Barcelona, Stockholm and Cologne shared results of a project that show that economic growth does not have to come at the expense of CO2 emissions reductions.
Results from the Spanish, Swedish and German cities in the European Commission-funded GrowSmarter project include the refurbishment of more than 130,000m2 of building stock through the use of energy efficient and smart technologies, the deployment of a wide range of sustainable mobility solutions, and the deployment of urban data and smart management platforms to manage local energy systems.
More specifically, the cities have achieved significant CO2 reductions of 30-70% in fully refurbished buildings and energy savings of more than 8GWh.
“It is about cities growing in sustainable ways, but it is also about putting the citizen in focus,” said Stockholm Mayor Anna König Jerlmyr. “Our job as politicians is to do this and to create the conditions for co-creation together with organizations in society, and to do almost impossible things together.”
The solutions developed by Barcelona, Stockholm and Cologne, together with number of industry partners, have been shared with several other cities throughout the EU, including Suceava (Romania), Graz (Austria), Porto (Portugal), Valletta (Malta) and Cork (Ireland), which are working to replicate these in their local contexts.
The valuable experiences and lessons learned through GrowSmarter will be further shared with other European Cities through ICLEI, a leading global network of more than 1,750 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development, and the European Smart Cities and Communities, an initiative supported by the European Commission.
GrowSmarter has the solutions, because it has shown we are able to overcome the environmental challenges with economic sustainable solutions, while also being socially responsible,” said Miquel Rodriguez Planas, Barcelona’s Commissioner for the UN’s 2030 Agenda.