Abstract
The European Commission has proposed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and set Europe on a responsible path to becoming climate neutral by 2050 while advocating for an inclusive future (EU climate action and the European Green Deal, 2019). Climate commitments by national government (NDCs), have triggered the discussion about climate policy in cities with many regional and local government taking lead on climate action. This raised the discussion about the vertical integration of NDCs and its influence on different levels of government. This session will focus on translating the territorial climate ambitions into implementable spatial strategies that creates better living environments. With the help of examples of best practices and lessons from the ground as background and context, the central theme of the session will focus on the climate ambitions outlined in the European Green Deal in the context of Eurodelta. Eurodelta is a highly dense urbanised megaregion with approximately 45 million inhabitants, sharing a common history, culture and identity, i.e. the Rhineland model (Roadmap, SURE-Eurodelta, 2020). This territory connects cities and regions across five countries on various political levels and scales, in Northwest Europe. The current planning practice is overwhelmed with the magnitude of changes needed to take place simultaneously. Although, the Green Deal creates a certain sense of urgency to work together with various scales especially grass root initiatives, the discourse is still limited to and divided as experts and decision-makers. Innovative solutions to bridge this gap between the scales are still missing and the approaches within practice are not yet well defined. The program structure will therefore examine, how can we combine the efforts and collaborate, connecting the scale of initiatives and impacts and allying the forces of societal, systemic and design approaches? The key challenge of the session will be exploring various ways and means of civic society participation in the implementation of the European Green Deal within the mega-regional territory of Eurodelta. The forum will aim to think together towards a framework of implementation as a continuation of discussion, Climate Action Design together with Architecture Institute Rotterdam (AIR) presented at ‘Rotterdam Architecture Month’. The discussion with AIR will be focused on Rotterdam as a city, getting inspirations from Stockholm and Helsinki. In the form of debate, the session at ISOCARP congress, will focus on extending the research towards addressing the challenges in the territorial scale of the Eurodelta mega-region, along with members and partners of SURE Network, ISOCARP and METREX. In the preceding discussion with AIR, we substantiate, how spatial planning and design can play a vital role in connecting climate action between different scale levels, with a focus on energy transition. Through the process of inter-scalar dialogue and common language to the perspectives of policy makers, planners, experts and civic society, the discussion will bridge the gap between Green Deal policies at the territorial and national levels to urban design and planning strategies at the metropolitan scale. With a broader research into the implementation of the climate agendas with AIR, this program will include inspirations from supporting agendas such as the New European Bauhaus, Paris Climate Agreement and Davos chapter to fine tune and streamline the research and provide conclusive strategies. Thus, this forum will support, facilitate and accelerate the green transformation and recovery by involving different actors to collectively address various scales and sectors. It is aimed at communicating the gap between policy to action-oriented programs, including societal and systemic actions, by discussing how territorial agendas can supporting local and regional initiatives in order to achieve a just and equitable transition.
