How can cities implement the EU Green Deal at the local level? As part of the European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC) conference on 11 October 2023, three leading cities, Manheim (Germany), Turku (Finland), and Łódź (Poland) shared their ideas on the concept of Local Green Deals (LGDs) and Climate City Deals in workshop organised by ICLEI Europe and the European Committee of the Regions.
Dana Eleftheriadou, Head of the Cities and Proximity Team, DG GROW, European Commission, presented the opportunities for European cities in joining the Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC), an action supporting cities’ transition to a net-zero economic model by harnessing the potential of collaboration with private sector and technology providers through Local Green Deals. The Intelligent Cities Challenge action also helps cities to enhance the sustainable competitiveness of the local economy as well as their social resilience.
How leading cities are working towards the long-term goals of LGDs
Prof. Diana Pretzell, Deputy Mayor of Mannheim, presented the importance of including local communities in this transition. Through concrete agreements called “deals”, the city involves its citizens and local businesses in sustainable actions such as the Hitachi Columbus Campus project. With an amount of 200 individual “deals” registered by the city to date, Mannheim is a strong advocate of the Local Green Deal concept on the international stage and has been awarded with the EU Cities Mission Label as one of the 10 EU cities in recognition of the successful completion of its Climate City Contract.
Mayor Minna Arve discussed how the city of Turku is guided by the Climate City Contracts and is known for having some of the most ambitious climate targets in the world. She stressed the importance of a solid scientific basis for achieving climate targets, but also for strengthening sustainability in local communities. By working closely with its universities and their psychology departments, the city is designing effective and engaging offers. This approach is bringing the city closer to its goal of carbon neutrality by 2029.
As part of Łódź’s Fair Local Green Deal efforts, Mayor Hanna Zdanowska explained the importance of designing measures that meet the needs of the city’s residents, across all social categories and ages, and of giving them a degree of responsibility in designing and implementing sustainable actions. For example, the city has developed “citizen assemblies” initiatives that have enabled Łódź’s inhabitants to decide how the budget is spent on urban greening projects. This has led to higher ecological standards for urban investments, the expansion of the city’s bicycle path network and renewable energy solutions.
Key factors for bringing a fair, inclusive and rapid sustainable transition with LGDs
Following the different presentations, participants were divided into three working groups moderated by the City Mayors and ICLEI Europe. The goal of this was to crystallise key factors for bringing a fair, inclusive, and rapid sustainable transition via LGDs.
For the participants, the most important factor is building up trust in the process. It is key for local governments and authorities to set up real exchanges, conversations, and cooperation with citizens throughout the whole process. In addition, finding a consensus in discussion with different groups of local actors, political parties and citizens is a must in order to obtain a long-term commitment. Finally, to ease discussion and commitment, setting ambitious targets and having a clear vision of what will become better in the cities is a key step to help overcome the fear barrier associated with change.
Furthermore, the participants stressed that transparency is essential. The participants highlighted the case of the European Green Deal as a key topic on which providing reliable and transparent information is not only beneficial but also necessary. Participants also mentioned that it is important to manage expectations at the very beginning of a consultation by defining and disclosing what will and will not be possible by local authorities, doing so will also help to ensure getting different communities involved. Alongside to these two key elements, it is important for participants to better communicate and present the participatory formats. Indeed, they agree that it is essential to define a clear offer by stating what the citizens will gain from this in order to motivate them in participating.
Finally, participants highlighted the effectiveness of providing guidance and actively approaching local businesses for obtaining their support and getting them on board for the transition.
The ICC Coordination Team thanks ICLEI for their organisation and the EWRC for hosting the event. For more information on Local Green Deals and ICC, check the dedicated page here.