media on behalf of the Romanian plaintiff at key points in the litigation action, set up meetings and workshops between plaintiffs, high-level decision makers and civil society, advocated with national and EU policy makers for improved climate targets and produced several films and other media materials to tell the stories of the plaintiffs.
3. Member States Network (Clean Transport Advocacy)
Funder: European Climate Foundation
Financing period: 2013-present
Amount (2020-2021): 23.000 EUR
Amount (2021-2022): 36,000 EUR
Amount (2023-2024): 36,000 EUR
Since 2013, 2Celsius has been part of the largest clean transport advocacy programme in Europe. Our duty was to cover via advocacy and research issues related primarily to green transports in Romania, given its EU context. Member States Network (MSN) – previously known as Winning Over the Member States (WOMS) – is renewed every year under the tutelage of Transport & Environment and financed by the European Climate Foundation.
Since 2019, the grant allocations have covered the following objectives per workstream:
- To ensure a progressive regulatory framework for 2030 for Cars and Light-Duty Vehicles (LDVs) that ensures ambitious emissions standards for cars and vans, stimulates the shift to e-mobility and encourages the supply of ultra-low-carbon vehicles
- To enforce vehicle emissions standards under the Type Approval Framework Regulation, by seeking to ensure proper implementation of a new testing system for CO2 emissions (Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedures, WLTP) and air pollution (real-world driving emissions test, RDE)
- To ensure an ambitious 2030 framework for Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDVs) by securing the introduction of emissions, safety and weight standards for trucks, as well as introducing a road toll system based on emissions
- To limit 1st generation biofuels and promote targets for 2nd generation biofuels by seeking a way to ensure a credible pathway of phase out of 1G biofuels is understood and supported by Romania and key member states
- To promote e-mobility and improved air quality, becoming trademark campaigns at national level, including advocacy at city level, lobbying for improved air quality legislation, litigation and media actions
- Just Transition is also covered as a workstream starting in 2020, dealing with the effects of ICE phase-out in the automotive sector and the transition to electric mobility.
4. Making methane matter in energy and climate policy
Funder: Clean Air Task Force
Financing period: March 2021 – Present
Amount: 30,000 EUR (2021-2022)
Amount: 30,000 EUR (2022-2023)
Amount: 55,000 EUR (2023-2024)
Given the current lack of awareness around methane emissions in the oil and gas industry, our objective is to build up and strengthen such awareness and to make visible the serious and far-reaching impacts methane leakages have on our climate. We aim to show that methane emissions in this industry are a reality, to identify the size of the problem through visualization, to question industry assumptions and demand policy action. The project leads with investigations on leakages from oil and gas sites around the country. These investigations serve to further advocate on both the Romanian government and industry to act to, inter alia, deal with emitters, regulate methane emissions, create transparency and verifiability, and to implement and regularly review reduction measures. On the European level, we are putting pressure on the EU Commission and EU Parliament to come up with strong regulation.
5. Promoting fast action to reduce F-gas emissions
Funder: Environmental Investigation Agency UK
Financing period: December 2020 – Present
Amount: 20,000 GBP (2020-2021)
Amount: 20,000 GBP (2021-2022)
Amount: 20,000 GBP (2022-2023)
The objective of the grant is to preserve the existing ambition in the EU F-Gas Regulation through improving compliance and enforcement and blocking efforts to weaken it; and strengthen the EU F-Gas Regulation with new regulatory measures that will spearhead the wholesale transition to climate-friendly alternatives in the cooling sector and achieve the level of ambition required to meet the climate emergency.
2Celsius advocates with decision makers in Romania to promote ambitious measures in the revised F-Gas Regulation and strong national positions, including meeting with relevant national ministry officials to discuss national implementation challenges and promote key improvements to the F-Gas Regulation.
6. Climate Architecture
Grant objective: to prevent repealing and help improve ESR national targets in Romania and to keep ESR sectors out of ETS
Funder: European Climate Foundation
Financing period: December 2020 – December 2021
Amount: 20,000 EUR
Our aim was to advocate and create an understanding among policy makers, civil society and the general public for means towards stepping up ambition in the ESR and its subsequent targets (2030) and preventing ESR sectors to be integrated with flexibilities in ETS and LULUCF. Since integration and synergies with other relevant and related policies is key, we also monitored the revision and reform of policies, such as the RED, EED, EPBD, AFID, CO2 and Cars Regulation and the CAP.
The overarching objective was to keep the effort-sharing regulation and improve emission reduction targets for buildings, transport, agriculture, non-ETS industry and waste in line with the new 55% net emissions reduction target for 2030. In essence, 2Celsius ran a successful campaign opposing any attempt to revamp this regulation through a proposed transition of any of these sectors and their targets in the ETS that would have decreased national ambition and eliminated European standards for cars, buildings, waste and the like.
7. A pragmatic approach to environmental, economic, social and legislative challenges of the energy transition
Funder: EEA Grants / Active Citizens Fund
Financing period: March 2021 – March 2023
Amount: 33,940 EUR
The project “Pragmatic approach to environmental, economic, social and legislative challenges of energy transition” is developed by the Bankwatch Romania Association in partnership with the 2Celsius Association and involves addressing climate change in terms of energy transition. The aim of the project is the active involvement of civil society in the development of long-term public policies for the decarbonisation of the energy sector, thus contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the achievement of the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
8. Beyond best-practices: implementing effective transport policies to decarbonize the passenger transport sector
Funder: German Federal Government – EUKI Programme
Financing period: October 2020 – June 2023
Amount: EUR 123,442
The project sought to investigate the opportunities for emissions reduction in the passenger transport sector in Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Lithuania. The project aimed at empowering local, regional and national decision makers in these countries to reduce emissions from passenger transport to a level compatible with the Paris Agreement temperature limit. This empowerment resulted from investigating the main reasons for increasing emissions from the transport sector, assessing ways in which these emissions can be significantly reduced, and providing concrete, regionally and locally feasible lists of policy proposals.
For this purpose, the project looked into three kinds of passenger transport: urban, suburban, and intercity. For each of those levels the available options and their levels of utilization will be assessed. This constituted a basis for discussion of opportunities to improve the efficiency of the existing modes of transport and move to less carbon intensive alternatives. This assessment was conducted in cooperation with the local and regional stakeholders using an emissions disaggregation tool.
9. European Rail Renaissance – Boosting international rail for reaching EU climate targets
Funder: German Federal Government – EUKI Programme
Financing period: August 2021 – January 2023
Amount: EUR 39,299
The European Union has set itself the target to become climate neutral by 2050. Rail could play a key role in the future transport system because it is clean, safe and reliable, and it could become a symbol for the European Green Deal. A strengthened European rail system could (1) better connect people and businesses in Europe, (2) reduce transport emissions by creating alternative options to road transport and aviation, and (3) give a green boost to the European economy post-Covid-19. Yet the European rail system is currently not in the best shape to take a central role in transport systems. In almost all EU member states, the importance of rail has declined over the last decades due to a heavy focus on road and aviation, and international rail services in particular are not sufficiently developed.
In the European Year of Rail 2021, the project partners advocated for the EU and national governments to seize the opportunity to boost European rail services by:
- launching new direct international services, day and night, on existing infrastructure,
- making booking of international services attractive and convenient and
- investing in cross-border infrastructure connections and key corridors.
10. Strengthening Monitoring and Mitigation of Methane Emissions in Europe
Funder: EIA UK
Financing Period: June 2021 – Present
Amount: 93,000 EUR (2021-2022)
Amount: 98,000 EUR (2022-2023r)
Amount: 96,000 EUR (2023-2024)
The EU Methane Regulation proposed by the EU Commission creates an opportunity to finally put methane stemming from the energy sector on the legislative agenda in Romania. Indeed, the EU should make clear to producers both inside the EU and beyond that credibly demonstrating very low methane emissions will be a requirement for gas placed on the EU internal market, as Europe is reaching for more ambitious emissions reductions in the coming decade and toward the 2050 net-zero target. During the project period, 2Celsius carries out research, lobbying, advocacy and public communications on mitigating fugitive emissions in the oil and gas sector from a national perspective. 2Celsius is also responsible for coalition building at national and international level and acts as a liaison between international organizations and Romanian authorities and industry. The aim of the campaign is to secure an ambitious EU Methane Regulation that tackles the larger part of the emissions from the energy sector.
