New Sustanability Action Programme 2010-2015

The UBC approved a new Sustainability Action Programme 2010-2015 at the X UBC General Conference in Kristiansand, on 23 -25 September 2009. This is the third Action Programme focusing on sustainable development.

Nearly a two decade experience of the UBC confirms that a bottom-up approach is relevant to building regional cooperation.

During this period environmental and sustainability issues have been the main topics in the development of the Baltic Sea Region, as well as for the development of the UBC. During the second UBC Agenda 21 Action Programme 2004 - 2009 more than 25 projects with more than 40 UBC cities and several UBC Commissions were involved in different types of projects focusing on sustainability issues. UBC has also actively been involved in a great number of European and regional conferences, carried out three large scale sustainability surveys, participated in different policy related processes, as well as launched a new UBC Good Practice database www.ubcwheel.eu. Many of UBC member cities have also been noted as forerunner cities in Europe and several ones have won recognition for their good practices in different fields. The Sustainability Action Programme can therefore be considered as a very successful programme.

There are great expectations towards the new EU Strategy for the BSR. The Strategy is an important step forward in a challenging time, where concrete actions and new development steps are needed. It creates a joint framework and defines several areas of priority action. Sustainable development of the Baltic Sea Region is a key issue in thedocument and for our cities it is a crucial element for the well-being of the Baltic Sea Region and the cities. The third UBC Sustainability Action Programme has been build up to enable this.

The process of creating the UBC Sustainability Action Programme started in 2008 and has engaged more than 200 persons from more than 50 UBC cities. It focuses on further strengthening the organisation, the activities and actively building even more sustainable cities in the whole Baltic Sea Region. The Programme consists of 36 goals that should be met during the programme period. The main goal of the Programme is to give an ambitious, but clear picture on how the Baltic Sea Region cities should act to become more sustainable and attractive!