Vienna expands bike infrastructure – 20 km for 2023
The big highlights of the project are two cycling highways, one leading to Lower Austria in the south and another leading to Donaustadt
A conversation with the mayor of Utrecht on the occasion of her mission to COP27
Sharon Dijksma is the 332nd mayor of Utrecht. She has served in this position since 2020.
In 1994 she was elected as a Member of Parliament for the PvdA (Dutch Labour Party). She was State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science from 2007-2010, State Secretary for Economic Affairs from 2012-2015 and State Secretary for Infrastructure and the Environment from 2015-2017.
From 2018-2020 she was the alderman for Traffic and Transport, Water and Air Quality of the Municipality of Amsterdam.
The main message I brought was that cities should be included in global policymaking on climate and the upcoming climate summits. Without cities, it will be impossible to tackle global warming. Moreover, cities want to lead the way. They facilitate innovation and have the capacity to invest on a large scale in clean mobility, green construction and creating a sustainable energy supply.
It was an exciting first step, but we need to make sure that this Ministerial will become a structural item on the agenda of future COPs as well. To make sure we won’t lose momentum, we should strive towards a more prominent role of cities in the international climate agenda.
It is time for real multi-level collaboration on all levels to keep the Paris goal of 1.5 degrees alive. A way to do so is to include cities in the Nationally Determined Contributions submitted to the UNFCCC.
Simply put, we have no time to lose. Heatwaves, extreme droughts and floods threaten the already vulnerable parts of our world. It is vital that we set our sights on the action at both COP27 and beyond, with the important goal of ensuring that the parties that can make a difference make their voices heard.
Good question. I believe that many cities have always played a part as a frontrunner of progressive climate policies but were simply never granted both financial aid and influence on national and international levels. I hope that with our efforts, cities’ voices will be heard more loudly in the future.
Utrecht has an extensive network of bike infrastructure throughout the city to encourage clean and healthy transportation. And we also have the biggest bike parking garage in the world.
Recently we have even turned a four-lane highway that used to be a historic canal going straight to the city, back to its original state. Now rainwater can be stored, and nature is allowed to flourish again.
This is evident from the Regional Competitive Index (RCI) published by the European Commission
It’s unclear when it will reopen
While the new health policy will fund the morning-after pill and various progesterone treatments, it will not cover condoms
City officials found that simple messages about respecting residents’ sleep were most effective if coupled with the right presentation
The city has a strategy of putting 10,000 human-controlled and autonomous shuttles on the streets by 2030
Last week, the Chinese app was banned for Belgian federal employees for an initial period of six months
These were the original carriages used when the Polish capital’s subway was launched in 1995
The heritage district has four times less verdant spaces per person than the rest of the Basque capital
The city has learned a lot from an ongoing project for a solar roof on the Altonaer Museum
These were the original carriages used when the Polish capital’s subway was launched in 1995
Social inclusion through gastronomy in one of Italy’s most dangerous neighbourhoods
It’s unclear when it will reopen
The new itineraries are part of the DiscoverEU programme, which lets 18-year-olds travel by train between important European sites
The European Commission has published its first progress report charting the achievements of the socio-cultural movement that combines beauty, inclusion and sustainability
The 2023 edition of the creative initiative promises to be bigger, bolder and more inclusive
A talk with the head of Mission Zero Academy on the benefits for municipalities if they go the zero waste way
A talk with Nicolae Urs, one of the key figures behind the city's new data platforms and online services strategy
Veni Markovski’s take on dealing with disinformation in the European Union's poorest country – Bulgaria