Regional and local involvement for green transition

Posted on 16 Jul 2019

Despite a clear environmental commitment at the international and EU level, with the Paris agreement and the recent EU 2050 carbon-neutral strategy, the concrete implementation of those top-down objectives is sometimes difficult to grasp, leading to citizens demonstrations demanding governments act on their promises. During this event moderated by an expert in citizens' inclusion, the participating regions and cities will present their on-going efforts to foster the involvement of local stakeholders in the energy transition and in the fight against climate change, before an open debate about their projects and a Q&A session.

The projects of the partners present citizens’ dialogue and involvement at various levels: from the local/city level to the national level by going through the national and intercity level:

  • Attractive Towns is a projet developped in Mid Norway which fosters achieving increased participation and cooperation with citizens for an attractive and sustainable urban development. The partners’ towns use a common methodology to complete projects aimed at fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • The city of Elbag as a "Green city" (Warmia-Mazury), with the objective of implementing in the city the principles of sustainable urban development. They put an emphasis on innovation and development of new technologies.
  • The local "COP21" developed by Métropole Rouen Normandie (Normandy) that aimed to replicate the multistakeholder approach that led to the Paris agreement.
  • Klimathon, organised in West Norway for two years, is a ‘hackathon’, designed to bring together civil society, businesses, researchers and local authorities to find solutions to specific, local climate challenges for a greener society.
  • The regional COP implemented in Centre-Val de Loire aims at co-creating an agreement tackling climate change and promoting energy and environmental transition with all regional stakeholders, including civil society, in a similar fashion to the local "COP21" developped in Métropole Rouen Normandie, but on a regional scale.

Code: 08WS364

Speakers: Solène BENOÎT-HERNANDEZ, Daria Bieńkuńska, Agnès Grandou, Mathew Alexander Stiller-Reeve, Grete Waaseth

Theme: A greener Europe 

Partner/s: Centre-Val de Loire, Limerick, Mid-Norway, Normandy, Warmia-Mazury, West Norway

Venue: Building Norway House.

Address: Rue Archimède 17 - 1000 Brussels

https://europa.eu/regions-and-cities/programme/sessions/364_en