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Climate change: What are the regions doing?

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The 2015 edition of EUobserver's Regions & Cities magazine focuses on climate change and what cities and regions are doing.

HORIZON 2020 The

HORIZON 2020 The European Commission has also embraced the concept, and although it has come up with a definition of a smart city, that is not actually what matters most, said Jens Bartholmes, policy officer for new energy technologies and innovation at the European Commission. “Nobody will say: ‘I have a dumb city’. Everybody wants to be smart. We are pushing more that they think about how to become smart. It’s all about the process, not about the end result - which anyway is not definable because it is a moving target.” The Commission is spending €200 million of its 2014/2015 budget from research programme Horizon 2020 on proliferating the smart city. Stockholm is one of the recipients. “In Stockholm we actually don’t really like the buzzword smart cities. We’re trying to move away from it”, said Gustaf Landahl, the Swedish city’s climate and environmental strategist. Jens Bartholmes, policy officer at the European Commission, explaining EU cooperation and funding for smart city projects He noted that smart city refers more to an attitude of trying to use technology to improve energy performance in buildings, transport, and infrastructure. Stockholm is one of the cities that received EU funding for several trials, including fitting lampposts with charging points for electric cars, and free WiFi. “Why do we need European money for this? The total cost of the project is much greater. The renovation of buildings is, like, 20 times the cost of what we get from the EU Commission. But the little extra money from the EU Commission makes it possible to test some of these new ideas and get them going”, Landahl told this website. LIGHTHOUSE PROJECTS So can any city become a smart city? The nine cities that were selected by the EU Commission as “lighthouse projects” are all situated in northern and western Europe – apart from the Turkish city Tapebasi. While a more balanced selection is expected in the second call, there are some conditions that make it more likely for richer cities to be at the forefront of the smart city movement, said Tone Grindland, head of economic development for the Stavanger government. “In the Nordics we have a population that normally trusts the government. That’s a benefit we’re not always aware of,” he added. There are examples of smart cities on the eastern side of the former Iron Curtain, like in digitally savvy Estonia. Landahl noted that it was just a question of time. “Western European cities are a bit further ahead in many of these advanced technologies, but I’d say that the Eastern European cities are picking up very quickly. I believe also that cities that are new and active and growing quickly, they are often pretty good at leapfrogging processes and taking up new ideas quicker – sometimes old cities have difficulties [and] are very conservative.” What is needed in the words of Cisco’s Boorsma, is “vision and true leadership”, including the willingness to take risks. Jarmo Eskelinen leads Forum Virium Helsinki, a company in charge of managing the Finnish capital’s smart city projects. He noted a difference in culture between the US and EU. “We have a license to fail, but it has taken a decade”, said Eskelinen. “We need to develop a culture of failure.” Photo:Bitmap AS 14 ––––– EUobserver Magazine 2015

EUobserver Magazine 2015 ––––– 15

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