The seaside location of the South Baltic Area (SBA) determines the significant potential of the region to develop the blue and green sectors of the economy and exploit the sea’s resources in a sustainable manner, with the goal of fueling economic growth and increasing prosperity. On the other hand, although the SBA has a great potential in green energy production there are still areas for further improvements as well as visible challenges related to its proper storage and efficient transport / distribution.
The problems and challenges mentioned above could be addressed by moving towards an increasingly blue and green economy for which there exists significant potential in the SBA. The development of blue and green economy, as well as increasing awareness in this context, could be facilitated by developing international networks with entities pursuing the same mission as well as through sharing knowledge and best practices in these respects as well as by the ‘substantial’ projects: with small scale pilot actions, which will serve to create and test technologies, solutions, etc.
The result of actions under Priority Axis 2 in the ISBP 2021-2027; Sustainable South Baltic, supports the increased but sustainable use of green technologies by SBA stakeholders, implementation of more environmentally friendly transportation systems, as well as the growing importance of blue economy and the strategic role of ports. All these results will be further enhanced by cross-border cooperation, bringing a range of benefits for the SBA, its environment and population.
Taking into account the abovementioned information it is important to underline that this Priority Axis will support the European Green Deal to the greatest extent. The main aim of the EU Green Deal is to make Europe climate neutral in 2050. As the proposed EU policy initiatives are focusing on i.a. clean energy, sustainable industries eliminating pollution, sustainable mobility or biodiversity, the proposed Measures and projects which can be funded under them directly or indirectly contribute to the most of indicated areas within the EU Green Deal scope and thus, to the energy transition processes in all South Baltic regions.
There are three Programme Measures in the ISBP 2021-2027 that constitute Priority 2: Supporting transition towards green energy; Promoting a sustainable use of water and; Supporting a circular and more resource efficient development.
Programme Measure 2,1; Supporting transition towards green energy. It is beyond question that the SBA has enormous potential in terms of the green technology sectors. These sectors may rapidly develop thanks to cooperation between public bodies, SMEs, manufacturing industries and R&D institutions. Furthermore, geographical conditions of the SBA mean that particular regions can use renewable energy sources (especially wind energy and biomass) much more efficiently. While some regions already more and more willingly use this type of energy sources. Cross-border cooperation to raise awareness of the need for developing sustainable energy solutions could further help implementing the energy transitions.
Programme Measure 2.2; Promoting a sustainable use of water. The Baltic Sea and its tributaries suffer from a high level of pollution and eutrophication. Both are consequences of the unsustainable exploitation of the local environment and water reservoirs. Moreover, climate change consequences will result in enhanced risk of marine and flash floods, producing more intensive fluxes of pollutants into the Baltic Sea. Taking into account that water is the most important resource of the SBA, actions under this measure are aimed at broad support of efficient and sustainable water management, in order to combat eutrophication and input of hazardous substances and thus enhance the water quality. The relatively low level of cooperation in this respect at present means that there exists significant demand and potential in this context.
Programme Measure 2.3; Supporting a circular and more resource efficient development. Socio-economic challenges and demographic changes in the SBA such as ageing, depopulation, migrations, and urbanization, influence everyday behaviours and attitudes. They require new solutions to ensure sustainability and prosperity in the region. An overlooked issue and shared challenge among the SB countries is how to establish behaviours and attitudes in support of responsible consumption and production. Achieving this will require a complete overhaul of our take-make-waste patterns of production and consumption in favour of a circular system with a regenerative system in which all products are designed and marketed with reuse and recycling in mind, informed by a radical shift in policies, behaviours of people and business model.
As part of the 4th Seed Money Call of ISBP 2014-2020, seven projects have been selected under Specific Objective 2.2; Green Technologies, and they have the ambition to apply for the new Priority 2 in the ISBP 2021-2027, Sustainable South Baltic, they are: InSol-SM, RES, DecarbonDHS, SBDecarb, NBS Markets, IN-SYMBIOSIS and PortSHAZ.
- InSol-SM: The project aspires to identify potential opportunities to increase the use of organic matter and energy contained in sewage sludge from small municipal sewage treatment plants.
- RES: The objective of the future regular project is to assess the barriers to energy self-sufficiency of enterprises in renewable energy sources (RES) and improve their competence in RES project management.
- DecarbonDHS: The planned future project objective is to decrease pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. The project will achieve improved resource efficiency in local energy systems, mainly district heating.
- SBDecarb: The future main envisaged project objective is to develop holistic strategy for implementation of efficient resource recovery flow system through novel approach to production and processing of biofuels using waste carbon dioxide and new biotreatments method for nutrients reuse.
- NBS Markets: The envisaged objective of the future regular project is to develop a set of practical solutions that allow transformation of public markets into Green HUBs by introducing Nature Based Solutions that make use of unique qualities of public markets areas and in turn improve local environmental conditions.
- IN-SYMBIOSIS: The envisaged future regular project objective is an increased use of green technologies by proposing industrial symbiosis model for more resource efficient industrial development.
- PortSHAZ: The envisaged objective of the future regular project is to develop new green technologies for improving cargo handling in seaports and establishing a sustainable knowledge framework related to cost-effective methods for minimizing the leakage of dry bulk cargo during port operations.
