Emilia-Romagna

The Emilia Romagna region is a highly productive region, home to some world-famous industrial districts and crossed by many transportation networks. These economic opportunities can, however, also represent key challenges to decarbonisation. The region is oriented towards reducing CO2 emissions, improving the circular economy and promoting climate neutrality.

To overcome challenges, there is a need for further cooperative processes of communication, sharing and information exchange between the different stakeholders. Several regional plans aim at reaching a sustainable future and improving air quality (e.g. transport, energy, air quality and waste plans). 

The region has SUMPs and SECAPs in place, energy districts and energy communities, as well as a new Smart Specialisation Strategy with a cross-sectoral approach. These initiatives should all be enhanced and interlinked. The region needs to harmonise rules further, build a cooperative approach between regional departments and design a common and shared list of priorities and activities to improve the region’s air quality. 

The TRANSFORMER TSL will focus on the harmonisation by bringing together different stakeholders (e.g. regional and local authorities, regional agencies, clusters, etc.) in a participatory process. It will especially focus on the mobility and energy sectors, as they are highly impacting air quality and reinforcing each other. 

Other sectors, such as waste management, employment and inhabitants’ quality of life, will also be targeted. The promotion of sustainable mobility (e.g. public transport & cycling) and intermodality (e.g. integrated ticketing) will merge with the use of innovative fuels (i.e. hydrogen, LNG & bio-methane). 

The project aims at integrating SUMPs and SECAPs, including the industrial dimension (e.g. energy communities & districts), with the regional dimension, and local/regional stakeholders will engage in co-creation and co-designing processes to ensure that innovative solutions answer local needs and demands.