Climate-KIC: more initiatives to tackle urban climate change

The chief executive of Climate-KIC has called for more cross-sector initiatives to overcome the environmental challenges in our urban areas at a major conference in Paris.

Speaking over the weekend at the World Summit of Regions for Climate in France, Bertrand van Ee highlighted the importance of local innovations and their impact on the effects of climate change globally. He said such integrated climate change innovations would create positive business and economic opportunities for our cities and city regions.

Speaking on Saturday, van Ee appealed to climate change leaders around the globe to focus their efforts on creating sustainable models for urban environments to help cities chart a path to a successful low carbon transition. In particular, van Ee emphasised the advantages of tapping into local or regional expertise and networks in order to deliver real impact at a national, continental or global scale.

Ahead of his address in Paris, van Ee commented: “Ultimately, the only way to have real climate impact in our cities is to get the best people in the public, private, academic and NGO sectors to work together. However, in order to transform the carbon footprint of European cities, we must not just focus on one area. Instead we must extend our efforts across geographical, political, cultural and climatic boundaries. Every city has a different story when it comes to controlling urban resources, you cannot simply design here and hope to scale up there. Different cities face different challenges, so our local or regional insight really counts.”

Climate-KIC is Europe’s largest public private partnership focused on climate innovation and carries out the EU’s mandate to deliver large-scale innovation for climate change mitigation and adaptation across the continent and beyond it. With an extensive brief encompassing transport, water, waste and other systems, the organisation’s initiatives are already delivering integrated innovation across sectors, promoting investment while empowering citizens, businesses and civic authorities.