Original source: CityTalk (ICLEI)
Turku, Finland, which is an active member of ICLEI’s Green Circular Cities Coalition was a leading player in sessions dedicated to circularity at COP25. And rightfully so.
After committing to becoming carbon neutral by 2040 at the Paris Summit in 2015, the city has since challenged itself with an even more aggressive goal of achieving neutrality by 2029. This target is made possible by such ambitious projects as a wastewater treatment that provides 14 different municipalities with 10 percent of their overall heating and cooling requirements, removing 99 percent of all sewage waste from 300,000 residents and significantly reducing any potential discharge damage. This has led to significant improvements to the ecological condition of the adjacent Archipelago Sea; and at the same time, the sludge from this process is being harnessed as energy, resulting in an overall net positive energy rating for the project.
To listen to Turku Mayor Minna Arve, as ICLEI’s onsite reporters did, following her participation in Tuesday’s High Level Circular Economy roundtable, the city’s approach to becoming more sustainable hasn’t been so much about having some sort of grand plan. But more about simply recognizing the need to do something about its carbon footprint, getting started and then seeing where it goes.
In the wake of the Paris Agreement and their commitment to become carbon neutral by 2040, Mayor Arve says they decided to fast-track this goal by 2029 “because we realized we were getting much better (at reducing their carbon footprint).” And in retrospect, based on what they’ve learned in recent years she says “I think that cities as well as businesses, not to mention countries and national governments should take more ambitious goals and just start working. Because then you see there is a lot of things you can do, and you get bigger results than you think you can achieve in the first place.”
Mayor Arve attributes much of their success to participation in ICLEI’s Green Circular Cities Coalition, in terms of learning best practices from other cities such as Nagano, which is also focussed on initiatives tied to sludge to energy recovery as well as food waste reduction; and Yokohama, which is tackling plastics and food waste.
One of the central themes of this week’s circularity sessions, was the need to not just tap into existing energy, but to use fewer resources in the first place. Jason Nardi, Coordinator with RIPESS, a not for profit organization focussed on social solidarity and inclusion, observed that “greening economic growth doesn’t make it more sustainable. In a true circular economy, we produce and consume less. And we redistribute and regenerate more.” And we need to accelerate this process he said by embarking on “a new urban agenda that is by and for the people. One that is participatory, inclusive, fair and equitable.”
Nardi said that in partnership with larger alliances such as ICLEI “there needs to be strong political will to re-municipalize services to enable the community to do things like cooperative housing, decentralized energy production and waste management, with a special focus on local materials and knowledge. It’s time to give control back to the people.”
One example he cited where this has already happened, was in the Indian city of Kholapur, where “after years of struggle, a women-led co-op with support from local unions, convinced city officials to rebuild their village using locally sourced materials.” Some of the homes in this community, have been built with nothing but discarded plastics, recycled bricks and beer bottles. All in all, he says it was a true community effort, involving residents, local schools, hospitals, even the local farmer’s market.
At a separate Circular Cities for Nature session, it was abundantly clear that cities from the developing world are also doing their part to reduce energy consumption while striving for a more circular economy. Mayor Herrero of the City of Xalpa, Mexico told fellow panel members they were in the midst of establishing a new paradigm for their city, one that is: efficient, smart and sustainable.
“Our municipality’s first objective is to reduce inequality and the second, is to protect the environment,” she said, and one of the biggest challenges her community faces is “waste and where to put it.”
They have multiple goals tied to waste reduction as a logical starting point to reduce the burden of her community. And then with the waste they do have, to revalorize or reuse up to 50% of all organic waste for such applications as fertilizer. “For us, waste separation and management are the key to restoring our local ecosystems,” she observed.
In her closing comments, Mayor Arve of Turku helped put the challenges of implementing circularity at the local level into perspective for the developing and developed world alike. “You can’t do it all alone. You need the cooperation of regional, national and international partners as well. Partners you can get feedback from and learn about what you can do better.”
Image Credit: Mark Wessel