New Climate Alliance members

We warmly welcome our new Climate Alliance members: in Austria the City of Traiskirchen as well as the municipalities of Bockfließ, Gols, Kaunertal, Reith im Alpbachtal and Spannberg; in Belgium the City of Mouscron; in Germany the cities of Bad Schwartau, Delbrück and Lage, the municipalities of Hofstetten and Markt Marktl, the districts of Ahrweiler and Plön as well as the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate; in Italy the municipalities of Alagna Valsesia and Val Masino as well as in Switzerland the municipality of Gaiserwald. Welcome!
As of October 2019, Climate Alliance membership counts 1690 cities, towns and districts as well as 67 provinces, NGOs and other organisations from a total of 26 countries.
www.climatealliance.org/municipalities

Climate Alliance cities call for solidarity with indigenous peoples of Amazonia

Local authorities from across Europe have passed a declaration in the German city of Rostock demanding joint action to protect indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin and the Amazonian rainforest. “The balance of Mother Earth depends on the Amazon Basin; allowing its devastation implies the extermination of humanity,” explained Robinson Lopéz Descanse, Climate Alliance Vice President and Coordinator for Climate Change and Biodiversity of COICA, Amazonia’s umbrella association for indigenous organisations. The statement calls for a halt to Mercosur talks until deforestation and human rights abuses are stopped as well as the legal recognition of indigenous territories and the ratification of ILO Convention 169 on indigenous rights. If your municipality would like to sign the declaration, please contact Madlie Le Bihan.
www.climatealliance.org/newsroom

Climate Alliance project honoured with EU Regiostar for climate-friendly cities

The EU project Climate Active Neighbourhoods, led by Climate Alliance, was recognised by the EU with the Regiostar Award for excellence and innovative approaches in regional development in the category “Building Climate Resilient Cities”. Climate Active Neighbourhoods supports municipalities in implementing their climate action strategies more effectively with neighbourhood-based, participatory approaches. Since 2016, the initiative has empowered residents of underprivileged neighbourhoods in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK to take action on climate change locally with the support of their municipalities. Through the project, cities and municipalities are relying on innovative financing instruments, home visits for energy advice and retrofitting, new models for citizen engagement and governance models to tackle energy poverty.
www.climatealliance.org/newsroom

Monitoring and Evaluating Adaptation Actions

26 November 2019, Webinar from 11:00 to 12:30 CET

This webinar will focus on monitoring and evaluating adaptation actions and is directed at signatories of the Covenant of Mayors and other municipalities interested in monitoring adaptation. As monitoring adaptation measures is new for most local authorities, this webinar starts by giving an overview of the monitoring requirements of the Covenant. A presentation by the Development Agency for Marche Region shows how they are supporting municipalities in the novel task of monitoring through the Life Sec Adapt tool. At thewebinar’s end, there will be a  focus on how local authorities can improve the monitoring process itself with he Erasmus University Rotterdam’s presentation of  the Reflexive Monitoring Approach developed within the Connecting Nature project.
www.climatealliance.org/events

Climate Emergency – Global Covenant of Mayors Global-Regional Exchange

26 November 2019, Webinar from 10:00 to 11:00 and 17:00 to 18:00 CET

In response to the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR1.5) and the Fridays4Future movement, over 1,000 jurisdictions in 19 countries have to date declared a Climate Emergency, committing to bold action and raising awareness on the urgency of the issue. The Global Covenant of Mayors Secretariat, in collaboration with Climate Alliance, is organising this call as an opportunity to share experiences with cities that have issued a Climate Emergency Declaration. Climate Alliance will also present its take on the state of Climate Emergency declarations and talk about the network offers.
www.climatealliance.org/events

UN Climate Change Conference – Climate Alliance side events

2 – 13 December 2019 in Madrid, Spain

2 December 2019 – Global climate action: Indigenous rights, territories and resources – For a strong global partnership to fight climate change and promote climate justice, together with INFOE, Climate Alliance Austria and Climate Alliance Luxembourg
5 December 2019 – Nature-based adaptation to climate change in cities – How to measure the impacts of nature-based solution on climate change adaptation and other fields.
6 December 2019 – Indigenous contributions to climate resilience – Indigenous and local communities as key allies to increase ambition of national mitigation strategies, in cooperation with OroVerde and INFOE
7 December 2019 – From data to policy – Here we explore a series of indexes measuring SDGs, climate mitigation and adaptation.
10 December 2019 – Global Covenant of Mayors Day
www.climatealliance.org/events

Climate Alliance International Conference

7 – 9 October 2020 in Wels, Austria

The Climate Alliance International Conference is the highlight of the Climate Alliance year and the ideal place for members to both exchange and get inspired. In 2020 we will be celebrating 30 years of Climate Alliance in Wels, Austria. We look forward to seeing you there!
Save the date!

COICA invites Greta Thunberg to a visit into the rainforest

During the “The Right to a Future” event in New York in September, journalist Naomi Klein conducted an interview with Greta Thunberg. Tuntiak Katan, Vice Coordinator of COICA, spoke about the Amazon crisis and presented Greta an invitation from COICA. The indigenous peoples requested her visit so that she can learn more about their life in the Amazon rainforest.
www.climatealliance.org/newsroom

EU Parliament: Forest protection to be discussed again

Since the fires in the Amazon rainforest, forest protection has again become a major issue. Even though the EU always asserts that contracting parties should be persuaded to protect the environment, this can hardly be enforced in practice. Now the protection of forests is to become one of the priorities of the EU parliament in the coming months. The media network Euractiv confirmed that the Environment Committee is planning a hearing on the issue. Conservative MEP Peter Liese commented: “Our forests, not only in other parts of the world but also in Europe, are an essential contributor to climate protection. And on top of that, they are an economic factor.”
www.climatealliance.org/newsroom

“European City Facility” – Launch of a new climate financing scheme

In mid-September, representatives of Climate Alliance and other European city networks reached initial agreements for a financing mechanism that will mobilise funds for local climate action. “It is time for cities to design the instruments they need to finance their energy transition,” said Energy Cities' representative Claire Roumet. The “European City Facility” is intended to enable local and regional authorities in Europe to draw up climate master plans as concrete, bankable projects and to develop credible investment packages. 200 cities and municipalities can benefit from the European City Facility, supported by the European Commission, from the beginning of 2020 through targeted financial, technical, legal and capacity-building measures.
www.climatealliance.org/newsroom

CaSCo Video Award: My local wood

Wood is multifunctional, biodegradable and a material with a feel-good factor. Since regionally-sourced timber is also an extremely sustainable building material, it is often used in architecture and design. The CaSCo Video Award is open for all those who live or work in wooden buildings as well as who use wooden objects – from self-made pieces of furniture to beloved wooden chests. Take part in the competition and tell us the history and special features of your object in a mobile phone video (maximum 3 minutes). The closing date for entries is 15 January 2020. This award has been made possible via the EU-funded project CaSCo, coordinated by Climate Alliance.
www.climatealliance.org/newsroom

Use the POWER community platform for citizen participation

Your municipal administration would like to intensify the exchange with citizens and provide them with professional information on current issues in an uncomplicated way? Then the POWER Community Platform could be the right instrument for your city or municipality. In a newly published brochure about the Internet platform for citizen participation, the individual elements that can be adapted to your local needs are presented. You will get to know the exchange and networking possibilities within the framework of the POWER database, the socio-political initiative ‘ConCensus’ to mobilise joint action in a municipality and much more. In addition, the different experiences of the cities of Jerusalem, Leicester, Milton Keynes and Sabadell, which have already worked with the community platform, will be presented and evaluated. The brochure was published as part of the EU project POWER, in which Climate Alliance is involved.
www.climatealliance.org/newsroom

Incentives to change mobility behaviour: Results of the SaMBA project

Latest results of the SaMBA project show the impact pricing policies, free travel cards or monetary rewards can have on travel behaviour. These preliminary findings can help municipalities elaborate reward and pricing systems to trigger long-lasting behaviour change. They include information on system design, detailingg methods of co-creation that can be used to draft schemes together with important local actors. The results will go into the making of a  tool to measure the policy impact of rewards and pricing schemes. Climate Alliance is part of the SaMBA consortium. The project is made possible via the EU’s Interreg programme.
www.climatealliance.org/newsroom

New CITY CYCLING record – 77 million kilometres cycled

407,734 people took part in CITY CYCLING 2019, riding more than 77 million kilometres by bicycle. In 1,127 municipalities in Germany, Luxembourg and Brazil, the bicycle became the main means of transport for many participants during the respective campaign periods. In this way they avoided over 11,000 tons of CO₂. These record results were celebrated in Hannover (DE) with a ceremony in honour of the most active municipalities and municipal parliaments. Climate Alliance Executive Director Thomas Brose, Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Olaf Lies and the Head of Transport for the Hanover Region Ulf-Birger Franz presented the awards to the winning municipalities. Municipalities can already plan CITY CYCLING into their calendar for 2020. Municipalities can register as of spring 2020 for the campaign period from 1 May to 30 September.
www.city-cycling.org

Thermos flask as an example of sustainable energy storage

In a fascinating new project, the citizens of Heidelberg will receive a new sustainable energy storage tower with award-winning look. The complex will be one of Heidelberg's tallest buildings and thus a strong symbol for the city's transition to renewable energies. The energy and storage system stores unneeded heat, which is generated when there is a high demand for electricity, and releases it again when it is cold – like an oversized thermos flask. Read more about storage systems for renewable energies in the newsletter of the EU Store4HUC project.
store4huc.klimabuendnis.org

Three Climate Alliance members in Italy among the top ten environmental cities

Bolzano, Pesaro and Ferrara occupy the 3rd, 6th and 10th place in the ranking of the environmental performance of more than 100 major Italian cities, according to the Ecosistema Urbano 2019 study by Legambiente, Ambiente Italia and Il Sole 24 Ore. The city of Bolzano owes its third place to a good public transport system and the fact that it was once again able to increase the installed renewable energy capacity of public buildings. Sixth place went to the City of Pesaro, boosted by its  bikeability and excellent infrastructure for cycling and walking. Finally, the City of Ferrara scored with reductions in air pollutantion and separated waste collection. Congratulations to the winning cities!
www.climatealliance.org/newsroom

Climate Witness Exhibition – to borrow

Support your citizens in their “climate friendly good resolutions” for the New Year! Showing our climate witnesses exhibition will encourage them with their ambitions for climate friendly behaviour. Order the “We Are All Witnesses – People in a Changing Climate” exhibition and support your local educational work! With 30 roll-ups showcasing the experiences of people from Europe, Amazonia, West Africa and South Asia, the exhibition gives an opportunity to organise activities on the topic of climate change. We are happy to help you supplement the exhibition, which also comes in the form of a brochure, with your own posters. In this way you can establish a direct connection to your municipality. Simply contact us for more information and book a date to show the exhibition!
overdeveloped.eu

Out into the forest - worth a trip even in winter!

This box of materials offers educators the opportunity to introduce forests in an interactive way. The accompanying booklet and exploration set form the basis for a 1 to 3 day workshop helping children aged 7 to 14 discover the forests with all of their senses. Magnifying glasses for smartphones and other equipment for forest exploration allow participants to investigate nature from unusual points of view. The materials can be ordered in November and December for a reduced price of 30 euros by contacting climatejustice@climatealliance.org.
overdeveloped.eu