News for topic Water

This spring, our Commission highlighted the Baltic Sea Region as the forerunner in innovative solutions to water pollution on the most prominent arenas! We organised a workshop at the EU Mission Ocean Arena in Sopot and launched the EMPEREST 4th workshop in Szczecin to share latest knowledge with the local authorities and operators.

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.

Project platforms of Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme aim to structure and disseminate outcomes from various projects to create even more innovative, sustainable, and interconnected Baltic Sea region, fostering synergies, enhancing knowledge transfer, and amplifying policy impacts. With this role, project platforms not only maximise the impact of individual projects but also contribute to shaping policies and strategies at regional and EU levels.

ClimaResponse has been developed to address the increasing climate-related challenges faced by municipalities and communities, and its official launch took place on 1–2 April 2025 in Stockholm, Sweden. During two days filled with intensive discussions, partners clarified the next steps and planned the implementation further ahead.

Tackling organic micropollutants amidst new EU regulations The context of this challenge was introduced at the webinar by Mikhail Durkin, Executive Secretary at the Coalition Clean Baltic, presenting the impact of micropollutants on aquatic environment and the European regulatory advances.

Our annual report is here: we have compiled major highlights from the activities of our Sustainable Cities Commission and the UBC member cities over 2024. The report is aligned with the core topics of UBC SAP 2030: water, mobility, energy, resource-efficiency, and biodiversity.

Microplastics are environmental pollutants posing a risk to both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. What can be done at the municipal level to contribute to reducing the microplastic problem?

The Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region is the main event for the stakeholders of our area to meet, exchange, network, and plan further activities. This year’s 15th Forum took place in Visby on 29-31 October 2024 and attracted 650 participants at the venue – not to mention the online audience of the livestreams!

This year, the Swedish Government and the Nordic Council of Ministers are hosting the Annual Forum in Visby on the island of Gotland, Sweden, welcoming 650 participants from over 20 countries. The overall themes for the forum are sustainability, resilience and security.   The programme offers

Risk management requires manifold activities across different sectors: to investigate and communicate the existing and upcoming risks, to locate a solution, and to impact the policy making.

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.

We are excited to announce that the 2024 CDP-ICLEI Track reporting platform is now open! UBC member cities are warmly invited to share their climate and environmental data as part of this year’s disclosure cycle. The platform is now open! Cities that disclose their data by September 18 will have it assessed and scored by CDP. Albeit no score will be issued for the data disclosed after this date, the questionnaire will still be open until the beginning of December.