The legacy of Bristol’s year as European Green Capital in 2015 took centre stage in Brussels this week as organisations from the city spoke at a major conference on the achievements it is now bringing about.
The high-profile EU Green Week event – the biggest annual conference on European environmental policy – took as its starting point Bristol’s ambition to ensure the city is carbon neutral by 2050.
With the theme of Green Cities for a Greener Future, it showcased policy developments on a range of topics and best practice from across Europe in creating sustainable urban futures.
Bristol City Council cabinet member for energy Cllr Kye Dudd led a Bristol delegation and spoke at a session on air quality to explore the work to reduce air pollution in Bristol and the challenges the city faces.
Bristol is raising its ambitions around finding sustainable solutions and recently launched the new City Leap prospectus – a series of energy and infrastructure investment opportunities available to local, national and international businesses to help reach the city’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.
Bristol was also represented by Bristol Green Capital Partnership chief executive Ian Townsend, who spoke at a conference session alongside other European Green Capital winners.
Co-organised by the Bristol-Brussels Office, it highlighted the partnership approach to the European Green Capital 2015 legacy and the long-term impacts the award has had on the city.
The Bristol delegation also includes Prof Rich Pancost, director of the University of Bristol’s Cabot Institute, Savita Willmott, chief executive of the Bristol Natural History Consortium, and Alastair Callum, a game designer from UWE who is working on the recently launched EU-funded ClairCity project which challenges players to run Bristol and build a clean air future for the city.
They took part in events on citizen engagement, science and innovative tools for engagement.
The Bristol-Brussels Office also hosted an event with the delegation on Bristol’s activities as a sustainable city, bringing together the ‘Bristol in Brussels Network’ of Brussels-based alumni and key contacts which meets regularly and reinforces their role as informal city ambassadors.
Bristol-headquartered architects Stride Treglown and law firm Burges Salmon ran programmes of activities alongside EU Green Week to coincide with the Big Green Week in Bristol, which encouraged personal behavioural change from citizens.
Cllr Dudd said: “EU Green Week was a great opportunity for Bristol to share the important work underway to improve our environment. We know that air pollution in Bristol is at unacceptable levels and it is essential that we collaborate and share ideas with other European cities in order to tackle this and other sustainability issues.
“There are so many fantastic projects taking place in Bristol on both a large and local scale, from work to attract international investors involved with our City Leap prospectus to the collection of local views via projects like the ClairCity Skyline game app.
“The opportunity to present our work with city partners at prestigious events like this will help to develop our policies as part of our ambition to become carbon neutral by 2050.”
Ian Townsend added: “It was great to be part of a strong delegation of Bristol Green Capital Partnership members, sharing our environmental sustainability story and learnings with our European counterparts, with members back in Bristol getting involved in EU Green Week too.”
Pictured, members of the Bristol delegation at the EU Green Week. From left: Prof Rich Pancost, Ian Townsend and Savita Willmott
