TESS

Transitions to low-carbon societies take place at multiple and complementary scales. Transition processes are highly dependent on the innovative potential of community-based initiatives and their articulation with appropriate institutional architecture. Community-based initiatives are potentially more adaptable and less constrained by current structural circumstances than top-down policies and can give impetus to large-scale and technology driven changes. TESS will provide an understanding on the upscaling possibilities of such high-potential community-based initiatives by addressing two main questions: What is the impact of community-based initiatives in terms of carbon reduction potential and economic effect? What institutional structures (values, policies and mechanisms) support these initiatives in persisting beyond the initial phase and moving into an acceleration phase, spreading desired impacts?

- a novel measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) framework for benchmarking community-based initiatives - identification of success factors for the emergence, persistence and diffusion of promising initiatives, including online initiatives - feeding and extension of the Climate Adapt database to facilitate reconciliation of mitigation and adaptation and connect to Europe wide evaluation approaches such as the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) of the Rural Development Programmes

Besides the global coordination of the TESS project (WP7), PIK will lead WP2 and participate in all work packages as indicated in the WP tables. PIK will coordinate the networking to the scientific community (WP6) and establish and maintain the case study contact to city regions in Germany throughout all working packages. PIK will lead the development of the MRV framework for assessment of carbon reduction (WP2) and be closely involved in the multi-criteria assessment (WP4).