The Regions for Sustainable Change (RSC) project is a partnership of 12 organisations working together to develop the potential of regional development programmes to stimulate mitigation and adaptation to climate change in order to deliver sustainable socio-economic development. European regions have great potential to contribute to the overall sustainability of growth in Europe through lower emissions, the implementation of innovative climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, and a move towards low carbon economies. At the same time, regions tend to focus on economic growth, and lack concrete reasoning for the integration of climate change issues into their policies and practices, as well as practical tools to help them reach these objectives. The RSC project will address this issue by analysing current regional practices, developing benchmarks, criteria, and indicators for regions,and preparing a methodological handbook which will guide regions in integrating climate change issues and a move towards low carbon economy into their regional development programmes.Several RSC partners already have a history of successful cooperation on issues impacting sustainability and regional development programmes. The Interreg IIIC project Greening Regional Development Programmes produced a definitive methodology on integrating environmental sustainability into programmes through tools like partnership, networking, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), greening projects, and using the environment as an economic driver. The RSC project expands this partnership and takes the work further by focusing on climate change and low carbon economies, a critical political and environmental topic which is only just beginning to appear on priority agendas at the regional level.The RSC partnership will hold three capacity-building/thematic seminars, to provide partners staff the opportunity to learn more about the issues and project results, and to transfer good practices between partners. The seminars will also provide a networking opportunity. The project will carry out a macro-economic analysis of three partners carbon economies, to identify opportunities for and the costs and effects of moving to a low carbon economy. The project will investigate and compare SEA and sustainability assessment approaches across the partnership, and identify how these tools can best be used to meet the project objectives. The RSC project will also offer partners the chance to carry out pilot actions, such as the preparation of a carbon footprint of regional development programmes. A final conference will disseminate the project results and impacts to the wider European economic development community in 2011. Achievements: The RSC partners work together to develop the potential of regional development programmes to stimulate the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. The partners are seeking to achieve the characteristics of a low-carbon region. To assist in achiving this objective, the RSC project will analyse regions progress and experiences and carry out the following activities: - develop a set of criteria and indicators for low-carbon regions; - conduct a macro-economic analysis of three partner regions to identify structural changes required to achieve low-carbon status; - investigate the use of SEA and sustainability assessment for integrating climate issues into regional planning; - prepare a methodological handbook; - hold capacity-building workshops and seminars; - create and implement pilot actions to transfer the low carbon region development model in practice. As a first step and following the project start-up in December 2008 the partners worked on the development of the first major output, the baseline assessment report. The report examines and evaluates the Climate Confidence of the RSC partner regions and provides the foundation for the subsequent activities and outputs. The report identifies the key characteristics of climate confident regions and, through the Regional Climate Confidence Index (RCCI), evaluates the RSC partner regions positions, strengths and weaknesses in this regard. The information required to evaluate regions and develop the index was collected through a questionnaire designed by a working groups and completed by each region. It is intended that surveyed regions use the index to assess their own status and progress and determine where they need to make improvements. In addition to the baseline working group, the activities of the following working groups were also launched: Indicators and Criteria, Macro-economic Analysis, Assessments, Capacity building and Pilot Actions. The overall goal of the working groups was to initate planning and design of the subsequent project outputs, agree on time plan and oversee the subsequent steps. Specifically, the working groups focused on: -Indicators and Criteria: The content of the technical report and electronic toolkit and linkages with the Regional Climate Confidence Index. Preparation of the technical report started. -Macro-economic Analysis: Proposed methodology for the preparation of macro-economic analysis for three regions. Procurement process followed after finalization of the terms of reference and was completed with the selection of the consultant. Assessments: A questionnaire for information collection was designed and meetings with external experts were held. Preliminary draft of the discussion paper was developed. -Capacity building: Planning of the 1st capacity building workshop/ seminar and discussion on the topics of the next workshops/seminars. -Pilot Actions: Partners presentation of the first concepts. A discussion followed on how to link the concepts to the other project outputs. External communication and dissemination activities were coordinated by a working group and resulted in designing of project logo, website, communication strategy, key messages, two project newsletters and leaflet. The first project results and achievements were presented at the several international events and meetings. Partners promoted the project in their regions.