MARCO

A number of barriers prevent the widespread uptake of the climate services market; however the lack of appropriate services or technologies is not one of them. Some of the most common acknowledged barriers are:

• Market barriers and failures: Mismatch between the available climate services information and the unexpressed needs of users. Information has a tendency to be very long-term aggregate information with a spatial and sectoral structure, which is very difficult to connect to the needs and organisational units governing the demand side of the market. The challenge to overcome for the supply side is to structure its offer and for the demand side, to understand its benefits. Furthermore, climate sustainability issues are a low priority for various consumers and firms. Lack of standards or quality certification are additional barriers.
• Financial barriers: Unknown or uncertain paybacks and economic uncertainties regarding the benefits of climate services.
• Institutional, administrative and structural barriers: Complex multi-stakeholders issues due to the variety of sectors addressed; limitations in legal framework, insurance.

As a result, the current untapped market for climate services is very large and is characterised by both gaps between the supply and demand in the existing market and by a large latent market of demand and supply that is not realised.

The MARCO project will characterise the current and untapped market for climate services in Europe and derive opportunities for market growth.

• The Project defined a framework for climate services market observation and facilitation: this includes defining taxonomy and metrics, measuring gaps between the identified supply and demand, qualifying potential innovation to address those gaps, and expressing policy recommendations.
• Climate service providers and purveyors in Europe have beeen identified and divided into commercial and open source products:

oMapping and qualification of suppliers’ typical business models.

oOverview of key non-European climate services and SWOT analysis of EU providers against international competition.

• 9 case studies have been carried out during the course of the Project: real estate, mining, legal services, wind and solar energy, wáter and sanitation, critial energy infraestructures, agricultura and forestry, urban infrastructures, tourism. Each study will look at a key economic sector in a specific region. The outcomes will provide knowledge that will be applicable to other similar sectors.
• Climate vulnerability and risk will be analysed in order to evaluate their influence on the demand for Climate Services:

oAssessment of the value and transactional volume of current and potential demand for Climate Services based on a combination of new qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

oIdentification of drivers of market demand and how they may be influenced by interventions (such as building a market observatory).