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Turku is the first CIVITAS city in Finland and it has become an internationally noticed flagship city of sustainable solutions. To reach the aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2029, the transition to urban smart sustainable mobility is crucial – mobility in 2029 will consist primarily of walking, cycling, electric public transport and sharing of vehicles and citizens will look at mobility as a service.

The city of Kiel is committed to the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Cities and municipalities play a prominent role in the implementation of the SDGs. Our commitment to sustainability bears the motto: "For Kiel and the world: think globally, start locally". The jury honors the city of Kiel for its outstanding commitment in the areas of climate protection, resource conservation and social justice with the German Sustainability Award 2021.

The goal of the ‘6Aika: ILPO – Climate Positive Business Parks and Value Chains’ project is to help companies find new, lower-emission and carbon-binding solutions and co-operation models. One of the ways to achieve these goals is charting a climate path. The aim is to identify the emission sources and carbon sinks of the business hub, as well as means of reducing emissions.

We aim to capitalize on the features found in the residential environment as a promoter of well-being, while also providing social and health services in an innovative way. This will be done in accordance to the principles of sustainable development. The development of the neighbourhood complies with the strategy Kemi has developed regarding the well-being of the aging population as well as the strategy regarding environmental friendliness.

The pandemic situation, however, allows us only to meet online. This is why we decided to organise Webinars with the focus on urban mobility. As a result, we plan to establish a long standing network of mobility experts, who could reach to each other for advice, support and development of new projects.

In the meantime, despite the uncertainty brought by COVID-19, we cannot say enough how happy we are to see 23 UBC cities disclosing and staying committed to their climate change mitigation efforts. In 2020 we saw 3 newcomers (Bergen, Porvoo, Tallinn) whom we would like to congratulate joining the disclosure and climate action for the better future. The UBC cities disclosing their data in 2020 were,

In the Baltic Sea region, local and regional climate adaptation strategy development has been slower than expected and general barriers affecting climate adaptation implementation can be identified.

The monthly UBC TALKS series was launched by UBC Sustainable Cities Commission to highlight different approaches to sustainability. In January 2020, kicking-off the first webinar in the series with a talk about marine litter, we couldn't yet imagine how the relevance of online meetings would dramatically rise starting from March. As a result, UBC TALKS have become a harmonious part of the overall information-sharing trend during the pandemic.

Exchange of experience – this request always appears when an expert community begins to assess the needs of a sector. All organizations accumulate knowledge, but how to ensure its continuous exchange to give it volume and perspective? Transnational projects can be one of the answers here, providing examples of effective institutional capacity building, novel technologies implemented in the region and efficient low-cost solutions.

The City of Tallinn has been involved with INTERREG BSR project HUPMOBILE which has a holistic approach to planning, implementation, optimisation, and management of integrated, sustainable mobility solutions that will be developed in Baltic Sea port cities.

Cities play an important role in the successful implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals - how do UBC member cities work with this framework?

The Baltic Sea Day, launched by the John Nurminen Foundation, was celebrated by scores of people all around the Baltic Sea on 27 August 2020.