GREECO - Territorial Potentials for a Greener Economy
Thematic scope
The Europe 2020 Strategy indicates that moving towards a greener economy allows for addressing environmental challenges, social inequalities as well as to create economic growth and jobs.
Within the green economy approach, growth is especially expected in areas such as renewable energy, agriculture, water management and waste management. Transport, tourism and forestry are examples for other sectors that are envisaged to be positively influenced by the development of a greener economy.
The green economy requires frameworks for investment and the formulation of coherent policy packages and therefore integrated actions are needed at the EU level as well as on national, regional and local level. As for other economic activities, the potential for green economic actions also depends on their geographical context.
Please read more about the main research areas and main results envisaged on the next page.
Policy questions
- What potential do different European regions and cities have for contributing to a greener economy?
- What role might territorial policies play in order to support the development of a greener economy?
- Which other key policy areas including territorially relevant elements are decisive for the development of a green economy and how can these different policy areas be better territorially integrated and create synergies?
Lead Partner
Foundation Tecnalia Research, Spain
Detailed information on the contracted project team can be found under Transnational Project Groups.
Sounding Board
Petr Koran, Czech Republic
Andy Pike, UK
Budget: € 749 780.02
Project’s lifetime: June 2011 - June 2014
Delivery of Reports
Inception Report: 30 November 2011
Interim Report: 31 May 2012
Draft Final Report: 22 November 2013
Final Report: 28 February 2014
Publishing
Reports will be published once they are approved by the ESPON Monitoring Committee
More information
Please contact the Project Expert at the ESPON Coordination Unit:
Ann-Gritt PANNENBORG (NEUSE), e-mail: ann-gritt.pannenborg@espon.eu
Main research areas
The project shall identify the territorial aspects and potentials related to a greener economy in order to highlight areas that have particular opportunities for contributing to a greener economy through successful territorial development and cohesion policy actions. The project is expected to answer the following key research questions:
- What are key areas of green economic activities seen from a territorial point of view, and which key policy areas need to be considered when dealing with the green economy?
- What is the state of the green economy within European regions, how can green economic activities be measured from a territorial point of view?
- How can regional/local territorial policy strategies and actions contribute to a greener economy?
- What good practices of territorial development strategies supporting the green economy can be found at multiple levels, i.e. local, regional, national and European?
Main results envisaged
- New evidence and identification of territorial aspects of a greener economy, and territorial potentials of various types of regions that allow them to take efficient policy actions towards a greener economic base.
- An assessment of the impact of selected sectors and cross-cutting activities on the socio-economic performance of European cities and regions.
- A diagnosis on the conditions that drive, enable or constraint the development and consolidation of the green economies in the sectors and cross-cutting activities of relevance for each territory.
- Complementation of existing data and indicators with new indicators based on a thorough discussion on the proper measurements of green economic activities and potentials.
- Outline of potential spatial development strategies and further steps in order to further develop the understanding of the territorial dimension of green economic activities and their potentials.
