Local Green Deals: closing the gap between commitment and action

On 11 October 2023, local government representatives, city practitioners and civil society from across Europe came together at the EU RegionsWeek 2023 conference to discuss the implementation of the EU Green Deal on the local level. Insights came from three leading cities, Mannheim (DE), Łódź (PL) and Turku (FI) advancing the concept of Local Green Deals and Climate City Contracts with their communities in a participatory session organised by ICLEI Europe and the European Committee of the Regions.

First Deputy Mayor of Mannheim (DE), Prof Diana Pretzell, shared the city's approach to bringing citizens on board for Mannheims transition via their iDeal for Mannheim campaign. Mannheim's Local Green Deal campaign includes concrete agreements, called “deals”, on sustainability action with citizens and local businesses. The First Deputy Mayor presented the Hitachi Columbus Campus project as a concrete example of such a deal to participants. In cooperation with the urban development company MWSP, a climate-neutral office complex, including room for ample green spaces, will be built in the new Franklin quarter of Mannheim. In the Franklin neighborhood, the focus is on renovation of existing buildings as well as the development of sustainable real estate projects with citizen participation. To date, more than 200 individual “deals” have been registered by the city. The Mayor emphasized the opportunity the city of Mannheim sees in the Local Green Deal concept to provide local communities with an opportunity to actively shape and support the creation of a more green, clean, healthy and liveable city together. Mannheim’s ambitions regarding the implementation of the Local Green Deal concept not only led to the creation of an entire team dedicated to the task, but also made the city a vocal advocate of the concept on the international stage, laid down in the “Mannheim Message”, which was developed together with ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability. Since then, Mannheim was selected as one of the EU 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and was awarded with the EU Cities Mission Label as one of 10 EU cities in recognition of the successful completion of its Climate City Contract.

The Climate City Contracts, a core feature of the EU Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission is guiding the city of Turku (FI) in its transition. Being known for having some of the most ambitious climate targets globally, city Mayor Minna Arve put emphasis on a solid scientific basis not only for its climate goals and measures, but for their efforts in strengthening sustainability in local communities. As such, the city is working closely with its universities and their psychology departments for designing effective and inclusive engagement offers and campaigns. An approach that has put the city on path towards upholding and reaching its ambitious goal of being carbon neutral by 2029 and climate positive from then onwards with support across the political spectrum.

Further insights came from Łódź (PL) into how to enable the comprehensive inclusion of all community members, as part of the city’s Fair Local Green Deal efforts. Łódź’s Mayor Hanna Zdanowska shared the city’s commitment to dialogue with all local groups in order to drive its transition. In the discussion, the Mayor highlighted the necessity to design measures that respond to the needs of the city’s inhabitants of all social and age groups, and provide them with co-responsibility for the design and implementation of sustainability actions. The Mayor presented Łódź’s “citizen assemblies” approach to session participants as one of the means the city is aiming to achieve these objectives. The assemblies are equipped with participatory budgets, allowing citizens part of the assembly to decide how the budget is spent on urban greening projects. An initiative that bears fruits for Łódź’s. The first outcomes of these citizen assemblies saw the approval of very ambitious projects and targets with a staggering 90% majority. This included the setting of higher ecological standards for urban investments, an expansion of the city’s bicycle path network, as well as higher thermal energy saving standards and the expansion of renewable energy solutions.

Echoing the ambitions and enthusiasm of city speakers, the Head of the Cities and Proximity Team at the European Commission, Iordana Eleftheriadou, discussed opportunities for present local representatives in joining The Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC). The Initiative supports cities’ transition to a net-zero economic model by harnessing their cleantech potential, and enhance their sustainable competitiveness, as well as their social resilience. Highlighting the programme's emphasis on establishing a social economy and fostering exchange between frontrunning and follower cities on shared challenges, participants were invited to explore the ICC’s support and resource offers to interested cities.

Participants took these insights into three working groups moderated by the three city Mayors and ICLEI Europe in order to crystalise key factors for bringing about a fair, inclusive and rapid sustainable transition via Local Green Deals:
● Fair Local Green Deals – Shaping inclusive citizen-participation that works
● “Selling the deal” politically & publically in time of poly-crisis
● The art of crafting a local deal with business - from idea to reality

The main takeaways from the working groups were summarized by participants as follows:

● Local governments and authorities planning to build Local Green Deals with their citizens need to bring patience and leadership to build up trust in the process. It requires real exchange, conversations and cooperation with citizens and reaching out to all groups of society, including minorities
● Finding a common ground / consensus in discussion with different groups of local actors, political parties and citizens is important for long-term commitment
● Setting ambitious targets and a clear vision of what will become better in the cities if sustainable measures are taken, can not only support broader, and lasting support but help in overcoming the fear barrier associated with change
● When designing participatory formats, it is important to define a clear offer “what is in it for them” and prospective result to motivate citizens to participate
● Offering reliable and transparent information about the European Green Deal, urgent issues, and challenges
● Expectation management and transparency of what will be possible and what is not was by local authorities was considered beneficial for getting different communities involved lastingly. In particular, it is important to follow up on the decisions made at the end of the participatory processes
● Providing guidance and actively approaching local businesses was highlighted as effective for enlisting their support and getting them on board for the transition