EU Green week, Europe’s biggest environmental event, took place from May 21^st to May 25^th. In addition, the programme also featured many exciting events organised by partners around Europe, including ECF city members like Madrid, Helsinki, Brussels and Athens.

The event promoted participatory approaches to urban development, networking schemes, and tools for sharing best practices, engaging local authorities and citizens, and encouraging them to share their vision of a sustainable future.

EU Green Week 2018 started in Utrecht (Netherlands) with the presence of European Commissioner Karmenu Vella.

“This week we will see how much a sustainable city can improve the lives of those living and working there. I am proud that the EU is working hard to support quality of life in cities through our waste, water, air and nature legislation”, stated at the kick-off conference.

The day also saw the presentation of a new tool called the Green Benefit Planner which gives a financial assessment of the benefits of trees, parks, waterways and other green ideas to help policy makers, urban designers and planners incorporate nature into their plans and decisions.

Due to predictions that 80 per cent of Europeans will live in an urban area by 2020, cities became the primary focus of Green Week this year.

High-level speakers including Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for the Environment; Raymond Johansen, Mayor of Oslo; and Duarte Corderio, Vice-Mayor of Lisbon, were present at the opening of the EU Green Cities Summit in Brussels, focused on urban sustainability in EU cities.

During the conference, the Green City Tool was presented to the audience. Designed to help cities gauge how sustainable they are, the tool will also help cities discover how they can take the initiative and become greener.

At day three, attendees at the EU Green Week cities summit tuned in to an inspiring session learning from cities that have already taken significant steps on the path to becoming sustainable – EU Green Capital and Green Leaf cities. Representatives from Copenhagen to Bristol shared their experiences and invited the audience to launch activities that engage citizens for a greener future.

Discussion also centred on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Urban areas are vital to achieving many of them. ECF maintains that at least 12 of the Global Goals of UN are directly supported by more cycling around the globe.

Traffic congestion costs the EU a massive €110 billion per year - and it has a negative impact on air quality and road safety. Under its plans for better urban mobility, the EU hopes to see half the amount of fossil-fuelled cars on the road by 2030 and a complete phase-out by 2050.

Day 4 at EU Green Week saw the final day of the high-level cities summit in Brussels. With the spotlight on reducing waste, sustainable energy, and water and air quality, participants headed home with plenty of new ideas and food for thought.

Improving urban air quality is a key challenge facing European cities. Air quality is getting better but cities still face smog events and high levels of particulate matter – the most damaging pollutant to our health. Summit attendees heard how integrated strategies to improve air quality, improve urban mobility, boost energy efficiency and mitigate climate change could be the answer.

Bringing EU Green Week to a close, Madrid hosted the official closing ceremony with the presence of Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner, Manuela Carmena, Mayor of Madrid, and Isabel García Tejerina, Spain’s Minister for Agriculture and Environment.

Manuela Carmena called for action noting that “when we speak of the environment there is no alternative. We have pollution we don’t want.”

Isabel García Tejerina, Spain’s Minister for agriculture and environment, said that Spain is taking measures to improve its environment, especially air quality.

“We used to build cities for people. In recent years we have been building cities for cars. We need to make cities more liveable for people”, finalized Karmenu Vella.