Four cities explored strategies and solutions for climate neutrality in the first webinar
In which way do cities applying for the 100CNSC and preparing their Climate City Contract work consistently across different scales?
How are they putting together a wider strategic framework, relating long-term visions, planning tools, daily operations and concrete action?
How do CLIMABOROUGH solutions fit within the cities’ broader neutrality agendas?
The first webinar of the Climawebinar series on Climate Neutrality Strategies to pilot solutions strived to answer these questions.
February 29 marked the launch of this series designed to establish a dialogue on similar actions, policies, and challenges to achieve climate neutrality between the cities involved in the Climaborough project and other European municipalities. The final goal of Climaborough is indeed to make our cities more liveable, and capable of adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change.
Sharing challenges and solutions to learn from and inspire each other
The project’s partner cities of Maribor, Differdange and Grenoble, and the guest city of Valladolid animated the panel together with about 100 participants who actively joined the discussion. These four municipalities – at different stages of their climate transition and with different issues to tackle – shared their experiences to learn from and inspire each other. Indeed, Differdange, Grenoble and Valladolid are working on their Climate City Contract (CCC), while Maribor is working on a strategy to achieve climate neutrality. All of them presented their experience in connecting smaller-scale projects with climate and energy goals.
Throughout the webinar, different realities were presented. Maribor showed its success stories: Community Urban Gardens, Zero Waste Approach and 2030 Smart City Strategy in waste management. Differdange talked about the commitments of its Climate City Contract and mentioned the importance of having the help of a private consultancy that links the various departments of the municipality and enables a global joint vision to achieve the targets set. Grenoble‘s perspective is different from the other participants, as it is a metropolitan area with 49 municipalities, and it was the first French city to produce the Climate Plan in 2005. It is currently preparing its CCC, trying to establish complementarity with both plans. Valladolid, which earned the EU Mission Label for Climate-neutral and Smart Cities , showed how its various projects play a key role in achieving climate neutrality, and stressed the importance of involving local businesses in this commitment.
The discussion encouraged a knowledge exchange on how to involve stakeholders and colleagues of the municipality so that everyone knows the vision of the cities, facilitating the fulfilment of the goal. For cities that are not part of the programme, participants suggested accessing the Net Zero Cities knowledge repository to find out about best practices in other cities and use the CCC template to structure their own climate neutrality journey. Other takeaways include the need to improve both citizens’ involvement in the process, alongside data collection and management. Finally, cities highlighted the importance of establishing a solid plan for further management practices within the project itself.
Climawebinars: let’s foster urban innovation!
Find out more about this initiative here and register now to join the two webinars that will take place in the coming weeks:
18 April – Mobilising communities of practices: energy and mobility
16 May – Connecting the dots of circularity: steps towards neutrality
We look forward to embarking on this journey towards climate neutrality with you!
