Tag Archives: URBACT

How can cities activate unused green spaces and buildings?

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Picture yourself in that dark grey building or street, which does not smell nice, feels unsafe and makes you wonder only about one thing: I feel so bad, why did I come here? Now, picture yourself in that same building or street wondering only about one thing: OMG, it’s an amazing place, why didn’t I come here earlier?!

So… what’s happened? What’s changed to this area that you have to twist your daily itinerary to come and enjoy this area? And what is there actually to do?

The 9 Project Partners of the GreenPlace network – Boulogne-sur-mer, Bucharest-Ilfov, Limerick, Löbau, Nitra, Onda, Quarto d’Altino, Vila Nova de Poiares, and Wroclaw- have experimented this journey, using the knowledge and methodology gathered over the first year and a half of the network. Their stories tell us more about actions to make abandoned buildings, forgotten tram depots, unused green areas, or unused yet to be renovated built areas – attractive and worth coming to.

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From URBACT to ASToN: how cities can ensure sustainability of their work beyond the network

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This article follows an in-depth talk we had in December with the ASToN cities sharing lessons from the URBACT programme. URBACT has funded 162 EU networks and over 1000 cities since 2002 and inspired the creation of the ASToN network.

This article shares case studies and key takeaways from the URBACT programme about how cities should approach sustainability of their projects, and begin planning life after the ASToN funding.

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Let’s talk about food!

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Bringing EU and local policies closer to each other.

URBACT has been a strong supporter of local and sustainable food production in cities. The programme backed-up the 2021 Glasgow Food Declaration, reinforcing the COP26 commitments of local authorities. This is merely an example of how URBACT cities are using international and European frameworks as enablers for local actions, to promote sustainable food systems.

At the same time, legislative frameworks can also be perceived as barriers by city-practitioners. European towns and cities need to learn to navigate initiatives such as the Farm to Fork Strategy, not to mention complex regulations related to public procurement. So how can they make the most of these rules and commitments, ensuring a positive transition towards more sustainable food systems? This was the issue explored by city representatives and experts at the recent 2022 URBACT City Festival session ‘Let’s talk about food: bringing EU and local policies closer to each other’. Read on for their answers…

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Urban Sustainable Food systems – join URBACT’s movement towards COP26!

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2021 is a ‘food year’ for URBACT: promoting food democracy and food sovereignty at the initiative of URBACT good practice city Mouans-Sartoux (FR) and the URBACT Transfer Network BioCanteens that it has led (with partner cities in Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Romania).

URBACT will be supporting regular activities of networks around food topics and also creating a specific web page of the URBACT Knowledge Hub, dedicated to urban sustainable food systems – all with the aim to support cities in their transitions to more sustainable food systems!

These efforts also aim to build energy and commitment towards the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration – drafted by a coalition of subnational governments, UN agencies and NGOs in consultation with city and regional governments – which will be officially launched at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021. We will be encouraging as many cities as possible to sign the declaration!

So, we have quite a busy year ahead that we describe in more details here…

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