“One of the biggest, if not the biggest challenge of our time is climate change,” said Michael Ludwig, Mayor of Vienna in his opening speech at the Eurocities Environment Forum. “And closely related to it: the destruction of the environment and the loss of biodiversity,” he added addressing a room full of experts, city representatives and policy makers gathered to discuss climate and environmental justice.
“It is a crucial question for us all,” insisted Jürgen Czernohorszky, Executive City Councillor of Vienna, pointing at how cities are living through intertwined crises that endanger people’s lives. The need for climate mitigation and adaptation measures is also clear from the dramatic events of the past days and months, evoked André Sobczak, Eurocities General Secretary, mentioning the latest floods in Valencia.
Cities act as driving forces on the way towards a climate-conscious future.
So it comes as no surprise that 65% of Mayors put climate action as their top priority looking forward when answering the latest Eurocities Pulse Survey. “Cities act as driving forces on the way towards a climate-conscious future,” insisted Ludwig.
Yet cities are only as ready for change as the people who live in them. For the climate transition to take root, residents need to be involved through local democracy. As the newly nominated European Capital of Democracy, Vienna “is the best place to be right now to do policy making with the people,” said Sobczak.
Engagement is key, so it needs to be done right
Permanent change is possible only through working with citizens, stresses Czernohorszky. “It’s about getting everyone on board,” he says. And cities have “the unique opportunity to include residents in shaping solutions,” due to their proximity to citizens, adds Ludwig. However, cities must ensure they engage with different groups of people and address them in a targeted way. “We must focus on people’s needs and bring them along,” says Sigrid Stagl, Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy and Founder of the Institute for Ecological Economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. “Sustainability can’t be imposed; it has to be done with the people to avoid alienating them.”
Current sustainability actions are mostly imposed with a top-down approach and the focus is mainly on “jobs and emissions,” comments Seona Candy, Senior Researcher at Demos Helsinki. By doing so, people who are affected by these actions feel alienated. A top-down, narrow approach increases the divide between social groups, breeds resistance and mistrust, creates green-lash—the backlash of green initiatives and policies—and is finally ineffective. For a just transition, Candy believes cities have to pair the green transition with a transition in democracy.
Putting the resources necessary to engage residents will benefit policy makers and locals alike. Vujo Ilić, Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory at the University of Belgrade, referred to a recent publication of the Nets4Dem project analysing different participation mechanisms and their impacts. The publication found that some mechanisms repeat existing power dynamics in our societies, for example by being accessible only to certain social groups and relying on people’s existing knowledge. For better impact, cities should promote mechanisms, such as citizen assemblies, that create structured discussions intentionally bringing together people from different backgrounds and providing them with the knowledge to get to an informed consensus.
Sustainability can’t be imposed; it has to be done with the people.
Participants to these initiatives also realise an important aspect of the democratic process: trade-offs. Nabila Abbas, Research Manager at the Federation for Innovation in Democracy Europe (FIDE), explains that it’s an important realisation that any solution entails trade-offs and that a decision weighs all existing information and knowledge and chooses a good compromise.
When done properly, these mechanisms create a time and space for discussion between people who wouldn’t otherwise interact and where they learn and exchange with experts. “The outputs are better policies because they have more chance to address actual needs,” says Abbas. “These mechanisms can also counterbalance lobbies and other vested interests.” Abbas therefore insisted on providing concrete help to make citizens engagement accessible to all, for example by providing childcare during meetings.
From the ground
Tine Heyse, Deputy Mayor for Climate, Environment and Housing at the City of Ghent, reacted by saying that “democracy isn’t easy, it doesn’t mean we don’t like participation. We need it.” How does Ghent do it then? As an example, the city put in place a coach for the renovation of apartment buildings, on the technical side, and a social coach, to lead participatory processes working with owners, building managers and other relevant actors. To date, 73 buildings, amounting to 1,636 units, have successfully used this initiative to renovate their apartments to become more sustainable. While the process is long, it takes about one year, and resource intensive, “it works,” says Heyse.
In Vienna, one-third of adults don’t vote because of very restrictive citizenship laws, yet the city set out to include and empower them to have a say in their city. Stephan Auer-Stüger, Member of the City Parliament in Vienna, explained how 1,600 ideas from people went through a round of discussions between residents and experts and then a jury of randomly chosen locals to get to a few concrete actions that the city could implement.
As one of the EU Mission for 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, Guimaraes is focusing on getting the private sector on board with the climate transition. They developed different ways to motivate businesses, for example by awarding a label to companies that sign the Climate Pact. Dalila Sepúlveda, Vice President of the Guimarães Landscape Laboratory, insisted on the need to gain people’s trust. They must believe that the city will implement their contributions otherwise they won’t participate, she argued.
A project where people got involved in Guimaraes is the District C pilot within the Net Zero Cities project and selected as part of the European Heritage Hub good practices. Universities, companies, cultural and arts associations and citizens are co-creating strategies for carbon-neutral actions in various areas, such as energy, mobility, circular economy, waste and land use.
Elina Rantanen, Deputy Mayor of Turku, stressed how her city is developing different types of engagement for different groups of people. For example, the city works with local youth organisations to engage with young people. This year, 11 projects were selected as part of Turku’s Youth Climate Action via this mechanism.
Navigating the new EU context
If we don’t try if we don’t think we can be ambitious, then we can’t push for the change that’s needed.
Locals aren’t the only allies cities need. Cities are also looking to the European level, as the new mandate is taking shape, to take the necessary steps for a transition that leaves no one behind. As Louise Coffineau, Eurocities Head of Advocacy, explained, the new EU mandate brings great challenges, marked by an increase in conservative and far-right policy makers within EU institutions. Although pro-European parties maintain the majority, building coalitions and advancing on progressive policy files will become increasingly difficult.
Based on Ursula von der Leyen’s political guidelines and the hearings of relevant commissioner-delegates happening in the past weeks, Eurocities foresees a stronger emphasis on industrial growth and competition. In that case, how is the EU planning to reconcile industry competitiveness and climate? The same conversations are raising questions about securing the Green Deal legacy compared to challenging past decisions. In addition, what is needed, Coffineau stressed, is the “implementation, implementation, implementation of the European Green Deal”.
Some positive signs have come from the ‘EU Mayors Summit’, which took place in Strasbourg last month and gathered 90 Mayors and 40 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Sobczak related that they agreed to continue working on strong climate actions, and some MEPs expressed the desire to work on new policies and not just on implementation. This, insisted Sobczak, should be seen as an opportunity to continue engaging with them and sharing cities’ experiences and challenges. “If we don’t try if we don’t think we can be ambitious, then we can’t push for the change that’s needed,” added Sobczak.
More needs to be done
Cities must be ambitious because, at the moment, “we’re not on the right path,” as stated by Professor Stagl. She presented studies that have found that six out of nine planetary boundaries are now transgressed through human activity, while pressure on all boundaries is increasing.
In an ideal world, our societies should aim to increase people’s wellbeing, increase economic growth, and manage, or even better, decrease the use of resources and human environmental impact. Stagl explains that this means aiming for decoupling. However, current political strategies don’t clearly define the kind of decoupling, often favouring relative decoupling –resource impacts decline relative to the GDP, which could itself still be rising– over absolute. “The planet needs absolute decoupling: economic growth but overall reduction of environmental impact,” insists Stagl.
Progress is much too slow. It’s not fast enough.
The discourse around decoupling and current measurements is also selective. For example, focusing on specific countries, a specific time frame, or specific pollutants putting what are essentially partial results in the best light. “We need to be more comprehensive if we want to show real development,” says Stagl.
A new concept driving economics
Referring to the study by Asjad Naqvi and Klara Zwickl ‘Fifty shades of green: Revisiting decoupling by economic sectors and air pollutants’, Stagl insisted that “progress is much too slow. It’s not fast enough”. The study collected data for 18 EU countries, six economic sectors and six pollutant indicators and observed that the impacts are small, imprecise, differ depending on the economic sector and pollutant, and are only noticeable after several years.
We need to create a path towards meeting human needs and stay within planetary boundaries. There isn’t one yet.
For change to be effective, explains Stagl, decoupling of production and consumption must be absolute otherwise overall environmental degradation will continue to increase. It must relate to all environmental impacts, not just CO2, and take place everywhere. It must also take place quickly enough to avoid ecological collapse and be maintained over time.
One of the barriers to overcoming the climate crisis is that economics rarely considers a possible fundamental incompatibility of economic growth and systemic social changes. “Economics still looks at growth as the only answer,” says Stagl. However, the concept of universal basic services, based on the spirit of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, could be used as a new driving concept for economics. “We need to create a path towards meeting human needs and stay within planetary boundaries. There isn’t one yet,” adds Stagl. “The next time a policy driven by growth makes it on your desk, ask yourself: ‘Can we focus on human needs rather than GDP? Is there another way?’.”
It’s not a one-city issue, not a European issue, it’s a global issue
Stagl stressed how despite ambitious climate goals and visions, many cities face systemic challenges that require collaborative efforts beyond local capacities. A fact that cities are acutely aware of.
“Vienna has become a role model for social climate policies. However, we cannot walk the path towards a climate-friendly future alone,” said Ludwig. “Climate change does not stop at borders or city limits. We need dialogue and close cooperation to be able to implement the transformation process towards a sustainable future in a timely, peaceful and just manner.”
Cities together have a loud voice.
Czernohorszky added that one city can’t have all solutions, but all cities together can exchange and develop solutions for everything. He also stressed how a network like Eurocities does exactly that. “This is a time for sharing,” insisted Czernohorszky. “Cities together have a loud voice.”
Climate change isn’t just a European issue, it’s a global issue insisted Sobczak evoking the recent results of the US elections. The hope is that cities around the world can continue working with other cities to find solutions for a better future for all.
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The Environment Forum is a yearly event where Eurocities members meet and discuss a specific topic chosen among city priorities when it comes to environmental and climate issues. During the event, participating cities also showcase their good practices and exchange solutions for common challenges.
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