European research infrastructures for climate change and air pollution policies

Behind the acronyms of European research infrastructures there are some useful resources. Here is an overview of some of the most significant.

There are several research infrastructures in Europe that are of importance for the production of new scientific knowledge needed to develop climate and environment policy. From a societal point of view, it is important that this new knowledge is not only produced, but also finds its way into relevant policy processes and the documents that support these processes. Such documents can, for example, include reports by the IPCC that are used to guide the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for the fulfillment of the Paris Agreement, publications within the United Nations Environment Programme, and reports intended to guide international treaties on emission control areas for shipping, as well as other treaties on air pollution.

Despite the importance of research infrastructures, it is not self-evident that they are known to the public or even to policymakers. Here I will briefly describe some of the infrastructures that are particularly relevant with regards to climate change and air pollution, and some of the services they provide.

Descriptions of the legal and financial statuses of the infrastructures go beyond the scope of this article, and this is even more true for an analysis of their performance. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that these infrastructures have gained significant economic support from the EU and/or nationally, even if many of them originate from bottom-up collaboration between university departments, field stations or individual researchers (and still have such constituents). Some of the infrastructures have long-term financing in place, whereas others do not.

Marko Reinikainen

Acknowledgement: This work is part of the AQUACOSM-plus project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 871081. The funding has supported the author of this work.

The infrastructures:

ACTRiS
The Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure ACTRIS is a European infrastructure that produces data and information on short-lived atmospheric constituents and examines the variability of these constituents. ACTRIS has fixed, land-based observational platforms and long-term data on aerosols and trace-gases are also produced using highly advanced remote-sensing techniques. ACTRIS provides the opportunity to use its facilities via transnational access calls, which means that researchers can gain access to and get support for a visit to facilities via transnational access calls. Two calls were open on the homepage of ACTRIS when this article was written. Virtual access can also be provided. Other services that are found in the online service catalogue of ACTRIS include Access to Data, and Science and User Access Forum. The ACTRIS homepage also contains a section dedicated to describing its relevance for stakeholders, including a sub-section concerning policymakers.

More information can be found here: https://www.actris.eu

AnaEE
AnaEE stands for Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems. This infrastructure covers experimental facilities that aim to understand the interactions between global change drivers on terrestrial and freshwater continental ecosystems in Europe. According to its homepage, the research is intended to provide a foundation for evidence-based adaptation and mitigation strategies for ecosystem health, and research can be carried out in areas such as land-use change, agricultural practices, biochar & crops, pests, and monitoring of GHG emissions and nutrients in subsurface drainage water. AnaEE also provides online analytical and modelling facilities that are coordinated with the experimental approach. These facilities can be accessed by stakeholders via the homepage of AnaEE.

More information can be found here: https://www.anaee.eu

AQUACOSM-plus
The acronym stands for a network of leading ecosystem-scale experimental AQUAtic mesoCOSM facilities connecting rivers, lakes, estuaries and oceans in Europe and beyond. This research infrastructure aims to strengthen a network of mesocosm facilities in aquatic environments. Mesocosms are enclosures where parts of the natural environment can be contained and experimented on. AQUACOSM-plus features joint research initiatives, capacity building and standardisation.It also enables transnational access to a selection of mesocosm facilities or installations. One of the transnational access calls was open on the homepage of the infrastructure when this article was published. There was also an open survey with the opportunity to be invited to an international expert workshop. Access to metadata (information about available data) is provided, together with environmental data that show the diversity of ecosystem conditions found within the infrastructure. The study of grand challenges such as those related to climate change are central to the work of this infrastructure.

More information can be found here: https://www.aquacosm.eu

DANUBIUS-RI
The DANUBIUS-RI works with the River to Sea system. It aims to conduct and facilitate science in these systems, as well as providing research infrastructure and integrated knowledge. Ultimately, the aim is to ensure healthy River to Sea systems by 2050. To achieve this, the RI wants to provide science-based solutions to societal risks that are caused by e.g. climate change, extreme events and other adverse human impacts on River to Sea systems, and the consequences of these impacts for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Experts can access the DANUBIUS-RI Data Portal, which provides a set of services and open access to data.

More information can be found here: https://www.danubius-ri.eu

EMBRC
EMBRC stands for the European Marine Biological Resource Centre. This infrastructure is dedicated to work regarding marine biological resources. The EMBRC partnership largely consists of marine stations around Europe, with a capacity to work on long-term data and experimental studies. EMBRC provides access to ecosystems and experimental facilities. It has a catalogue of several services which in addition to providing access to conduct studies also includes access to marine biological materials such as living or preserved organisms. Access to datasets is also possible. Ultimately the aim of the services is to tackle societal issues.

More information can be found here: https://www.embrc.eu

ICOS
The Integrated Carbon Observation System, ICOS, is a leading infrastructure for measurements of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in terrestrial, aquatic and atmospheric systems and in relating them to the carbon cycle in the systems mentioned above. As well as the vast quantity of measurements at different scales that is provided, its services include advanced possibilities to visualise and analyse data. The data products of the ICOS data portal are arranged in four categories, i.e. ICOS Near Real Time Observational Data, ICOS Final Fully Quality Controlled Observational Data, Historic Observational Time Series For ICOS and Non-ICOS Stations, and Elaborated Data Products.

More information can be found here: https://www.icos-cp.eu

JERICO-RI
The JERICO-RI (Joint European Research Infrastructure of Coastal Observatories: Science, Service, Sustainability) aims to enable an understanding of the responses of coastal marine systems to natural and anthropogenic stressors. To do so, the JERICO-RI adopts a systematic approach to monitor, observe, explore and analyse coastal marine systems in order to provide reliable information on their structure and function in the context of global change. The services of the JERICO-RI have included transnational access via three calls in 2020–2022, which means that scientists have been able to physically access infrastructures and practical services. Virtual access is still ongoing, offering the possibility of virtual use of 20 European coastal ocean services. This access is free of charge and open to all stakeholders and users. Apart from data, it offers other services, such as taxonomic imaging tools.

More information can be found here: https://www.jerico-ri.eu/about

LTER
The Long Term Ecological Research Network consists of hundreds of individual sites globally, as well as larger platforms. The network and its sites are dedicated to collect, analyse and store long-term data. Sites can belong to the network without explicit funding for this purpose. In Europe, part of the network is currently organised as eLTER, and globally as ILTER. An important component of LTER is data storage and availability. An enormous amount of searchable long-term ecological data sets can be found in the DEIMS database, alongside information on research sites and activities.

More information can be found via the following sources: https://www.ilter.network, https://elter-ri.eu, and https://deims.org

LifeWatch
LifeWatch is an e-infrastructure for biodiversity and ecosystem research. According to its homepage it addresses “...the pressing need for increasingly diverse data, larger and more advanced models, open data and open science clouds, making it possible to explore new frontiers in ecological science and support society in addressing planetary challenges”. The virtual services are categorised as thematic services, a catalogue of virtual labs, an EcoPortal (a repository of semantic resources for ecology), and a metadata catalogue.

More information can be found here: https://www.lifewatch.eu

In this issue

Greater efforts to improve EU air quality needed

The proposal for a new EU air quality standard is an important step closer to the WHO's guidelines, but there are still health and economic gains in lowering the acceptable levels even further.

Editorial: Air pollution exposure will remain unacceptably high

Air pollution is the leading environmental risk factor affecting public health in Europe. The current EU annual PM₂.₅ ambient air quality standard is relatively lax, and notably higher ...

Nitrogen ruling puts Dutch CCS project on hold

In 2017 the environmental organisation Mobilisation for the Environment (MOB) went to the European Court of Justice to challenge the Dutch system ...

Ways through the rare earth element bottleneck

It has never been so important to find ways to overcome the barriers of dependency on rare earth elements for the renewable energy transition.

Climate change will worsen air quality

Scenarios show that global warming will increase the formation of ozone in densely populated regions, and forest fires can affect particle levels far away from the fires.

The remaining global carbon budget leaves little headroom for Europe

As the world fails to reduce emissions fast enough, the remaining carbon budget is shrinking rapidly, as shown by recent studies on carbon budgets for Germany and for Europe.

Richest 1% of the world responsible for 17% of emissions

New analysis taking into account rich people’s consumption behaviour as well as their investment decisions shows a widening gap in responsibility for the climate crisis between rich and poor

Health effects of extreme high temperatures

The effects of climate change are becoming increasingly clear, and the impact of high temperatures is felt universally. AirClim has co-published ...

Air pollution can damage children for life

Exposure to air pollution can prevent children's organs from developing to full capacity, since they have more sensitive lungs and immature immune systems.

Proposal to integrate maritime transport in the EU ETS

In July 2021, the European Commission proposed, as part of the Fit-for-55 package, to amend the Emissions Trading Directive by including maritime transport in the EU ETS.

EU must phase-out coal and gas and promote plant-rich diets to deliver on methane

The draft Methane Action Plan mostly lists existing policies and proposals. To fulfill its 30% reduction commitment the EU must include action to slash the use of fossil fuels and reduce meat consumption.

Whole of Europe must do more to align with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target

New scientific report presents technically feasible, 1.5°C compatible energy and emissions pathways for the group of 46 countries that make up the whole of Europe.

The higher the energy efficiency target, the greater the benefits

A new report by Cambridge Econometrics quantifies the benefits resulting from higher levels of ambition for the 2030 energy efficiency target.

Regulating the most polluting livestock farms is justified

Revising the Industrial Emissions Directive to include cattle and lower the size threshold to 150 Livestock Units will only affect 13% of the EU’s largest commercial farms.

EU must reform the ETS to make it an effective instrument

The Oeko-Institut suggests a number of technical measures that could be used to strengthen the EU ETS in the coming years.