ICLEI Europe is pleased to be contributing to this year’s edition of the annual European Green Week conference, via several sessions that promote the local perspective and voices on the EU Action Plan toward a Zero Pollution Ambition. Each of these sessions will support local authorities in translating “zero-pollution” activities into practice, by discussing examples and success stories spanning the implementation of nature-based solutions, citizen and local stakeholder engagement, hydrogen power, and circular waste management.
EU Green Week is an annual conference series with events taking place and being organised by stakeholders all over Europe. This year’s edition is dedicated to ‘zero pollution ambition’. The week offers a platform for all stakeholders and interested citizens to engage with each other and to commit to the ambition to reach a zero-pollution and toxic-free environment.
On 3 June, ICLEI Europe, together with the European Commission Directorate-General for Environment, will lead a session on “Local pollution - nature-based solutions to the rescue!”, taking place from 11:15–12:15 CEST. The session will discuss how nature-based solutions can be a driving force for pollution reduction across Europe, by looking at real-world examples of urban nature-based solutions implementation. These examples will draw on insights from the proGIreg and CONEXUS projects – in which ICLEI Europe is a partner – with presentations by city representatives from ICLEI Members Lahti (Finland), Lisbon (Portugal), and Zagreb (Croatia).
The session is followed by an ICLEI and Urban-LEDS II project session on “Popular objectives, controversial measures – increasing the acceptance of ambitious measures in cities”, taking place on 3 June from 14:15–15:15 CEST. The session will take up the question of how to increase public acceptance of sustainability changes to public spaces and habits, with city representatives from ICLEI Members Cork (Ireland), Utrecht (The Netherlands) and Helsinki (Finland). Cities will share their expleriences introducing successful or contested measures – such as extending biking lanes and car-free zones, renovating and refurbishing buildings, or waste and plastic regulations – to explore what successful mediating and engagement strategies look like in different contexts.
ICLEI is also organising a number of Green Week partner sessions. One of these sessions is being organised by the EVERYWH2ERE project, focusing on “Decarbonising EU Cities via Hydrogen”. It will take place on 3 June from 11:00–12:00 CEST. Another partner session on “Circular Economy in waste management: how to replicate action” was organised by the CityLoops and PlastiCircle projects, and is now available to watch as a recording here. Lastly, the ICLEI Europe-led NetworkNature service will host a session that delves into joining forces for health and nature recovery, taking place on 31 May from 11:30–13:00 CEST.
Finally, ICLEI Europe, alongside EUROCITIES and CEMR, is supporting in developing and implementing the European Commission's Green City Accord (GCA). EU Green Week participants will have the chance to learn from and interface directly with the GCA via two sessions and at a virtual exhibition. For more information on how to connect with the GCA at the event, click here.
More information and to register, click here.