Latest news for selected city

The Urban Biodiversity Parks project pilots the concept of a biodiversity park as a tool for urban ecological restoration and regeneration. The aim is to establish a 20-hectare biodiversity park that provides a platform for testing various nature management activities, focusing on local species and habitats, while also serving as a space for community engagement and experiential learning.

Due to climate change, extreme weather events like droughts, heavy rainfall, and heatwaves are becoming more frequent across the Baltic Sea Region. As these impacts intensify, cities face growing pressure to adapt and prepare. In response, the city of Turku is strengthening its climate resilience through the RESIST project.

The event opened with remarks from Anders Ekman, a local politician actively engaged in mobility issues in Gävle. He shared experiences of the city working towards reaching the ambitious climate goals, emphasising the importance of influencing the travel choices made by citizens. Like in many other cities, in Gävle, transport emissions and car dependency remain the key barriers to reaching climate goals. 

Unveiling the background story of the Urban Biodiversity Parks Project and understanding what it sets out to achieve.

Organised in early October 2024, the project meeting of Climate-4-CAST created a great exchange opportunity for different climate budgeting practices from cities in the Baltic Sea Region.

The International Photo Competition on Active Mobility brought attention to the importance of sustainable mobility modes across six project partner cities.

The heat pump solution developed and implemented in Turku Student Village PED area was awarded by the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) in Brussels on 25 September 2024. Tyyssija’s heat pump solution won 1st place in the category “Heat Pump City of the Year”, which recognizes heat pump projects implemented at the local level with the support of the city. The solution was co-developed in the project RESPONSE by partners VTT, Oilon, Högfors GST, and Turku Energy.

This seminar was titled “Sustainable transformation for resilient coastal city”, focusing on three areas of the hosting city of Gdańsk: two parts of the harbour zone and the area next to the football arena built for UEFA Euro 2012. The aim of the seminar was to provide new functional visions for these areas, prepared by the teams of international experts from UBC member cities in line with the hosting city’s strategic objectives.

Our Sustainable Cities Commission co-created the spring 2024 edition of the Baltic Cities Bulletin under the topic "Towards green and just transition"!

UBC TALKS webinar in March tackled a complex issue of PFAS: hazardous and extremely persistent substances, which are an emerging concern for cities. The webinar presented solutions developed in the EMPEREST project aiming at reducing the amount of PFAS and other organic micropollutants in the water management cycle.

The European Ocean Days in Brussels welcomed water-related projects, experts, businesses and policy makers. Within this event umbrella, a series of events were organized by different key actors in the field.

On 27 February 2024, our Secretariat had a pleasure of arranging a special edition of the UBC TAKLS webinar series – together with the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme! This webinar focused on funding for innovative and climate-smart cities, presenting the open call for funding and the thematic priorities of the Programme 2021-2027, which has put cities into the core of its activities.