Bristol: European Green Capital 2015
As a co-host of the Cities & Regions Pavilion – TAP2015, Bristol, the UK’s first European Green Capital, is demonstrating its outstanding commitment and leadership in local sustainability initiatives that raise global climate change ambitions.
George Ferguson, Mayor of Bristol, explained:
“The Pavilion will bring together voices of cities and local government networks from across the world to demonstrate their actions and ambitions on climate change, covering low carbon best practice, opportunities for business and green investment.”
The City of Bristol will indeed be a strong voice among many at the Cities & Regions Pavilion.
Bristol is hosting and involved in a range of sessions at the Pavilion. On Tuesday, 1 December from 17.30 to 19.00, Bristol will engage in a session by European Green Capitals, presenting their experiences as winning cities making significant strides to reduce carbon emissions.
Earlier on the same day, from 11.30 to 13.00, Bristol will host a session entitled “Bristol: Our Next Big Step – creating a liveable, smart and sustainable city through innovative Public-Private-People partnerships”. During this session, Mayor Ferguson will engage with senior leaders from business, government and the community to discuss how public-private-people partnerships are driving innovation in Bristol to create a resilient future for the city and its citizens.
On Wednesday, 2 December from 09.30 to 10.30, Bristol will host a session entitled “From a green to a resilient city – what Bristol is doing to secure its future”. In this session, city representatives will share their strategies for securing a healthier, happier, fairer future for the citizens of Bristol. This will include a discussion of Bristol’s Climate and Energy Security Framework and its 50-year trajectory for strengthening resilience.
Bristol will also present two projects submitted to the Transformative Actions Program (TAP) as part of “TAP Time” sessions, which feature the most ambitious and innovative projects submitted. Bristol will present both of its projects at Europe TAP Time sessions.
At the TAP Time session on Tuesday, 1 December from 13.00 to 14.30, Bristol will present the project entitled “Energy efficiency for everyone – Bristol’s Billion: scaling up investment”. A key strand of Bristol’s strategy to reach its ambitious energy and emissions targets is domestic energy efficiency, which accounts for 40 percent of its emissions. Bristol has successfully targeted low-cost energy efficiency measures over the past 15 years and is now addressing the more complex and expensive measures. A total of 56,000 homes will be refurbished, generating estimated reductions in domestic energy use of 11 percent.
At the session on Tuesday 1 December from 15.00 to 17.00, Bristol will present the project entitled “The Bristol Brain – reimagining the way we plan for the future”. The ‘Bristol Brain’ is a new approach to the future planning of cities to explore and develop smarter infrastructure. It will project real-time data onto a 3D physical model to allow citizens and planners to break down silos and explore the impacts of new developments. It could be used to illustrate real-time energy use of buildings, the flow of traffic and pedestrians through the city, the haze of air pollution or a line that rises to show different future scenarios from flooding.
Bristol’s involvement at the Pavilion and at COP21 brings its year as European Green Capital 2015 to a close. Throughout 2015, Bristol has invited and inspired people in Bristol, with distinct talents, perspectives and expertise, to discover new and unique ways we can improve the quality of life in the city.
This blog post was developed by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.
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