Dear Members, Colleagues, Friends of ICLEI,
I hope you all had a nice and relaxing break between the years and a great start to 2020. Of course, this message would be a great opportunity to take a look at the new decade ahead of us. However, these days it is already difficult to find a solid basis to look into the next year. We still see a lot of erratic populist politics around the world that profit from and add to the division of our societies, the segregation of opinion bubbles and a frightening lack of respect, good behaviour and style in public debate. This has a high potential to undermine our democracies and open societies that we have been used to since World War II. It is evident that this does not make it any easier to find the urgently needed solutions to the challenges that we are facing and to make predictions for the future.
Looking back at 2019, it is fair to say that it was quite a mixed year with some rays of hope and some disappointments. Although it was not a particularly strong year for European politics, due to the elections and the endless discussions around Brexit, one can at least say that it finally brought about some clarification and decisions.
The result of the European elections was not clearly focused on one side, which provided national governments with the opportunity to claim a strong role in the decision for a new President of the European Commission.
Another more positive surprise was how strongly the new European Commission embraced the concept of a Green Deal for Europe as the guiding political strategy for the coming years, and already managed to set some ambitious goals. Yet, we will have to see how many of these good intentions and ideas will survive when the first legislative and regulatory documents will be discussed in the political process.
Still, the Green Deal is a ray of hope and will certainly need support from local and regional governments to make it a strong tool for the transformation of European societies and economies towards climate neutrality, sustainability, inclusion and resilience. Particularly, to make people in Europe partners and supporters of the transformation will be a challenge that can only be met locally.
A less positive outcome was the final decision on Brexit – even though any decision and clarification can be seen as a contribution to end the endless debate and insecurity.
Despite the basic decision, the “how” and “what” of Brexit will remain a difficult and delicate process for all parties. The EU should not have an interest to open the doors for pick and choose partnerships that might support the centrifugal, nationalistic and populistic powers in the EU, but at the same time there should not be a situation that drives the U.K. further away from the EU. Certainly, a lot will depend on the internal political dynamics in the United Kingdom and the alignment with some of the key principles of the new EU strategy.
“Fridays for Future” was another positive surprise in 2019, since not a lot of people would have expected Greta Thunberg’s first school strikes to prompt such a strong movement to emerge with support from other parts of society. Still, following the big public and media attention and large demonstration turnouts, the challenge is now to keep up the motivation and movement, to face the usual turn of the tides in the media, as well as to positively manage the tension between emerging organisational structures and spontaneity and openness.
Finally, COP25 in Madrid (Spain) once more demonstrated how difficult it is nowadays to implement global multilateral agreements that are of crucial importance for the future of humankind. National egoisms, populism, and lack of trust between various groups of countries led to a very disappointing outcome that is in strong contrast with the demands and needs of the younger generation as expressed by Fridays for Future.
2020 will again be a quite decisive year with some important international events that could, and hopefully will, lead to strong political decisions for the transformation towards climate neutrality and sustainable development.
This includes both the Biodiversity COP15 in Kunming (China) in October, which will come up with a new framework for the protection of biodiversity until 2050, as well as the Climate COP26 in November in Glasgow (United Kingdom), where the revised nationally determined contributions towards the Paris Agreement will be presented. We can only hope that by then global ambition and determination to achieve the 1.5° to 2° C goal has substantially increased.
Although we might not see a full consensus, we can hope that a strong coalition of the willing is moving ahead. Already today, we see that big and relevant stakeholders are sending clear messages and are taking action, be it in the financial sector through divesting from fossil fuels and other harmful activities, or industries rapidly adapting their product portfolios.
Therefore, we should focus on the positive and courageous actors and examples and strengthen them to move even more rapidly from ambition to action. To this end, we should look into new partnerships and ways of collaboration based on new values.
Certainly, these events and their outcomes will influence the ambition and implementation of the EU Green Deal for Europe. First we have to make sure that the EU proves its aspiration to be the leading region in the world in all relevant processes – including the UN 2030 sustainable development agenda – not only with ambitious goals but also through concrete measures, legislation and re-direction of financial streams, and that it remains a credible global advocate for high ambition.
We still need to take into account that there is a fair chance of failure in global negotiations, in which case the EU will definitely need a lot of support from all levels, particularly the local and regional level, to nonetheless stick to its ambitious goals and take the necessary measures. However, for European-wide bottom-up support and buy-in from the people, we need to create a positive and emotional vision for a climate-neutral and sustainable Europe that tells a story beyond budgets, investments, jobs and technology.
The best way to support an ambitious and successful Green Deal for Europe is to consequently act locally with high ambition. Cities need to develop a strong transformative agenda borne out of a sense of responsibility towards the people and particularly the younger and future generations that will have to cope with the consequences of our lack of action for a long time. In this process, we will have to involve and work with the people and keep a strong focus on mutual respect in all discussions that occur, as well as social inclusion and fairness in all decisions and measures that are pursued, to avoid a further disintegration and segregation of our fragile democratic societies.
We will do our best to be at your side and to support you in your efforts, and to raise our voices together for positive and forward-leading framework conditions in Europe. Let us take the chance of a Green Deal and make it a success.
In light of this commitment, we look forward to welcoming you to two of our European flagship events in 2020.
Mannheim2020, the 9th European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns (30 September to 2 October) will discuss the opportunities and challenges of the transformation envisaged by the Green Deal. Together we will send a strong message from local governments to the European Commission calling for open dialogue and cooperation to change our economic, social and cultural paradigms to be able to meet the challenges and demands of the future.
In November 2020, the EcoProcura Conference in Lisbon will debate how public procurement can help to accelerate innovation, contribute to the mitigation of climate change and support just and fair societies.
We still have the chance to build the future we want, and the future that young and future generations need. Let us act together, let us act fast and with determination and not waste the very few opportunities we still have left. We are at your side to support and connect you. I sincerely hope we will meet each other somewhere during this important year and that, in hindsight, we will be able to say that our efforts have contributed to safeguarding the future and making Europe and the World a better place.
Wolfgang Teubner,
Regional Director Europe
ICLEI European Secretariat