This week, the Viable Cities program management has met with the municipal executive committee, managers and colleagues in Kristianstad municipality and several other actors in and outside the municipality to look forward together. What does a climate-neutral Kristianstad look like in 2030? How do we get there? In which areas does the work need to be sharpened? Who needs to be mobilized in order for us to move forward faster?
Among the first group of 53 cities from twenty-one countries selected to initiate climate action through the NetZeroCities Pilot Cities Programme are three of the Viable Cities Climate Neutral Cities 2030. Working individually and together, these cities will implement systemic and locally tailored innovative actions spanning multiple areas. The 53 cities have been selected from a wide range of over 100 applications.
Viable Cities Program Manager, Olga Kordas, will join the conversation on The climate city contract - At the EU, national and municipality levels, during Day 2 of Sweden Innovation Days! The conversation will cover how to build cooperation between citizens, politicians, businesses and civil servants, how national, regional and local levels need to cooperate in new ways, and how to do it all faster.
We are incredibly proud that our Chairman, Cecilia Schelin Seidegård, receives HM the King's medal in the 12th size in the ribbon of the Order of the Seraphim "for outstanding social contributions". We are all extremely happy for Cecilia, and proud that she is leading Viable Cities' important work forward with a view to climate-neutral cities in 2030 with a good life for everyone within the boundaries of the planet!
On behalf of Vinnova, Sweco has investigated key actors and environments in innovation for sustainable spatial planning. The results will form a strategic basis for Vinnova's continued work to support innovation that contributes to sustainable urban development. At this climate breakfast, parts of the results are presented together with reflections.
Viable Cities is now entering a new phase where the strategic innovation programs are being redesigned. The next generation of innovation programs "Impact innovation" will be stakeholder-driven and long-term efforts to contribute to global competitiveness through the transition to sustainable development. Let's explore what the future of engagement in Viable Cities might look like!
Last week, Lund was also visited by Patrick Child from the European Commission! Patrick Child is responsible for Mission Cities, an initiative where a hundred cities in Europe will become climate neutral by 2030. In the interview, Patrick says that the most interesting thing from the visit to the city is Lund's mobilization around the climate neutrality agenda, where the authority works together with citizens and companies and explores different governance models for the mission climate neutral cities 2030.
Patrick Child, mission manager for climate neutral and smart cities and deputy director general of DG ENV, is visiting Sweden in the context of the Swedish presidency in the European Union. Today, Viable Cities hosted a meeting where the acceleration of the mission was discussed with participants from multiple levels; European, national, local. Prominent participants from the European Commission, Swedish government agencies, the City of Stockholm, and stakeholders from different parts of society.
We are delighted to announce that today we learned that Viable Cities has received funding to participate in the first phase of developing the strategic innovation program of the future: Impact Innovation.
In 2023, three calls will be opened within Horizon Europe under the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission-100 climate-neutral cities by 2030. The aim is to support European cities in their journey towards climate neutrality and is part of the European Green Deal, that the whole Union will be climate neutral by 2050.
Fedra Vanhuyse, the Finance and Procurement Strategist of Viable Cities, was a speaker during the session Thriving like an oak on the opening events of European Green Capital Tallinn. The key points were... (click on the image to read more)
Nine higher education institutions have been commissioned by the government to create a wide range of courses in dialogue with relevant organizations in business and the surrounding community. The result is the Open for Climate initiative, with courses in areas such as circular economy, battery technology, raw materials, urban planning and much more. All courses are accessible to everyone, require no special prior knowledge and are completely free of charge. The majority of higher education institutions are members of Viable Cities.
Our 23 cities and Directors-General in 6 government agencies have signed Climate City Contract 2030. Read more in the press release.
Olga Kordas talks about the climate crisis and the signing of the Swedish Climate City Contract that takes place on European Viable Cities Day.
Mikael Sanfridson, Mayor of Linköping, talks about Linköping's climate work during the year and how the municipality will increase its ambitions and the pace of climate change in the future. The film is recorded before European Viable Cities Day 2022 where 23 Swedish cities in the Viable Cities initiative Climate Neutral Cities 2030, of which Linköping is one of them, sign the 2022 Climate City Contract 2030.
Lena Lagestam, Chairman of the Board of Borlänge Energi, talks about Borlänge's climate work during the year and how the municipality will increase its ambitions and the pace of climate change in the future. The film is recorded before European Viable Cities Day 2022 where 23 Swedish cities in the Viable Cities initiative Climate Neutral Cities 2030, of which Borlänge is one of them, sign the 2022 Climate City Contract 2030.
Anders Almgen, Chairman in the municipal board in Lund, talks about Lund's climate work during the year and how the municipality will increase its ambitions and the pace of climate change in the future. The film is made ahead of European Viable Cities Day 2022, where 23 Swedish cities in the Viable Cities initiative Climate Neutral Cities 2030, of which Lund is one, sign the 2022 Climate City Contract 2030.
In Borlänge, Skellefteå and Karlstad, new mobility solutions are being developed to improve accessibility between town and country throughout Sweden. The new projects promote behavioral changes that can contribute to climate-smart and sustainable transport and mobility patterns for people and goods between city and country, in urban and rural areas.
All Climate Neutral Cities 2030 actions involve businesses together with academia, public organisations and civil society. The municipal sphere has only partial control over the measures that need to be implemented, so business efforts and investments are crucial.
Smart City Expo World Congress (Barcelona, November 15-17) is the leading international event for the smart city sector, a key meeting point for experts and leaders of the world's most innovative cities, companies, research centers and international organizations. Over 24,000 professionals are expected from more than 700 cities and over 400 international speakers that will share their vision on how to build a more sustainable and livable urban future.
How can students accelerate the transition to Climate Neutral Cities 2030? What measures are needed to support municipal work?
Sustainable, innovative solutions for buildings, outdoor environment and mobility that have been implemented in various pilot projects, projects and initiatives need to be captured and become standard solutions for both new construction and upgrading of urban areas. Then large-scale sustainable urban development can be achieved.
In all 23 cities that are part of Viable Cities' Climate Neutral Cities 2030 program, intensive work is underway with citizen engagement where they experiment with different forms. For more than a year now, Gothenburg has hosted Götepod, where city architect Björn Siesjö talks to guests about Gothenburg's urban development from different perspectives. In episode 18, he was visited by Karin Bjerner, Development Manager at the Environmental Administration, City of Gothenburg and Viable Cities Learning Strategist Lena Holmberg.
Carl Mossfeldt, who heads Gothenburg's climate transition function, used Karin Boye's poem Ja visst gör det ont in his opening speech at Lindholmen Open Day to illustrate the situation in which Gothenburg and many other cities find themselves in terms of daring to let go of the old. In his speech, he also emphasized the importance of seeing the climate transition in a geopolitical perspective ...
The transition to become climate neutral 2030 requires that cities work in new ways. In this climate breakfast we explore how the cities of Valencia and Stockholm have handled this challenge in terms of leadership, organization and capacity building. We also learn more about new tools such as portfolio management and the role of intermediary organizations such as citiES 2030 in Spain and Viable Cities in Sweden, for supporting this development.
Over 60 participants from all 23 cities in the Climate Neutral Cities 2030 program came together for a climate literacy workshop for municipal officials and politicians. We have now gathered all the external resources from our partnerships that are available for free on this issue.
During the year, Viable Cities is exploring this together with the county administrative boards and regions in Västerbotten and Norrbotten. On behalf of the government, work is now under way to develop Sweden's and indeed Europe's first Climate City Contract at regional level.
The development of so-called system demonstrators is a way to enable system innovation with great power and mobilization to meet complex societal challenges. With system demonstrators, Vinnova and Viable Cities want to test and demonstrate the transformation of a system in a real environment, where space is created for experiments and where areas with great potential can be scaled up. Six projects have been granted funding for a design phase.
Smart City Expo World Congress (Barcelona, November 15-17) is the leading international event for the smart city sector, a key meeting point for experts and leaders of the world's most innovative cities, companies, research centers and international organizations. Over 24,000 professionals are expected from more than 700 cities and over 400 international speakers that will share their vision on how to build a more sustainable and livable urban future.
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During this year's edition of Way Out West, the climate meeting Greentopia was held for the first time, which aims to make the event industry climate neutral by 2030. Dagens Industri drew attention to this, which you can read more about here.
In response to the climate crisis, the world's cities must make a huge transition. The whole notion of urban life and how we travel, eat, shop, work, build and heat homes must change to address climate change. This requires a systemic shift that involves new innovative approaches and solutions that include multiple dimensions such as policy and regulation, business models, behavior and infrastructure. Thus, a new form of intervention, called system demonstrator, has been developed by Vinnova and Viable Cities as a way to enable system innovation to meet complex societal challenges with great power and mobilization. Read more on Vinnova's website.
Last week, the UN conference Stockholm+50 was held where Sweden was one of the host countries and Viable Cities Program Manager Olga Kordas participated in one of the panel discussions held by Sweco.
H22+50 The session in the city of Helsingborg ended with a study visit. Viable Cities Lena Holmberg chose to go to Drottninghög, which aims to be a socially, ecologically and economically sustainable neighborhood.
The Vinnova and Viable Cities workshop "Essential system transformation" gathered a wide range of people at the Urban Future conference in Helsingborg on June 1. Co-facilitated by UN-Habitat and Dark Matter Labs, experiences from the work of the Climate Smart Cities Challenge were transferred to the design of system demonstrators for climate-neutral cities in Sweden.
The researcher Sol Agin from Karlstad University participated today in our lunch seminar on climate communication where she presented results from her research. There is much to learn from her analysis of the consequences of different ways of communicating to different target groups where the expectation of the sender plays a major role.
Gävle, Gothenburg, Helsingborg, Lund, Malmö, Stockholm and Umeå. It is now clear which Swedish municipalities will now be part of the EU's mission for climate-neutral cities in 2030 - Cities Mission. A total of 100 cities across Europe have been selected. But what does this mean for the cities that joined? And how can it contribute to the climate transition in all Swedish cities?
Already this year, emissions in Sweden need to be reduced by more than 20 percent to meet our share of the Paris Agreement's 1.5 degree target. This is according to a carbon budget developed by WWF together with researchers at Uppsala University. Meeting the target requires a completely different societal transition than the one currently being discussed in the Swedish debate. So how can cities accelerate their climate work and help to speed up the climate transition? Lars Johansson explains more about this in his blog.
Gävle, Gothenburg, Helsingborg, Lund, Malmö, Stockholm and Umeå. These are the Swedish municipalities that are now part of the EU's mission for climate-neutral cities in 2030 - Cities Mission. A total of 100 cities have been selected out of 377 applicants. And seven of them are Swedish cities.
Yesterday, Viable Cities made a study visit to Uppsala municipality's city hall to participate in the kick-off of the new Climate Neutral Uppsala work package.
On April 20, it was time for Viable Cities' member organizations to gather for the Annual General Meeting and Strategy Day. The AGM itself was completed quickly and the rest of the day was devoted to insight into current activities and creative exercises.
On April 11, thirteen actors gathered in Borlänge to launch and manifest the partnership they have entered into to accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral Borlänge by 2030. On the blog, project manager Salomon Abresparr tells us about the gathering of forces around a local Climate City Contract.
The magazine Aktuell Hållbarhet has now published the list of the country's most powerful sustainability leaders. Viable Cities program manager Olga Kordas is on place 34.
- Fantastic fun to be on the list, says Olga Kordas. "I'm honored and see it as the whole Viable Cities team being nominated, we do this job together.
The European DUT partnership, of which Viable Cities is a member, is now looking for participants from Swedish cities for three thematic city panels: one will be on energy positive districts (PED), another on circular economy and the third on 15-minute cities. The deadline for cities to register their interest is April 25.
Swedish researchers and organizations will receive SEK 30.9 million in funding for eight projects in sustainable urban development, through the European research program ENUTC.
The societal challenges we face relate not only to climate change but also to housing segregation, exclusion and health inequalities. With less than 10 years to go before the 2030 Agenda goals are achieved, the time to act is now. It's time to turn knowledge into action and ensure that research is put to good use in order to transition to a sustainable society that does not exceed the planetary boundaries.
Events are a growing billion-dollar industry and a key component of the economy and profile of many cities. At the same time, they are an increasingly important tool for community development. The joy and excitement of an event is something special. There is a strength and power to influence and change. This is why events have a great potential to contribute to, push and accelerate the climate transition.
Achieving the mission of climate-neutral cities by 2030 requires a transformation of the entire social system. We need to work in completely new ways and find solutions that include all dimensions that affect our lives: from regulatory frameworks and business models to the behavior of all citizens.
Vinnova, Viable Cities and several cities are now developing a new tool to achieve this - system demonstrators. Anna Gemzell from Umeå Municipality believes the tool can make a difference.
Gävle, Borlänge and Eskilstuna are three of the "newer" municipalities in the Climate Neutral Cities 2030 initiative. This week, the project managers from the three met at Palladium in Borlänge for joint learning.
- "There is great value in developing existing and finding new forms of cooperation between the cities when the climate work is accelerated," says Evelina Loberg, project manager in Gävle municipality.
Nature is a good example of a circular system, nothing becomes trash that needs to be disposed of, everything is recreated into something new. To keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees, we need to find circular systems for the resources we use. During Climate Breakfast 21, we went from broad brushstrokes in the EU to local initiatives in Karlstad. How can the circular economy contribute more to the climate transition?
During Transition Lab Forum 8, we shared experiences from Skellefteå as part of the transition in northern Sweden, and we explored some key issues in the transition process and Climate City Contract 2030 - multi-level governance, sustainable construction, business strategies for sustainability and citizen engagement. The power of the transition in the north is a golden opportunity to use to accelerate the climate transition throughout Sweden and the world.
