The development of climate investment plans received a boost when a delegation of Swedish cities made a study visit to Belgium in mid-September.
Representatives from Gävle, Gothenburg, Karlstad, Kristianstad and Uppsala, together with Viable Cities, visited several cities in Belgium, led by our Finance and Procurement Strategist Fedra Vanhuyse. The trip started in Leuven, one of the 112 European mission cities. There, the city has created a separate organization for collaboration between the municipality, business and civil society with a strong focus on attracting funding for pilot projects. Next stop was Brussels and the VVSG (the Flemish equivalent of SKR) in Brussels. VVSG is involved in the EU initiatives LIFE AT LAST and BE FREE, which work to attract private funding for energy transition initiatives. The group then continued to the suburban municipality of Vilvoorde, which has created practical and financial support for property owners in socio-economically vulnerable areas. The last stop on the trip was the coastal city of Ostend, which is actively working on financing both climate change adaptation and mitigation at many different levels, such as an investment in an energy island for wind farms and citizen engagement for the circular economy. Politicians, officials, researchers and entrepreneurs from the Belgian cities generously shared their experiences.
The participants will now jointly document their learnings from the trip in an article to be published later this fall. Several of the travelers have already shared their impressions on LinkedIn (see below).
In 2023, Viable Cities launched a new call to boost the climate transition in cities in three areas: citizen engagement and participation, regional cooperation and climate investment plans. The study visit to Belgium was an important step in sharing experiences in developing climate investment plans.
More reading:
- More on all 15 pre-study
- Linkedin posts from Gothenburg
- Linkedin posts from Gävle
- Vilvoorde Energy pointt
- LIFE AT LAST
- BE FREE
