An inspiration, partner and best ally. Last week, CitiES2030, a Spanish sibling to Viable Cities, awarded Olga Kordas a formal prize for the work of Viable Cities as a pioneer and inspiration for building the national platform for Spanish cities to become climate neutral. The ceremony was held in the City Hall of Madrid during an event bringing together the Spanish mission cities, representatives of the Spanish government, industry, academia, civil society and public sector.
Olga and Viable Cities has been an incredible inspiration for us, and it is an honor to present the first CitiES2030 award to her.
– Julio Lumbreras, programme director for CitiES2030, when presenting the award
The motivation for the award is:
We want to give you our first CitiES2030 award in recognition of your leadership in urban transformation in Europe. Viable Cities has been our main inspiration, partner, and best ally in this path to implement the mission, and we would like to take this moment to thank you for your valuable support.
The event in the City Hall of Mardid was summarising the experiences and celebrating the achievements so far of the Spanish mission for climate neutral cities. Discussions also were looking forward to the steps ahead to accelerate the work locally, nationally and internationally together with colleagues in Sweden and Europe.
CitiES2030 is currently working with 17 Spanish cities to achieve climate neutrality, while Viable Cities is working with 23 Swedish cities. Both national platforms are involved in the EU cities mission for climate neutral and smart cities 2030 within NetZeroCities, an initiative supporting 112 cities across Europe including Spanish and Swedish cities.
Viable Cities programme director Olga Kordas received the first ever CitiES2030 award in recognition of her leadership and work with the Swedish national cities mission platform as a pioneer and inspiration for the development of CitiES2030. At the event in Madrid, several similar national platforms emerging across different countries in Europe were present, such as Romania, Portugal and the Netherlands. Viable Cities and CitiES2030 are both engaged in supporting the development of such national platforms in the EU funded CapaCITIES initiative.
I feel extremely privileged to work with the incredible teams of Viable Cities and CitiES2030 and I am looking forward to many years of collaboration between all sister platforms across Europe to accelerate the transition we all need.
– Olga Kordas, when presented with the award
About Viable Cities
Viable Cities is a Swedish strategic innovation programme for climate neutral and sustainable cities. To date, 23 Swedish municipalities and six government agencies, and 130 member organisations operate within the programme to accelerate the climate transition. It is jointly funded by Vinnova, the Swedish Energy Agency and Formas, and coordinated by The Royal Institute of Technology, KTH.
