The importance of urban green areas has gained increasing attention in recent weeks, providing a welcome refuge to many city dwellers in light of COVID19-induced lockdowns. For those without private gardens, natural areas such as parks, urban forests or riverbanks offer critical opportunities for relaxing and being physically active. These and the wider metal and physical health benefits generated from spending time in publicly accessible natural areas are well documented, but have won new importance in this crisis. However, urban nature is more than just a city's parks and squares.

The effects of the Corona crisis have massively changed the everyday life of citizens since February/March 2020. It is to be expected that this crisis and the associated drastic changes in everyday life will have a strong impact on perceptions, attitudes and patterns of interpretation of current political and social challenges. In the "Trend Radar" project, trends and opportunities for resource conservation relevant to the use of natural resources were intensively reflected in early summer 2019 in a qualitative-empirical online community with more than 100 participants from all social groups.

BRIGAID created impact by improving the technological and market readiness of 60 solutions to droughts, floods and extreme weather. Ecologic Institute contributed by training 21 innovators on strategic decision-making; developing an online system for remote collaboration; and establishing a Community of Innovation with researchers, practitioners, entrepreneurs and local authorities from Berlin.

In 1997 the Commission established a target to increase the overall share of renewable energy to 12 percent by 2010. In March 2007, leaders of the 27 EU countries committed to an even more ambitious target of 20 percent of all EU energy consumption to come from renewable resources by 2020.