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During 2011-2013 the QUEST project developed a Quality Management Tool to help small and medium-sized cities to set up and further develop their sustainable mobility policies and actions with the assistance of an external expert - the QUEST Auditor. The tool has now been finalised and it is time to take a look at the results and the future of QUEST.

The Union of the Baltic Cities celebrated its XII General Conference in Mariehamn 1 – 4 October 2013. The main focus of the conference was on youth unemployment in the Baltic Sea Region. UBC Commission on Environment together with the UBC Urban Planning Commission arranged a workshop on Green Growth for UBC cities.

The newest project at UBC EnvCom named CH4LLENGE has been now officially started. The goal of CH4LLENGE (Addressing Key Challenges of Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning) is to actively facilitate the take-up of Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP) in European cities, and to establish a cross- initiative dialogue on overcoming SUMP challenges.

A new project for UBC Commission on Environment has started. The CIVITAS-DYN@MO project will run until 2016 and is part of the CIVITAS initiative, aiming at creating cleaner and better transport in cities.

Nordic municipalities can have a significant impact on creating a more climate-friendly Nordic region. This study gathers valuable information about climate change management in Nordic municipalities and gives a general view to the local climate work in Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The study aims at recognising the success factors and needs for support in Nordic local climate change work. It is based on a web survey conducted between October 2011 and February 2012.

ELTIS is a Europe’s biggest web portal on urban mobility. It offers information and concrete advice on how to develop urban transport systems that use less energy while improving the mobility of freight and passengers and the quality of life of its citizens. ELTIS is aimed at professionals working in the fields of urban transport, environment, energy and health. At the ELTIS portal you can find:

9-11 May 2012, more than 65 participants from UBC member cities were gathered to discuss sustainable urban planning and launch a new training and support initiative in Halmstad, Sweden.

The CHAMP project (2009-2012) has now ended and we thank all the pilot cities and project partners that took part in developing new capacities to local climate change response around Europe. All project material will be available in the future through the www.localmanagement.eu portal. We invite you to explore

NET-COM –NETworking the Covenant Of Mayors- is a new started project coordinated by Energy Cities and funded in the framework of the Intelligent Energy Europe programme. UBC is one of the 12 partners and will play an active role in the project.

The UBC Good Practices Database was launched in March 2009 with 300 good practices from the Baltic Sea Region. We are proud to say that we have reached now 500 Good Practices in English and nearly 400 in Russian. The UBC Good Practice Database was developed to answer to the need of local authorities to find practical examples.

A new study by the University of Gothenburg reveals that a warmer climate will increase salinity in the Baltic Sea. Earlier, the science has believed that a warmer climate will increase river runoff to the Baltic Sea, thus making the sea less salty.

The LIFE+ funded project Green citizens of Europe (GREENCIT) started in October 2010 and will run until the end of 2014. The city of Umeå is taking the lead and UBC EnvCom is one of the partners.