Category: CSR/ECO/ESG

Alice Ardichvili, Sorbonne University, discusses her article: Spatial context allows the evolution of the control of nitrification by plants

Once upon a time

The project began a long time ago, in the late 1990s, when my PhD advisor J-C was still a carefree and enthusiastic individual. He and his colleagues observed that a common grass in a West African Savanna (Lamto, Ivory Coast) exerts a special control over the nitrogen cycle: it strongly slows down soil nitrification. Nitrification is the transformation of ammonium into nitrate and occurs in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems due to the action of microorganisms that feed on ammonium. Interestingly, despite strong nitrogen limitation, this tropical savanna is very productive—as much as a tropical forest. In fact, the low nitrification rate reduces the leaching of nitrate, a mobile ion that easily binds to runoff water. This makes ammonium fully available to plants. In short, reducing the nitrification rate limits nitrogen losses and boosts plant productivity in this West African savanna.

Here comes the question that we addressed along with Seb and Nicolas, two theoreticians, at the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences – Paris. If inhibiting nitrification is so advantageous for plants, allowing them to secure a source of immobile ammonium, why isn’t this mechanism widespread among plants? The answer is twofold. First, it is possible that many (if not all) plant species control nitrification, speeding it up or slowing it down depending on environmental conditions, but to a degree that is difficult to measure in the field (remember that it took about a decade to isolate molecules from grasses inhibiting nitrification). Second, our study shows that plants need certain characteristics, such as being long-lived and only partially sharing the soil with neighbours. This is exactly the case for Lamto grasses, which live for 50-80 years, grow in tufts, and are isolated from others by bare soil! Perhaps growing in tufts—an adaptation to seasonal fires—has enabled the selection of nitrification control. Are other perennial grasses that grow in tufts able to control nitrification? We will soon find out from a global survey of savanna grasses monitored by J-C.

Implications for agriculture

In our fields, nitrogen is the source of many torments. The industrial production of fertilisers is energy-intensive, and up to 50% of the applied fertiliser leaves the field, with some of it running off with rainwater and later causing algae blooms in aquatic systems. These blooms harm the health of both aquatic organisms and humans. Some of the nitrogen returns to the atmosphere in the form of nitrous protoxide, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Many of the plants that we (and our cattle) eat are grasses: maize, rice, barley; accordingly, agronomists are seduced by grasses that control the nitrogen cycle! But would we be able to select for crops that inhibit nitrification? Given that controlling nitrification is also costly for the plant, would the control of nitrification ultimately benefit the productivity of our crops? Our theoretical exploration provides food for thought on this matter… To be continued by the works of Seb, Amed, and Sarah!

The youth of today will experience the effects of climate change more profoundly and for longer than any other age group. It’s for this reason that young people around the world have long been calling for stronger, more decisive action to tackle the crisis, and continue to do ahead of the UN Climate Conference (COP30) being held in Belém, Brazil, from 10-21 November 2025.

Ahead of COP30, twelve representatives of youth organisations active on climate issues – including six European Climate Pact Ambassadors and Partners – gathered in Brussels on 27 October for a discussion with Wopke Hoekstra, European Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth.

The discussion covered topics including climate targets, adaptation and preparedness, and climate finance, with a particular focus on youth engagement, protecting vulnerable groups, and the urgent need to remain within planetary boundaries to ensure intergenerational fairness.

Commissioner Hoekstra responded to suggestions and concerns raised around the table, emphasising the importance of continued youth participation and reaffirming EU climate leadership in a fast-paced, ever-changing international political landscape.

“We as a team are actively looking for a conversation with youth, and we also benefit from it,” said Commissioner Hoekstra.

Participants represented youth organisations from across the Union, including the European Youth Energy Network (EYEN), World’s Youth for Climate Justice, Generation Climate Europe (GCE), and the European Youth Forum (EYF), amongst others.

In the lead-up to COP30, these representatives – collectively speaking for more than 73 million young Europeans – had their voices heard by EU policymakers just weeks before the key climate negotiations begin.

“We are here to represent the millions of youth across the EU… and to do our best to have an impact on behalf of them,” said Sigurd Seindal Krabbe, Denmark’s Youth Delegate to the UN for Climate and Environment.

The key takeaways from the Youth Dialogue are outlined below and will contribute to shaping future EU climate policy and negotiations, including at COP30.

Stronger climate leadership through more youth involvement

Young people around the table stressed the urgency of climate action, following legal rulings and research on the planetary boundaries that set a “safe operating space for humanity” by setting limits on human activities that could cause catastrophic environmental changes.

“The 1.5°C goal is a red line that we should not go over if we want to sustain a liveable life on earth,” said Samira Ben Ali, Climate Pact Ambassador and Youth delegate to COP30 for the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)

They also emphasised that the gap between current climate policy and the action needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement demand urgent attention and more profound policy, such as clear domestic climate targets, new approaches such as innovative aviation taxes, and more empowered citizen engagement.

Putting youth at the centre of political decision-making can safeguard the climate demands of the younger generation and steer the course to stronger climate action.

“Youth involvement is crucial and really important, and we are the future generation that in 30 years will be bearing the consequences of the decisions made today,” said Rūdolfs Podzis, Latvia’s Advisor on Climate Action at the United Nations Youth Delegate Program.

More adaptation with a focus on vulnerable communities

Participants highlighted the need to go beyond mitigation – reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere – and increase efforts on adapting to the effects of climate change. Measurable indicators and the involvement of local authorities are important for successful adaptation.

Participants also stressed that climate adaptation needs to go hand-in-hand with protecting vulnerable groups, such as children and overseas territories of the EU, and financing should be more accessible, equitable and grant-based. In addition, policy should incorporate civic engagement and education-focused approaches and issues such as mental health.

Pull quote: “Children make up half of the population in the most climate affected countries, so they are really disproportionately impacted, not just because they are in a very vulnerable state of their development, but also because they will live the longest with the consequences of our actions and inactions,” said Martina Bogado Duffner, Climate Policy and Advocacy Lead, Save the Children EU, European Climate Pact Partner.

Climate action in a European context

Commissioner Hoekstra acknowledged the call for stronger EU climate leadership on the global stage, emphasising that Europe must continue to lead by example in a way that balances climate ambition with economic competitiveness, energy independence and political feasibility.

While acknowledging that the EU can and must do more, Commissioner Hoekstra stressed that global climate progress depends on collective effort, urging other major emitters to match Europe’s ambition.

He also reiterated that true and lasting climate ambition must stem from public engagement and democratic demand to ensure legitimacy and a broad base of support. Ultimately, climate action must be both bold and balanced, rooted in what is politically and economically sustainable for Europe and its citizens.

To this end, he encouraged the youth representatives around the table – and those working across Europe – to stay engaged with climate action. Young people are in a key position to boost climate action at the local, national and international level, both in civil society and the political realm. The EU will also continue to engage with the youth, including at the UN Climate Conference in Brazil, and take their perspectives to COP30.

More information

The European Union has formally endorsed the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP), underscoring the importance of coordinated climate action across all levels of governance.

Effective multilevel governance would greatly contribute to reap the emission reduction potential from cities and regions, help reduce significantly the current emission gap by up to 40% and support the full implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Since climate disruptions are increasingly impacting cities, the involvement of local and regional actors in the design and implementation of national resilience and preparedness plans is becoming critical. 

Launched at COP28 in 2023, CHAMP brings together national and subnational governments to enhance cooperation in designing and implementing national climate plans, including the NDCs. The initiative promotes structured dialogue, coherent policy implementation, and improved access to climate finance for subnational actors, reflecting the Paris Agreement’s emphasis on inclusive and effective cooperation at all levels of governance.

The EU has supported CHAMP’s principles and objectives since its launch. Today’s formal endorsement builds on that engagement, reflecting the EU’s trust in CHAMP as a valuable platform to strengthen collaboration between national, regional, and local authorities in the global effort to tackle climate change.

For the European Union, multilevel governance is central to effective climate policy and to cleans and just transitions at local level. Cities, regions, and local authorities are critical partners in transforming commitments into concrete actions, from advancing energy transition to building climate resilience. The EU has long worked closely with local actors through its long standing cohesion policy but also through dedicated initiatives such as the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, of which the EU Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy has become the EU pillar. The initiative unites thousands of cities and local governments around shared objectives for climate and energy action, reinforcing the importance of local leadership in achieving wider climate targets. Additionally, the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities exemplifies its commitment to amplifying the vital role of cities and local authorities in driving meaningful climate action and innovation, complemented by the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change working more particularly with European Regions.

By endorsing CHAMP, the EU reaffirms its long-standing approach to climate action: one that unites ambition at the European level with innovation and implementation at the local level. This step complements existing EU policies and partnerships with Member States and subnational governments, ensuring mutual supportiveness and collaboration in pursuing the goal of becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, with local and regional stakeholders playing their full role. The European Commission will continue to engage with CHAMP partners and Member States to share experience, exchange good practices, and promote integrated approaches to implementing the Paris Agreement.

Executive Vice-President for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera:

“Effective climate action depends on every level of governance moving in the same direction. By endorsing CHAMP, the European Union reaffirms its conviction that close coordination between national, regional, and local authorities is essential to deliver the scale and pace of transformation our climate goals demand.”

Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, Wopke Hoekstra:

“Multilevel governance isn’t just about giving everyone a seat at the table — it’s about getting things done. Local and regional authorities play a key role in turning national and European climate goals into real progress on the ground. Their energy, creativity, and leadership help make big global ambitions actually happen.”

Amanda Gallinat, Colby College, USA, and Theresa Crimmins, USA National Phenology Network, discuss their article: Combined volunteer and ecological network observations show broad-scale temperature-sensitivity patterns for deciduous plant flowering and leaf-out times across the Eastern USA

Around the globe, the timing of seasonal activity in plants and animals – termed phenology – is shifting substantially in response to warming temperatures. These changes have far-reaching ecological and economic consequences. However, understanding how changes in the timing of seasonality is affecting the hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species across large regions, such as the entirety of the U.S., is very challenging.

Our best option for compiling observations on lots of species across the country is to engage as many people as possible in documenting what they see happening. Through the Nature’s Notebook platform, the USA National Phenology Network enlists both volunteers and professionals in tracking the seasonal activity of plants and animals. The program is now in its 17^th year of data collection and more than 42 million records of plant and animal phenology have been contributed from across the country, primarily by volunteer observers.

While these observations are our most promising resource for understanding how species are responding to rapidly changing conditions, some have wondered whether volunteer-contributed records are of sufficient quality to be used in assessments of these changes. To answer this question, we compared observations contributed to Nature’s Notebook by volunteers across the country to observations of the same species collected by professionally trained scientists at National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) sites.

We found that volunteers’ reports yielded very similar patterns to those recorded by NEON scientists. These findings boosted our confidence that we and other scientists could use the combined dataset from both approaches in large-scale evaluations of phenological change.

The majority of studies documenting phenological changes have evaluated observations collected at a single site or a handful of sites, and they frequently only evaluate a small number of species. In this study, we tested whether several patterns that have been established in previous studies hold when scaled up to over 100 species, across the Eastern USA. The primary response variable we evaluated across species was their sensitivity to temperature, which indicates how many days plants advance (or delay) the timing of their activity – leaf-out or flowering – in response to warming.

Previous studies have indicated that both introduced species and species active earlier in the season are often more sensitive to temperature changes. We assessed differences in species’ sensitivity to temperature between native and introduced species as well as their relative timing of leaf-out and flowering within the spring season. We also evaluated differences in sensitivity among trees, shrubs, and forbs. This is an open question in the literature: previous studies have reported conflicting findings regarding which functional groups are most responsive to temperature, with differing implications for competition among plants for spring light. Finally, we explored whether species vary in their sensitivity to temperature across their ranges. Few previous studies have been able to address this question, as it necessitates observations collected consistently across large regions.

Our findings largely confirmed patterns that have been established in smaller-scale studies. Introduced species tend to show greater sensitivity to temperature than native plants, shifting the timing of both leaf-out and flowering to a greater degree than native species. While this feature gives them a competitive advantage in the spring, enabling earlier growth and access to nutrients and sunlight, it can also put them at greater risk of damaging frost events.

Among functional groups, we found that shrubs and forbs generally showed greater sensitivity to temperature than trees, suggesting that they may be able to maintain windows of carbon capture prior to shifting canopy closure under climate change. And consistent with many previous studies, we found that species active earlier in the season exhibited greater temperature sensitivity than later-season species.

Finally, our observations, collected across a large geographic region, showed that plants in the southern reaches of species’ ranges showed stronger sensitivity to temperature than those at northern latitudes. This finding, which is consistent with experimental work, suggests that individuals in more northern, colder latitudes, are more conservative with their springtime activity, only initiating leaf-out or flowering once they have been exposed to a particular amount of chill in the winter or days have lengthened sufficiently. These requirements protect plants from exposing sensitive tissues too early in the spring season.

This study underscores the value of large-scale data to unite and verify more broadly the trends previously observed only in smaller-scale studies. Importantly, our comparison of observations contributed by volunteers and professionals demonstrates the suitability of volunteer-contributed data in scientific evaluations.

Nature’s Notebook participants are building a multi-taxa, large-scale phenology dataset that is unprecedented for the U.S. and critically important for furthering our understanding of how species and ecosystems are responding to rapidly changing conditions. As these and NEON-collected observations continue to grow, so do the opportunities to study broad-scale phenological trends.

Two major initiatives – REGILIENCE+ and the Adaptation Hubs projects have officially launched under the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. They join 16 additional Mission projects that will develop and test innovative solutions for climate adaptation across more than 85 European regions in 28 countries across 28 countries.

With an investment of EUR 115 million from the European Commission, these initiatives mark an important step in strengthening Europe’s climate resilience and accelerating coordinated adaptation action across all governance levels

REGILIENCE+: Adaptation solutions for regional climate resilience

The Mission on Adaptation is driving climate resilience across Europe by developing, testing, and demonstrating innovative solutions with regional and local authorities. Building on this work, the REGILIENCE+ project identifies the most effective, ready-to-use adaptation solutions from the Mission and beyond, sharing them across Europe’s regions to support action on the ground.

REGILIENCE+ will collect 150 proven adaptation solutions and translate them into practical materials, trainings, and activities tailored to regional and local contexts. By making adaptation knowledge more accessible and actionable, the project will empower public authorities and stakeholders to design, finance, and implement effective resilience measures.

The project’s results will feed directly into the Mission Portal, reinforcing the EU’s knowledge base on climate adaptation.

“By turning Mission solutions into user-friendly tools, REGILIENCE+ makes climate adaptation solutions more accessible to regional and local authorities, helping them take action and scale up effective approaches across Europe” – Guido Schmidt, Project Coordinator.

National Adaptation Hubs: Bringing the EU Mission on Adaptation to the national level

The Adaptation Hubs project will support a systemic approach for implementing the Mission on Adaptation, bringing its work to the national level and connecting authorities across all governance levels to accelerate the shift from reactive to systemic climate adaptation in Europe.

Each Hub acts as a flexible task force, bringing together authorities, experts, and stakeholders to align adaptation actions and share the Mission’s solutions. By supporting coordination and peer learning, the Hubs help implement national adaptation policies, strengthen governance, and scale up the Mission’s efforts across Europe.

With one Adaptation Hub in each Member State, supported by a consortium of expert institutions, European city networks, and regional coordinators, the initiative will create a powerful ecosystem for capacity building and the scaling-up of Mission solutions. In turn, it will help mainstream adaptation across all levels of governance, contributing to cohesive, inclusive, and future-proof resilience efforts.

“The National Adaptation Hubs bring the EU Mission on Adaptation closer to the national level, connecting authorities across Europe and enabling effective multilevel governance to turn Mission solutions into real action.”, Miljenko Sedlar, Project Coordinator.

Sixteen additional projects to strengthen adaptation in European regions

Alongside these two flagship initiatives, 16 new Horizon Europe projects have been launched under the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. These projects will expand Europe’s capacity to understand, monitor, and implement adaptation by addressing both knowledge and practical gaps. They will conduct research on how to monitor and assess adaptation progress, the links between the climate and biodiversity crises, and transformative adaptation approaches that build local capacity.

In addition, the projects will demonstrate innovative solutions, exploring how to make adaptation projects bankable, how to tailor measures for rural and small communities, how to address the needs of the most vulnerable social groups, and how to promote systemic, cross-sectoral adaptation approaches. By working closely with regional and local authorities, these initiatives will turn scientific insights into concrete measures that help European regions and communities adapt to a changing climate.

All projects can be explored on CORDIS.

More information

EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change Portal Climate-ADAPT

Watch the official launch of Regilience+ and the Adaptation Hubs project at the Baltic Sea Regional Forum of the Mission on 18 November at 12h30 live on Home | Baltic Sea Regional Forum for the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change.

Disclaimer
The contents and links to third-party items on this Mission webpage are developed by the MIP4Adapt team led by Ricardo, under contract CINEA/2022/OP/0013/SI2.884597 funded by the European Union and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, CINEA, or those of the European Environment Agency (EEA) as host of the Climate-ADAPT Platform. Neither the European Union nor CINEA nor the EEA accepts responsibility or liability arising out of or in connection with the information on these pages.