Interview

InterviewBuildings and MunicipalitiesEstonia, Latvia, Lithuania
by GIZ/ EUKI
For our EUKI brochure, we spoke with Benno Keppner from adelphi about the EUKI project Smart Climate Cities. The project aims to foster the development of sustainable and climate-friendly smart city concepts by creating a dialogue platform for Baltic and German cities. The interview is part of the EUKI brochure published in 2021.
Portrait Benno Keppner ©adelphi research
Smart Climate Cities – connecting Smart Cities and climate action – what exactly does this mean?
Smart Climate Cities is a concept for cities of the future, where cities use digital technology to support the socioecological transformation that is needed to make cities climate-neutral by 2050. Smart concepts were developed for the governance of cities as well as for infrastructures such as the mobility and energy sectors, aligning the process of formulating smart solutions with urban climate action.
What was your goal, and how did you aim to achieve it?
We wanted more municipalities to implement smart, climate-friendly solutions. To achieve this, we facilitated exchange between Baltic and German municipalities. The initial idea was to meet in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Germany. Due to COVID-19, we changed the format and hosted a series of web seminars instead. These seminars had different formats – from interactive workshops with virtual break-out groups to presentations by scientists and city representatives. We already held nine web seminars with over 28 speakers and 167 participants as well as a final seminar in which we focused on policy recommendations. We documented the discussions and cases presented in the online seminars and made them available on our website, so cities can access material that supports them in becoming Smart Climate Cities.
“It’s important to always include the different perspectives of different people – to take the time to learn about the communities and the differences that exist between them.”
What can other climate actors learn from you?
One lesson we learned is that it is important to anchor climate action in central Smart City documents and include concrete climate-related objectives that define targets and timelines. A climate check should always be conducted when designing smart solutions – that is, asking whether the smart solution actually addresses the city’s central climate problems.
Something we have also experienced throughout the project was how important it is to always integrate different perspectives from different people – to always have room for finding out about communities and the differences between them. This is immensely important, otherwise you will not get a real exchange. We really want to continue this facilitating role in the future, and possibly even broaden our focus to, for example, exploring the potential of digital technologies in times of a pandemic.
Europäische Klimaschutzinitiative (EUKI) – Projektfinanzierung
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
CONSENT | YouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data. | |
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. | |
YSC | YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages. | |
yt-remote-device-id | YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. | |
yt.innertube::nextId | This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. | |
yt.innertube::requests | This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_pk_id.1.3d58 | PIWIK cookie - Anonymized analysis | |
_pk_ses.1.3d58 | PIWIK-Cookie - anonymised analytics | |
CONSENT | YouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. | |
wpml_browser_redirect_test | This cookie is set by WPML WordPress plugin and is used to test if cookies are enabled on the browser. | |
yt-remote-connected-devices | YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. | |
yt-remote-device-id | YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_icl_visitor_lang_js | 1 day | This cookie is stored by WPML WordPress plugin. The purpose of the cookie is to store the redirected language. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". | |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". | |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | Dieses Cookie wird vom GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin gesetzt. Das Cookie wird verwendet, um die Zustimmung des Nutzers für die Cookies der Kategorie "Notwendig" zu speichern. | |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. | |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". | |
viewed_cookie_policy | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. | |
wp-wpml_current_language | The cookie sets your operating language and allows continuous navigation in this language | |
wpml_browser_redirect_test | This cookie is set by WPML WordPress plugin and is used to test if cookies are enabled on the browser. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_pk_id.1.3d58 | PIWIK cookie - Anonymized analysis | |
_pk_ses.1.3d58 | PIWIK-Cookie - anonymised analytics | |
wp-wpml_current_language | The cookie sets your operating language and allows continuous navigation in this language |