Strategic Council for Climate Neutrality and Smart Communities in Kranj
The Enlarged Strategic Council of City of Kranj for Climate Neutrality and Smart Communities met for the first time. Individuals and business representatives from various sectors were invited to the kick-off meeting and presented information and projects that Kranj is implementing to achieve climate neutrality in Kranj by 2030. Invited participants were invited to consider how their organisation or sector can also contribute to this goal. They will come back to the table in the autumn, and in the meantime will conduct more in-depth interviews with companies and institutions.
The Strategic Council for a Smart Community and Smart City was established during the last term of office of Mayor Matjaž Rakovec (2018–2022) with the aim of providing the leadership of the Municipality of Kranj (MOK) with guidance and proposals in the field of smart cities, digitisation, circular economy... It is from the guidance of the Strategic Council that several projects have been implemented that put Kranj on the map of the smartest, digitised, mobile and sustainable cities.
Kranj was then selected last April for the European Commission's project, Mission 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030. The challenge is demanding and responsible for the municipality's leadership, as well as for the citizens and the economy, and requires new governance and management of the city in several areas, with a large number of stakeholders. The IOC has therefore decided to extend the existing Strategic Council for Smart Communities to the area of climate neutrality. The Council is chaired by Mayor Matjaž Rakovec and the Vice-Chairs are renowned climatologists Dr Lučka Kajfež Bogataj and Mag. Tomaž Lanišek, Head of the Office for Development and Smart Communities.
At kick-off meeting, they invited individuals from various fields of activity that will have a key impact on achieving climate neutrality: representatives from the local economy, transport, energy, forest management, ICT experts, academia, health, regional integration... in short, individuals or companies that the IOC believes together will be able to achieve the goal of making Kranj a climate-neutral city by 2030.
Mayor Rakovec pointed out that the IOC is successfully continuing with energy renovations of municipal buildings and installing solar power plants on their roofs, introducing sustainable and e-mobility, creating green spaces and other sustainable practices in a number of areas - from waste management and promoting a circular economy to organising zerowaste events, etc.
Last week also marked the deadline for the questionnaire, which the IOC invited citizens to fill in to provide an assessment of the current situation and the planned development of Kranj, to suggest how to improve the quality of life in the IOC and to reduce the overall carbon and environmental impact. The results of the survey will be used as one of the important basis for the upgrading of the Sustainable Urban Strategy 2030 adopted in 2016 – an adaptation required in particular due to the challenges posed by the changing global context – and for the preparation of the Climate Neutrality Action Plan required by the Mission 100 European Cities project, as well as for the preparation of the Municipal Environmental Protection Programme.
The questionnaire was completed by more than 500 people, which means that a representative sample was obtained, and the partial results showed, among other things, that two thirds of citizens are already saving natural resources in one way or another, where possible, while the challenge remains mainly for more financially demanding measures.
More awareness-raising campaigns on climate change
Dr Lučka Kajfež Bogataj pointed out that in order to achieve the climate goals, it is necessary to move away from policies that support fossil fuel infrastructure, to take into account modern science in green urban planning, "it is essential to bring stakeholders together and establish community decision-making on the path to climate neutrality, and to set up a system to monitor progress along the way." It also notes that people do not see a particular problem with climate change and that there is therefore a need for more awareness-raising campaigns on the serious consequences of the droughts we have been experiencing in the summer for several years, what the rise in air and water temperatures means for the environment and the life in it, etc.
The figures for the IOC are not encouraging either: since 2002, the population of the IOC has increased by 8%, the number of private vehicles is increasing, the use of public transport is falling, and more than two thirds of people live in urban environments. In these areas, "heat islands" such as shopping centres and industrial plants, as well as traffic, are particularly problematic.
Changes are therefore needed in industry (which accounts for 48.5% of all greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the IOC), transport (which accounts for almost 26% of GHGs), construction - public and private buildings (almost 26% of GHGs), energy, waste management and land use.
Specific strategic groups to achieve strategic objectives
The IOC has set up working groups to design and implement strategic projects with the aim of making Kranj an innovative, connected, clean, vibrant, young, healthy, safe and active city. This roughly means that all projects in all these areas will have to have green, sustainable, digital, environmentally friendly components.
The invitees from business and local entrepreneurship were also invited to do the same: what they are already doing in this spirit, how their organisation or sector can contribute to climate neutrality by 2030, what challenges they see in doing so... One is certainly the energy sector, as pointed out by the representative of Elektro Gorenjska, especially the infrastructure, which is currently struggling to keep up with the increased deployment and connection of solar power plants, heat pumps and e-vehicles. An action plan for the whole of Gorenjska is currently being prepared.
A second session is scheduled for the autumn, when the participants should meet with the materials and initiatives prepared to answer the questions still open today. In addition, the IOC has until autumn to prepare and submit to the European Commission a climate treaty and an investment and action plan to obtain a city label, a label indicating that the city is on track to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.