Shaping the sustainable future

Active discussion is vital to finding practical solutions to tackle with the current challenges. This was reached in the UBC Commission on Environment (EnvCom) meeting in February 2008 in Tampere, Finland. The meeting's aim was to discuss the "Visions of future in the Baltic Sea Region". It gathered over 60 participants representing 25 UBC cities, 12 different cooperation organizations and five UBC commissions. This gave an excellent platform to start the discussion for the next action programme of UBC.

The current UBC Agenda 21 Action Programme, coordinated by the UBC EnvCom, runs till the next UBC General Conference in 2009, and therefore it is time to look ahead.

The current thematic focus areas might need to be re-addressed to some extent in the future. These are: good governance and sustainable urban management, sustainable use of energy and resources, good living environment and nature protection, sustainable economy and transport, social integration and health. The participants identified that the three biggest challenges in the future for our cities are: climate change, state of the Baltic Sea and energy supply and efficiency. It was also stressed that it is vital to enable the BSR to become more sustainable through reducing the growing consumption and by guaranteeing skilled working force. In the meeting the visions of BSR were addressed broadly, from the recent history and oncoming development trends. The meeting used interactive methods which resulted in wide discussions about the different aspects for the next action programme.

A large process involving the entire UBC is essential for creating the programme. In the future more cooperation is needed between the different UBC Commissions, as they are the real implementing bodies. The UBC EnvCom will further develop the results of the meeting and bring the proposals/ideas to the UBC Executive Board for further discussions.

The next Commission on Environment meeting will take place in Tallinn, Estonia on 30-31 October 2008. You are all very welcome to join the meeting.