May 12, 2022
This blog was written by Rasmus Fredriksson, project manager, Environmental Department, City of Malmö Malmö is a coastal city with a 43-kilometer coastline. Proximity to the sea has always been a foundation for Malmö’s development. Historically the city has grown by building new industrial and port areas on land reclaimed from the Öresund, the Baltic
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May 11, 2022
Marine Education Center (Marinpedagogiskt Center) is a newly completed building by the beach in Malmö. In the center, visitors from schools in the region of Skåne get the opportunity to experience the sea of Öresund, its exciting history and marine life. There they can also learn more about the Sustainability Development Goals of the Agenda
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May 2, 2022
Urban farmers are becoming more numerous in Malmö and they deliver fresh food with minimal climate impact to both restaurants and households. The City of Malmö, Sweden, encourages urban farming and gardening as a way to create social interaction, improve health, increase biodiversity and reduce the climate footprint. In Malmö there are different ways to
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May 2, 2022
A big, new park in the Malmö area, Hyllie, focuses on stormwater, ecosystem services and social sustainability and is constantly evolving. The park is one of the City of Malmö’s many resilience projects, which was initiated in the green plan for Bo01, the world-famous European housing exposition in 2001. Hyllie – the Öresund regions most
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April 13, 2022
As national and regional governments grapple to “keep 1.5°C alive” with updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), science-based climate targets offer local governments a clear path towards effective climate mitigation. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (working Group I) published in 2021, human-induced global warming will see temperatures surpass 2
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April 6, 2022
“We cannot solve problems, by using the same kind of thinking we used when creating them” – Albert Einstein Could you imagine the global impact, if the UN General Assembly resolution on 4 march 2022 on the war in Ukraine were to be approved by not just 140 nations, but 100,000 governments? Or fake
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March 30, 2022
Over thirty mayors and councillors from some of Australia’s most flood-damaged regions have called on the government to do more to protect communities from tragic and costly extreme weather. Mayors and councillors from Lismore in New South Wales to Logan in Queensland, released a joint statement responding to one of the worst extreme weather disasters
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March 22, 2022
The concept of circular development has been gaining a lot of traction in the last few years for its potential to tackle global challenges like the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and waste. Many cities are starting to explore and implement measures to move away from the linear “make-use-dispose” economy model, but some obstacles remain. We
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March 21, 2022
The linear economic model relies on a continuous process of extraction and processing of natural resources, which is responsible for more than 90 percent of biodiversity loss. This take-make-waste model is contributing to all drivers of biodiversity loss, from land and sea use change, to ecosystem exploitation and to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing
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March 7, 2022
Nature and its services are the greatest resources local and regional governments have to mitigate the current climate emergency and support a more resilient and sustainable urban future. That, in essence, was the silver thread of the second edition of the UNEA Cities and Regions Summit, held virtually on 23 February 2022. “We now have
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March 7, 2022
Throughout 2022 to 2024, IHRB, ICLEI and other partners advance a research and action agenda on just transitions in the built environment, with deep-dives in specific contexts as well as international-level advocacy. This resulting blog is written by Annabel Short, Senior Advisor, Built Environment, IHRB, and Dr. Ying-Chih Deng-Sommer, Sustainable Built Environment Officer, ICLEI. As
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March 2, 2022
This statement is endorsed by the ICLEI President and ICLEI’s Global Executive Committee War is the most unsustainable act of human beings on this planet. ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability urgently calls on all national leaders to stop the armed conflict and to settle for a peaceful resolution in accordance with the UN Charter
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February 24, 2022
(24 February 2022) The Association of German Cities (Deutscher Städtetag), the Global Parliament of Mayors and ICLEI have launched a urban alliance to accompany the German G7 Presidency. The alliance will support the G7 Presidency program, which has highlighted the importance of “harnessing the transformative power of cities.” Cities can offer immense contributions to the
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February 23, 2022
In 2014, the city of Malmö experienced extreme precipitation, causing widespread damage and big financial losses. Now, the city is rethinking its approach to flood resilience and how this can be achieved together. A cloudburst is known as an extreme amount of rainfall in a short period of time. These occurrences may lead to massive
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February 23, 2022
As local governments assess their agendas for 2022 onwards, including understanding their territories’ contributions to national climate commitments, climate action remains one of the top priorities. More frequent and extreme weather events, growing trends of urbanization, rising energy demand, and an increase in global temperatures, require an urgent response. What can they do to reduce
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February 23, 2022
This blog was written by Braoin MacLauchlan and Matteo Bizzotto, with contributions by Einav Grinberg, Laura Noriega, Carla Marino, Maryke van Staden (ICEI World Secretariat) and George Bush (CDP). A growing sense of urgency, propelled by the IPCC reports, COP26 discussions, and the need for real impact by 2030 mean climate policies have never been
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February 9, 2022
This article is written by Anina Hartung and Dr. Nazmul Huq from the ICLEI Global Resilient Development Team. It should come to no surprise for anyone that COVID-19 has brought about unprecedented disparity to the fragile interconnected systems that make up our urban spaces, rendering them vulnerable to a host of challenges. Additionally, while cities
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February 8, 2022
The first-ever International Co-Sponsored Meeting on Culture, Heritage and Climate (ICSM CHC) brought together scientists and experts to explore linkages between culture and heritage, climate science and climate action this past December. The event was jointly organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and
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January 26, 2022
In Öresund, beneath the surface of the sea, hides northern Europe’s largest mussel bed. This 75 square kilometer area is covered with millions of mussels. However, the most impressive part isn’t the size of the bed, it’s the fact that the mussels act as natural filtering organisms, keeping the Öresund sea clean. Mussels provide us
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December 6, 2021
The construction sector accounts for more than 20% of Sweden’s total environmental impact. With the goal of being climate-neutral by 2030, Malmö is the first city in Sweden to have developed a local roadmap for a climate-neutral building and construction sector –LFM30. Over the next 10–15 years, the City of Malmö plans to build
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December 2, 2021
This blog was originally written for the UrbanShift project by Braoin MacLauchlan and Matteo Bizzotto. For most of us, most days, thinking about the benefits we get from nature is not on the top of our to-do list. We eat our food, grown from nature’s soil. We drink water that’s at least in part naturally
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December 2, 2021
This post has been written as part of the UrbanShift project by Bhaskar Padigala, Karishma Asarpota, and Matteo Bizzotto. Among several critical themes discussed and negotiated by the world leaders at the recently concluded COP26, was the role of local and regional governments. This emerged as one of the main enabling factors required to keep
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November 25, 2021
This blog was written by Karishma Asarpota, Jr. Officer, Climate & Energy Action, and Himanshu Raj, Officer, Sustainable Mobility Global energy demand in the transport sector is on the rise due to the growing population and increased movement of people and goods. In 2018, the transport sector was responsible for 25 percent of direct CO2
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November 15, 2021
Leaders returning home from Glasgow will be feeling many mixed emotions on how COP26 concluded. In a fraught two weeks, where the worst case outcome of a failed agreement was possible at many moments, to have achieved a global agreement at the global climate conference at all is a muted success. As many have noted,
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November 15, 2021
Lisbon, Portugal (26 October 2021): Today, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM), was awarded the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity along with 1M Euro to finance projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. The jury of the 2nd edition of the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity selected GCoM from among 113 candidates from 48 different countries
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November 15, 2021
Today’s food systems account for approximately one third of total GHG emissions, are a primary cause of environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity and significantly contribute to socio-economic and health inequalities. Concrete action points on food systems have so far been neglected at previous COP negotiations and when setting National Determined Contributions (NDCs). A much stronger
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November 12, 2021
Cities have been making headlines this COP, but it’s often the climate action of big player metropoles that we see showcased. Small and medium cities have been mobilizing with the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) to take on the climate crisis. At the session ‘Accelerating local climate action in medium & small municipalities committed to
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November 12, 2021
Cities are ready with robust climate action plans and ambitious targets that often outpace their national counterparts. What they need now is support from their national governments and financiers to turn their prioritized actions into resilience-building projects. Cities are hubs of innovation, and, especially in the smaller and medium-sized municipalities, local governments are agile and
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November 11, 2021
The uneven distribution of climate impacts between the Global North and South is irrefutable. As the Global South mobilizes to build the resilience of its communities, their primary tool is knowledge – and lots of it. Held at the Multilevel Action Pavilion, the session Time4MultilevelAction Dialogues: Global South showcased the knowledge products and services less
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November 10, 2021
The city of Malmö purchases about 8,500 tons of food every year (worth €24 million), serving 65,000 lunches a day. Food is prepared and served in pre-schools, schools and elderly care homes, free of charge. Thanks to extensive teamwork, dedicated co-workers and clear and ambitious goals, the City of Malmö leads in Sweden in providing
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November 10, 2021
Property owner Kungsleden AB holds an undeveloped plot of land in the Sofielund area of Malmö. An area until recently considered unsafe by residents and by those working there. While waiting for the plot to be developed, residents decided to look at how the space could be used temporarily to improve the health and well-being
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November 10, 2021
The housing area of Sofielund has undergone a dramatic transformation. From pronounced social unrest and exclusion a decade ago, to a well kempt area with increased property ownership and happier residents. Sofielund is unrecognizable. The secret behind the change is a collaboration between the municipality, property owners and other stakeholders to increase the security and
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November 10, 2021
The decision by the City of Malmö marks a unique momentum in Sweden to promote local culture and business within urban development. Just as industry has noise zones, so too should cities establish cultural sound zones. Including a cultural sound zone was a key consideration in the development plans for the business area and old
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November 9, 2021
While climate measures have sought to mitigate future climate change through reducing emission levels, efforts to adapt communities to harmful changes happening now have fallen short. Frustrated by the lethargy of national adaptation strategies, regions are employing all the tools in their power to build resilience. On Adaptation, Loss and Damage day at COP26, regional
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