Achieving the EU’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050 requires a fundamental and just transition across all sectors and territories, making every citizen an agent of change. Rural areas are critical to this effort, offering significant natural resources for GHG mitigation and climate adaptation. However, existing monitoring and tracking tools are predominantly designed for urban settings, overlooking the unique complexities that characterise rural regions, such as mobility gaps and small-scale farming intricacies.
To specifically address this critical measurement and action gap, the GRANULAR has developed a conceptual and operational framework tailored to measure and monitor climate neutrality in EU rural areas. This tool empowers local authorities, researchers, and practitioners with a standardised, locally sensitive method for tracking progress. The framework includes indicators covering key rural domains like energy, mobility, agriculture, and waste. Crucially, it is intentionally aligned with the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas (LTVRA), ensuring that local climate strategies are coherent with broader EU sustainability and resilience objectives.
The webinar will demonstrate the framework’s practical application, showcasing how it empowers rural communities to design, monitor, and refine their tailored climate strategies. Experts will present the framework’s structure and discuss its potential to support effective policy development. Furthermore, we will illustrate how the framework supports future initiatives which are focused on testing innovations and scaling solutions for a resilient, climate-neutral rural future by integrating environmental sustainability.
