New project on climate budgeting

The project is part of the Interreg-funded Climate-4-CAST initiative, in collaboration with HafenCity University in Hamburg and six cities around the Baltic, among other partners. In 2025, the project will hold an open conference for any city interested in exploring climate budgeting in greater depth.

Carbon budgets are typically defined as the total amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted globally, nationally, or locally while still aligning with the Paris Agreement. Today, many Swedish municipalities and regions use this concept.

A similar but distinct concept is climate budgets or climate budgeting. As described by C40, a network of the world's 40 largest cities, “Climate budgeting is a governance system that ensures a city’s climate commitments are at the heart of its policies, actions, and spending decision-making. This involves integrating climate targets from the city’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) into the city’s ordinary budgeting process and assigning responsibility for implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting across the city government. This approach creates transparency and accountability and highlights where changes are needed to stay on track with the city’s climate goals.”

Uppsala is responsible for evaluating the project's progress. This involves conducting surveys and interviews with the participating cities and using the findings to inform project development. In this way, Uppsala helps to link the various parts of the project, ensuring it runs smoothly and efficiently. Uppsala works closely with the Lead Partner, HafenCity University Hamburg.

At Uppsala University, the project involves Martin Wetterstedt (PI), Hanna Bramfeldt, Magdalena Kuchler and Anneli Ekblom.

PROJECT FACTS - Climate-4-CAST

Project duration: November 2023 - October 2026
Funding programme: Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2021-2027
Project budget: €3,77 Million (ERDF: €3,02 Million)

Uppsala University’s team:

• Martin Wetterstedt (PI), Researcher in NRHU, Department of Earth Sciences
• Hanna Bramfeldt, Research Assistant in NRHU, Department of Earth Sciences
• Magdalena Kuchler, Senior Lecturer in NRHU, Department of Earth Sciences
• Anneli Ekblom, Professor at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History; Archaeology
  
  

External project and financial management:

• Mareike Hannes, REM Consult
• Katharina Paetz, REM Consult

Aim and context of the project:

The Climate-4-CAST project is co-funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2021-2027. The goal is to improve cities capacity to plan for decreased emissions using so called climate budgeting*. The project is led by HafenCity University Hamburg (HCU) in collaboration with partners across the Baltic Sea Region.

Climate-4-CAST recognizes that effective climate action must extend to the local level, particularly within local public authorities facing unique challenges and opportunities. Recognising uncertainties as barriers, the project empowers local authorities by providing practical decision support through an open-source tool for visualising different action scenarios, improving budget planning, and monitoring results. Beyond technical support, Climate-4-CAST bridges communication gaps between experts and decision-makers to ensure that data is incorporated into local climate policies.

Anticipated outcomes, therefore, encompass enhanced decision-making with simplified processes, the alignment of climate targets with budget planning, and accelerated and measurable progress towards climate neutrality in Baltic Sea Region (BSR) cities.

In a co-creative process spanning three years, Climate-4-CAST engages in collaboration and testing within six pilot cities – Aarhus, Bytom, Norderstedt, Östersund, Riga, and Tampere. This approach allows the project to evaluate the applicability of its tool in diverse contexts. Workshops, regional conferences, and international gatherings serve as platforms for transferring information about climate budget instruments, their application, and experiences in the pilot cities.

Project partners:

• Aarhus Municipality
• City of Bytom
• City of Norderstedt - The Lord Mayor
• City of Riga
• City of Tampere
• HafenCity University Hamburg
• Kausal Ltd
• Municipality of Östersund
• Union of the Baltic Cities Sustainable Cities Commission c/o City of Turku
• Uppsala University

Project website: https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/climate-4-cast/

https://www.c40.org/what-we-do/raising-climate-ambition/climate-budgeting-programme