The Green City Accord is a European Commission initiative to mobilise European mayors committed to safeguarding the natural environment. It aims to improve the quality of life of all Europeans, and accelerate the implementation of relevant EU environmental laws at the local level.
By joining the Accord, cities commit to step up their efforts in five areas by 2030:
- air: significant improvement in air quality by moving closer to respecting the WHO’s air quality guidelines and ending exceedances of EU air quality standards as soon as possible
- water: making significant progress in improving the quality of water bodies and the efficiency of water use
- nature and biodiversity: considerable progress in conserving and enhancing urban biodiversity, including through an increase in the extent and quality of green areas in cities, and by halting the loss of and restoring urban ecosystems
- circular economy and waste: advance towards the circular economy by securing a significant improvement in the management of household municipal waste, an important reduction in waste generation and landfilling, and a substantial increase in re-use, repair and recycling
- noise: significantly reducing noise pollution in cities and moving closer to WHO recommended levels
Signing the Accord’s political commitment offers many benefits. The initiative will support cities in determining local targets and implementing actions covering these five areas, which will be monitored over the coming years.
Participating cities will gain access to an online helpdesk and to capacity-building opportunities offered by the initiative, including peer-learning and knowledge-sharing activities.
The Green City Accord is open for mayors to sign. Read more about how to join the initiative in the “Join us” section of the Green City Accord website.
This initiative is implemented by Eurocities (as lead partner) together with ICLEI and CEMR.
