Sixteen cities from seven European countries, Canada and Japan cooperated for over 18 months on themes such as low-carbon development, climate mitigation, climate adaptation, green urban infrastructure and climate resilience. With a common goal to improve the quality of life for their citizens, cities identified innovative policies and programs to promote sustainable and integrated urban development.
The main objectives included to understand the framework conditions for local action in the partners’ respective countries; to share knowledge on how to implement local commitments and start action planning, project development and implementation of policies.
Such objectives were achieved through three personal meetings and site visits of the city delegations as well as through ICLEI’s active facilitation, an on-line platform and independent bilateral contacts.
After the third and final meeting the cities have identified opportunities and potential projects for joint actions after the completion of the exchange. Some cities have entered into partnership through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) or similar. Ten out of the 16 project cities continue their exchange in existing networks or programs.