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More than 340 organisations against further EU trade talks with Brazil
In June 2019, more than 340 civil rights organisations, including the European Secretariat of Climate Alliance and Climate Alliance Austria, appealed on the EU to stop the ongoing trade talks on the Mercosur deal. The letter calls on the EU to inform the Brazilian President that it will reject a trade agreement under the current conditions. As requirements for any further talks it states the end to human rights violations and further deforestation as well as concrete climate protection commitments. A message to the UN Climate Summit in New York in September
With the Heidelberg Outcomes, the participants of the Climate Neighbourhoods, the ICCA2019 and the Youth Climate Summit send their message to the next UN Climate Summit in New York. Collaborative climate action across different government levels, sectors and stakeholder groups is essential to achieve the urgently needed transformation towards sustainable and climate-friendly economies and societies. A broad consensus has been reached that joint action can limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as intended in the Paris Agreement. “Our goals and joint decisions on global climate action are important, but it is even more important that they are implemented and observed”, commented Andreas Wolter, President and Representative of Climate Alliance in Heidelberg. “Germany and most other EU countries miss their targets by far. This needs to be changed urgently. Climate Alliance Annual Report is online
The Annual Report and Outlook for 2018 and 2019 gives an insight into the various activities of Climate Alliance in 2018 and an outlook on the plans for 2019. The report was published in two parts: The first part reports on the activities of the European Secretariat at international level and the second part on the activities of the six national coordination offices in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
How to engage citizens in local climate action with online tools
11 September 2019, Webinar from 14:30 to 16:00 CEST The webinar aims to give municipalities an insight into citizen participation on adaptation and sustainability issues through online tools. In particular, Digital Social Platforms (DSP) will be discussed: The POWER platform will be presented by means of activities that take place in the British city of Leicester whereas the Change the Future platform will be introduced by the example of the German city of Worms. The advantages and challenges of using DSPs will be highlighted. A special focus will be on the the possibilities the DSPs offer for municipalities to achieve adaptation on climate change and to reach the sustainability goals. The Covenant of Mayors is organising the webinar, which will be held by Climate Alliance employees, among others. Climate Emergency – Webinar for Climate Alliance members
12 September 2019, Webinar from 10:00 to 12:00 CEST More and more cities and towns are declaring a climate emergency, including a growing number of Climate Alliance members. Many see climate emergency declarations as a way to signal to their citizens that they are taking the climate challenge seriously while also using them to engage their own municipal administrations in solutions-oriented thinking on climate change. In addition to the information we have already collected on the Climate Alliance website, this webinar offers our members the opportunity for exchange and to discuss the challenges of a declaration of climate emergency. Invitation to Climate Alliance International Conference
25 – 27 September 2019 in Rostock, Germany The tide is changing. Increasing numbers of local, regional and even national governments worldwide are now declaring the climate a priority or even an emergency. For many municipalities and regions, some of the most pressing questions revolve around how best to act on this all-encompassing issue when only parts of its root causes are under municipal control. The Annual Conference with the motto “Climate. Cities. Communities. Strategies for a Liveable Future” explores the role of municipalities in climate action and the implementation of local strategies to strengthen the path to a good future for all. Sustainable Mobility Behaviours in the Alpine Region
2 October 2019 in Graz, Austria Tackling air pollution and high emissions resulting from the transport sector is a major challenge. In this workshop “Sustainable Mobility Behaviours in the Alpine Region: From user perspectives to policy definition” Climate Alliance and further SaMBA project partners will address the need of promoting the use of sustainable transport options and its key success factor, the user behaviour. Mobility specialists will discuss with behavioural change experts and representatives of municipalities on how we can encourage the public to change and how policy making can gain a better understanding of the user perspective. POWER Conference – Addressing Water Challenges by Citizen Engagement
9 – 10 October 2019 in Brussels Join the POWER Conference and learn about the POWER Digital Social Platform: This tool forms an important contribution in the efforts of cities to be able to face increasing water-related challenges. POWER offers an innovative and effective open source solution to regions, cities and users, based on a ‘link and scale up’ strategic network effect, which aims to reach transferability, society empowerment and motivation to act.
Renewable energies and energy storage systems for historic city centres
The new European project Store4HUC develops solutions for renewable energies and their storage in historical buildings. This is difficult because visible changes and installations inside the buildings are often not possible. As part of Store4HUC, a pilot project in each of the countries Austria, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia will be equipped with an energy storage system and changed over to renewable energies. The University of Zagreb is developing a tool for evaluating the conversion work. New platform for European-Chinese exchange on sustainable urbanisation
The new online platform EC-Link (in English and Chinese) is a cross-sector interdisciplinary platform for sustainable urban development that aims to connect important interest groups in Europe and China. The aim is to connect resources and share knowledge on environmental sustainability and urban development between EU and Chinese cities. The EC-Link platform offers an online tool to connect with other experts and professionals who will exchange ideas, share knowledge and contribute insights on the sector’s main trends and changes. 100 percent regional energy sufficiency via community energy
The energy transition is only possible through civic involvement! Many practical examples within Munich and its sourrounding area illustrate how the energy transition can be successfully implemented: local, decentral and through joint local projects with citizens who turn them into active actors in the energy transition. With the EU's Renewable Energy Directive of June 2018, energy communities were finally defined and granted clear rights. We therefore expect an EU-wide trend towards more renewable energy communities which allows citizens to play an active role in the energy market. Developments like this have been discussed by 20 representatives of cities, NGOs and indigenous communities from Peru, who met in Munich in July 2019 for an intensive exchange on renewable energies and the advantages and disadvantages of different technologies. Experts for the European Green Capital und Green Leaf Panel wanted
Would you like to be part of the European Green Capital and European Green Leaf Awards? The European Commission is looking for four experts (in the areas green growth and eco-innovation, sustainable land use, waste management as well as sustainable urban mobility) to join the European Green Capital Award (EGCA) and European Green Leaf Award (EGLA) expert panel. The expert panel, consisting in sum of 12 environmental experts, plays an integral role in the awarding process. Both the EGCA and EGLA competitions involve a two-step evaluation process. When cities apply for the award and are deemed eligible each application is reviewed and assessed by the expert panel. Please apply by 30 August 2019.
The Amazon rainforest is on fire
The whole world can follow it: The forest in Amazonia is on fire. The G7 promise 20 million US dollars for fire-fighting planes, but the Brazilian government rejected the support for the beginning. COICA, the indigenous partner organisation of Climate Alliance in the Amazon Basin, is now launching a fundraising campaign to support communities affected by fires. In its Open Letter, COICA complains about the inability and lack of will of the Bolivian and Brazilian states to protect the population – peasant families and indigenous peoples. COICA calls on the UN and the Commissioner for Human Rights to take immediate action and prevention, as well as international support and solidarity with the people affected. Help our partners in Amazonia! Indigenous leaders decry murders and call for protection of their rights
In a video, indigenous representatives along with Robinson López Descanse, Climate Alliance Vice President, condemn the murders of indigenous peoples and call on all states to ratify the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) Convention on the Protection of Indigenous Rights. “Years have passed since the creation of Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, yet indigenous peoples and local communities are still being systematically eliminated as a result of large-scale natural resource extraction in the form of oil drilling, mining, agro-industry, hydroelectricity and deforestation,” explains Tuntiak Katan, Vice President of COICA and Coordinator of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities. In 2018 more than 80 indigenous leaders and environmental activists were killed in Latin America and in June 2019 alone, 769 km² of rainforest was cleared in Brazil, an increase of 60 percent on June 2018. Implementing climate justice locally – concrete offers for your local work
Global challenges need local ideas and activities. Climate Alliance members are aware of this and are thus committed to local climate action and global responsibility. Climate Alliance's offers on climate justice in municipalities combine both topics. Get inspired and test our tools for climate justice in your municipality.
Climate Active Neighbourhoods project among the Regiostar Award finalists
The Climate Active Neighbourhoods (CAN) initiative on neighbourhood-based approaches for energy savings has been named one of five finalists in the ‘Building climate-resilient cities’ category of the EU-wide Regiostar Award. The Interreg project CAN has developed bottom-up measures to empower residents and expand cooperations with municipalities in the field of energy efficiency, energy poverty and local responsibility. Feedback to winners of the POWER Idea Contest for Sustainable Communities
More than 140 entries were submitted for the Idea Contest for Sustainable Communities which was carried out as part of the EU POWER project and in which Climate Alliance is involved. The project focuses on concepts and solutions for local water and sustainability problems. Ten ideas which were mainly sent in by the participating cities of Jerusalem, Leicester, Milton Keynes and Sabadell, have been honoured as winners. Find out more about these project proposals and improve them by giving your feedback!
Guidelines for the development of renewable energy partnerships
Urban-rural renewable energy partnerships allow a balance between the urban energy demand and the rural potential to extend the renewable energy production. This enables urban regions to successively achieve the goal of a 100 percent supply with renewable energies and thus a reduction in CO2 emissions. In the Interreg project Renewable Energy Regions (RegEnergy), partners from seven European countries are establishing viable urban-rural partnerships under the project management of Climate Alliance. Initial guidelines for renewable energy partnerships have been developed and are being tested via new partnerships in different countries. The guidelines are introduced in the current project newsletter. New brochure on adaptation to climate change in the Alps
The brochure “Adaptation to Climate Change: Good Participation Practice in the Alpine Region” was published by the German Environment Agency and is available in English, French, German, Italian and Slovenian. It presents several good examples of civic participation concerning the topic of adapting to climate change in the Alpine region. It addresses administrative stakeholders on the local and regional level and offers suggestions for own civic participation formats as well as tips for the successful implementation.
Climate Strike
20 September 2019 worldwide The climate crisis is already threatening our civilization and its consequences become most visible within our cities and towns. To emphasise the urgency for action, companies and organisations around the world are supporting the Fridays for Future students in their climate strike on this day. These strikes go hand in hand with the climate emergency declarations that many Climate Alliance members have already proclaimed. Climate Alliance calls for support for the climate strike. |
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Climate Alliance of European Cities with Indigenous Rainforest Peoples / Alianza del Clima e.V.