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Research and innovation
News article25 May 2020Directorate-General for Research and Innovation

Citizen engagement session in Groningen, the Netherlands

On 19 May, the Horizon Europe Mission on climate-neutral and smart cities organised together with the City of Groningen an online citizen engagement session on climate-neutral and smart cities.

During the first part of the event the two Vice Mayors of Groningen, Philip Broeksma and Glimina Chakor, explained how Groningen is aiming to become a carbon-neutral city by 2035 and climate-resilient by 2050. The Mission’s rapporteur Anna Lisa Boni together with the Chair Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz and the two Board Members Maria Vassilakou and Anne Sulling, explained how the Mission aims to support cities in their systemic transformation to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.

The second part of the event consisted of breakout sessions with each Mission board member and each group of participants e.g. entrepreneurs, citizens and students living and working in Groningen. The participants shared their views on a range of questions starting with their motivation to contribute to making their city climate-neutral and to fight climate change. They explained their understanding and vision of a climate-neutral city and how this can be achieved. The discussions were easy-going and the participants were able to debate intensely the preconditions for how citizens can actively engage with the Mission on climate-neutral and smart cities.

The feedback from this event will contribute to the draft report that the climate-neutral and smart cities Mission board is currently working on. 

Details

Publication date
25 May 2020
Author
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation