Details

The Urban Transition Mission Center (UTMC) is excited to invite you to the second session of our peer exchange series designed to explore innovative pathways toward urban transition. These exchanges aim to foster collaboration, share best practices, and catalyse the transition to sustainable and resilient cities via a detailed analysis of selected urban transition methodologies and pathways. The methodologies analysed during the exchanges should fulfil the following criteria:

• Applicable: identified methodologies should be applicable by cities and local governments for planning or implementation purposes
• Replicable: the methodology, or part of it, should have replication potential to be used outside of its original context, by municipalities at a global level
• Systemic: address climate neutrality and net-zero transition in a systemic/holistic way, including co-benefits of climate action, resilience and social aspects
• Additional: it should provide added value even to cities which are well advanced in their pathways towards net-zero.

This second session will evolve around the topic of GHG Emissions Offsetting - an approach that allows to offset and compensate for residual GHG emissions within the hard-to-abate sectors (e.g. heavy industry, waste treatment, transportation).  If applied on top of strong mitigation efforts within the cities, offsetting can provide a significant contribution to the achievement of climate neutrality goals, while bringing co-benefits to the environment and local communities (e.g biodiversity, better air quality, community empowerment).

Participants will exchange on the approaches considered by the cities of Turku, Bogota and Melbourne. Through a detailed analysis of their best practices, participants will gain valuable insights and practical strategies  to employ emission offsetting measures to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable and resilient urban environment. Representatives from the cities of Turku, Bogota and Melbourne will present their approaches. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in an interactive session to share knowledge and experiences. 

Agenda

• Thematic introduction on GHG emissions offsetting & case studies from Turku, Bogota, and Melbourne. 
• Facilitated discussion 
  • How cities can do the project selection and evaluation - best practices for selecting high-impact, credible offset projects that align with a city's goals.
  • Explore ways for cities to collaborate on offset projects, share resources, and learn from each other's expertise.
  • Discuss innovative financing mechanisms for facilitating city participation in GHG offsets.
  • Encourage cities to share their experiences - both successful projects and challenges encountered.
• Next steps 
• Conclusion

Practical information:

To accommodate participants from various time zones, each session will be held twice on the same date.

• Date and time: 30th April from 10:00-11:00 CEST and/or from 16:30-17:30 CEST (same session)
• Format: online event