Together for a Climate-Neutral Europe
by GIZ/EUKI,
Am 23. und 24. November 2021 fand die EUKI-Vernetzungskonferenz Fit for Climate Action – Together for a Climate-Neutral Europe statt. Während der zweitägigen Veranstaltung kamen mehr als 300 Teilnehmer*innen aus EUKI-Klimaprojekten virtuell aus 31 Ländern zusammen, um Wege zur Klimaneutralität in Europa zu diskutieren. Die Konferenz umfasste Vorträge und Reden von 8 internationalen Redner*innen. Vertreten waren unter anderem das deutsche und slowenische Umweltministerium, die Europäischen Kommission und das EUKI-Sekretariat.
Day 1: Vertical Inspiration for European Climate Action
The opening of the EUKI Networking conference was streamed live globally and watched by more than 600 people in total. In the first keynote speeches, German and Slovenian State Secretaries Jochen Flasbarth and Dr Metka Gorišek highlighted the importance of cross-border collaboration for European climate action and the vital role of so far more than 150 EUKI-funded climate projects:
Yvon Slingenberg, Director of EU Climate Action and one of the main architects of the European Commission’s “Fit for 55” package joined live from Brussels. Following the question of how EU member states will be able to deliver the European Green Deal, she emphasised how important a whole economy approach is at this stage. According to Miss Slingenberg, the transition to a climate-neutral EU must be threefold: a socially fair transition tackling inequality and energy poverty trough climate action; a competitive transition offering new opportunities through industrial and sectoral change; and a green transition ensuring the protection of nature and increasing Europe’s natural carbon sink.
To jump to another level of governance: Erion Veliaj, Mayor of Tirana, was invited to speak about his engagement in local climate action. His inspirational contribution on Tirana’s just transition towards a climate-neutral city was as inspiring as rich in ideas. Even more: Veliaj clearly moved the participants – a task not easy to accomplish in an online conference – and many questions were asked.
Day 2: From the Community, for the Community
The second day of the EUKI Networking conference was workshop day. Representatives from the EUKI Community – our projects – offered 13 sessions and a great opportunity for other participants to learn how climate action is being done in other European countries.
We hope that same as in the years before, some of the connections made during the EUKI Networking Conference translate into new project ideas and consequently new EUKI projects. Therefore, Benjamin Struss from the EUKI Secretariat and Caterina Salb from BMU opened the 6th EUKI Call for project ideas at the closing of the conference.
Until 12 January, non-profit entities from across the EU and accession candidate countries are once more called upon to submit convincing ideas that contribute to climate change mitigation in Europe.
You can watch the speeches and discussions with Erion Veliaj and all other speakers here in full length.