Sustainable solutions for combating climate change

"The heart of UBC beats in Gdynia today", with these words Mr Marek Stępa, Vice Mayor of Gdynia, welcomed 55 participants to the first joint meeting of the Commissions of Environment, Energy and Transport. The decision of the three Commissions to jointly organise a meeting evoked very positive reactions among the participants. Cooperation is a key to successful work, both between cities and the Commissions in UBC!

From the left: Mr Mikko Jokinen, Mr Thorsten Geißlerand Mr Zygmunt Zmuda- Trzebiatowski

The Commission on Environment has had successful cooperation with the Commission on Transport in the BUSTRIP project and the collaboration with Commission on Energy was very close from the beginning. Both commissions have a shared co-chairman since 2009, Mr Thorsten Geißler, Vice Mayor of Lübeck. Having a joint commission meeting was just a step forward to improving UBC activities. The meeting focused on the topic "Sustainable solutions for combating Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Region". Climate change as the topic on every agenda is a cross-cutting issue that cannot be discussed only one-sided, as environment, energy and transport are interlinked in terms of climate change action in the cities.

Storm water poses serious challenges for many coastal cities in the Regions. Gdańsk, Pori and Turku presented current solutions to tackle the effects of heavy rainfalls, strong spring flooding and sea level rise.

As for transportation, Gdynia promoted the initiative IP of introducing trolleybuses for a more sustainable city transport and Umeå showed impressive actions for sustainable transport in the North. Tim Scheirs presented advanced cycle policy in the city of Ghent, Belgium. Energy is one of the most important issues in the region and one of the core topics when dealing with climate change actions. The Energy Commission presented the concept of the smart grid for a sustainable energy future and introduced a new technology transfer initiative from the Kalmar Science Park. The joint meeting resulted in active discussions and other joint UBC activities within the agenda of the EU strategy for the BSR will follow up.