Restoring Ocean and Waters in waterfront Cities and their Ports

- Measurable, verifiable and ambitious progress towards one or several interlinked objectives and targets of the “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030” Mission through place-based, people-centred actions
• Increased readiness of waterfront cities and port authorities to test, deploy and upscale systemic innovative solutions, leveraging their own programmes and resources
• A growing number of cities and ports adopting concrete measures to protect or restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, eliminate pollution and transition to a carbon-neutral, circular blue economy
• Enhanced resilience of waterfront communities to extreme climate events and sea-level rise
• Mobilization and leveraging of public and private investments at the urban level to sustain degraded ecosystem restoration, pollution prevention and climate mitigation efforts

- Place-based, people-centred projects that drive systemic transitions across all Mission objectives and enablers within urban waterfront ecosystems
• Test and demonstrate solutions that contribute to one or more Mission objectives:

• Protecting/restoring marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity (EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, Nature Restoration Regulation)

• Preventing and eliminating pollution of ocean, seas and waters (EU Zero Pollution Action Plan)

• Making the blue economy carbon-neutral and circular (European Climate Law, Sustainable Blue Economy Strategy)
• Demonstration in at least eight waterfront cities or ports, with a minimum of two in each sea/river basin: Atlantic & Arctic; Mediterranean; Baltic & North Sea; Danube & Black Sea
• Strong, meaningful involvement of public bodies managing waterfront cities and port authorities as full consortium partners
• Emphasis on nature-based solutions, land-sea interactions and transboundary actions
• Address resilience to extreme climate events, sea-level rise and water-related hazards in waterfront communities
• Proposals must identify additional cities/ports for replication, assess potential implementation barriers and propose mitigation strategies
• Solutions must align with and support existing EU directives and plans (Water Framework Directive, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Nature Restoration Regulation) and established mechanisms (coastal/river contracts, ICZM)