There is a growing need to evaluate the performance of public funded projects, not only in terms of scientific outputs but also from a sustainability perspective. While sustainability is a multidisciplinary matter, anthropogenic carbon emissions and the associated climate warming are the main signs of the human activities’ unsustainability and thus an obvious starting point to tackle the problem.

The overall objective of ZeroCO2MED is to develop a methodology and a tool for calculation of the carbon footprint applicable to all types of projects funded under the Euro-MED Programme 2021-2027, a decision-making support to limit greenhouse gas emissions and the promotion of good practices in carbon offsetting that shall take place in the Euro-MED Programme area.

The main outputs of the Project will be:

  • the development of a carbon footprint accounting/mitigation/compensation methodology covering who, how, when and what to measure when assessing the carbon footprint of projects and
  • a user-friendly software that includes the accounting methodology and tools to facilitate the decision-making process for the implementation of cost-effective carbon footprint mitigation strategies and high-quality options to offset the remaining emissions.

The results obtained will help to understand the project’s carbon emissions and their current and future contribution to achieve climate neutrality. ZeroCO2MED will be a leap forward on how sustainability is integrated at the heart of Interreg MED projects and how their outputs can support territories as well as national and regional policies to achieve the targets set in the EU Green Deal.

CENER21 will assist in the development of the methodology and guidelines to limit project emissions, test the methodology and the ZeroCO2MED tool in on-going projects, as well as evaluate and finalize Project outputs.

The Project is implemented within the Call for Carbon Footprint Compensation project of the Interreg MED Programme, by University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (UVIC, Spain), WWF Mediterranean (WWF Med, Italy), Institute for Health and Environment (IHE, Slovenia) and the Centre for Energy, Environment and Resources (CENER21, Bosnia and Herzegovina).