Cork City Council is preparing its Regional Action Plan focusing on the reduction of carbon emissions through intense community engagement as part of the Interreg Europe INTENSIFY project. The project addresses a key challenge for European cities and regions: how to empower citizens and communities to achieve more carbon reduction. Cork City Council is finalising the Action Plan drawing inspirations from the best practices from other European regions after working closely with the project partners since 2018.
The project has been heavily impacted by the global pandemic with restrictions in travel resulting in the integral Study Visits and Import Workshops central to the project diverted to virtual meetings. The project partners have successfully navigated this challenge and held online exchange of experiences which proved to be uniquely advantageous. For example, the Province of Treviso held a virtual Study Visit with Cork City Council and their stakeholder University College Cork discussing the UCC Green Campus programme which attracted more than a hundred students.
During the virtual Capacity Building Event held recently, project partners have shared their experiences in developing their Regional Action Plans. There was a wide consensus on the Covid landscape presenting unique opportunities as societies around the world grapple with unchartered territories. Speaking at the event, Jeremy Draper from Milton Keynes Council states that for his region, “there’s an appetite for not going back to normal. We don’t want to go back to normal”. As the public gets reconnected with nature during lockdown, there is a renewed commitment to the green transition among communities.
The INTENSIFY project is part-funded by the Interreg Europe programme through the European Regional Development Fund. Interreg Europe seeks to establish interregional learning exchange by finding new solutions and finding new inspirations from other regions.
For further information please contact Cork City Council Senior Executive Engineer Brian Cassidy: brian_cassidy@corkcity.ie
Visit INTENSIFY website: https://www.interregeurope.eu/intensify/
