Porto and Guimarães host the online EEF on “people and planet for the green Transition”

Circa 200 policy makers from across Europe take part in a meeting of the Eurocities Environmental Forum that started yesterday and continues until Friday, 30th April. The meeting is jointly organised by the Municipalities of Porto and Guimarães and is held in an online format, owing to the current pandemic. The green transition amid the pandemic is the key issue on the table.

The forum “People and Planet for the green Transition” is held online due to the pandemic constraints; it started on 28th April and concludes on 30th April. On the agenda are the most urgent matters today, such as “Driving the green transition through recovery”, “How to enact the green transition locally” or “Local power and strategies for the green transition”.

The vice-Mayor of Porto City Hall and Councillor for Environment, Filipe Araújo praised the “strong commitment by several European Cities, towards carbon neutrality, in a demanding fight against climate change that takes into account the Planet’s ecological capacity while being socially fair”.

In turn, the Mayor of Guimarães, Domingos Bragança, wished for the Forum to be “enriching and inspiring, through the example of the best practices of each of the cities, and that in the end we are able to choose what path to follow”.

The meeting also includes the participation of researcher Derk Loorbach, of DRIFT – Research Institute for Transition, who will approach the concept of transition under a more sustainable society, and Katherine Richardon, of the Science Centre for Sustainability of the University of Copenhagen that will address the limitations of the planet.

During the event, the organising cities will have the opportunity to share with their European counterparts the work that has been developed in the areas of the circular economy, climate ambition, and nature driven solutions, just to mention a few.

The EEF is an annual meeting with the outlining goals of sharing best practices and solutions, and also of collaboration to affirm the key role that cities play towards the transition to sustainability within the European Union.

It is worth highlighting that The Municipality of Porto was elected for the Chair of Eurocities Environmental Forum, as it happened in 2018, when deputy Mayor of Porto, Filipe Araújo took the position in the network.

Porto is a member of Eurocities since 1990. Founded in 1986, this network of cities promotes the exchange of best practices and represents the interests of major cities in the framework of Community institutions, striving to include urban demands in European policies.

EUROCITIESwas founded in 1986 by the mayors of Barcelona, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Lyon, Milan, and Rotterdam. This network decided that comprehensible development policy analysis and discussions should include the issue of cities and their economic, political and social development.