What does building skills for EU urban transitions mean to me? This is my perspective in brief.
Urban sustainability transitions
Successful transitions to a just and sustainable future require a regenerative sustainability approach that focuses not solely on reducing resource extraction and anthropogenic impact, but mainly on regenerating environmental, social, economic, and other assets through transformative policy making. In this “urban century”, it is impossible to tackle global issues without addressing local processes. Cities, despite being responsible for most of the global resource consumption and emissions and waste generation, are instrumental in successfully implementing transformative policies and escalating their positive impact.
The struggles, however, in cities in the EU and globally suggest there is a long road ahead. They essentially encounter the profound implications of the lack of a whole-systems approach. Urban sustainability agendas are, for example, often inflexibly implemented within mainstream municipal planning, investment, and operations, whereas collecting data to feed into frameworks has become an end in itself. Cities are today called to overcome many structural, political, and other hurdles, from inadequate policy coherence and short-termism to limited mandate, funds, and overall capacity.
Capacity building – why and how
Because of this complexity, urban regenerative transition requires building transdisciplinary skills and whole-systems processes to enable transformative change across levels and sectors. Such capacity building is a process of un-learning (the unhelpful ways), re-learning (replacing with more helpful ways), and learning (new ways); a process that aims to support the co-creation of regenerative communities by both the municipalities and the citizens. This means: analysing complexity critically and with curiosity; cultivating motivation and skills/competences to connect the dots and create positive impact; and ultimately supporting action that can lead urban transition towards sustainability.
EU policies for successful urban transitions
Enabled by the Pact of Amsterdam, the European Urban Agenda (EUA) is currently one of the most advanced frameworks for the transformation of cities for the 21st century. Particularly the Ljubljana Agreement update ensured that the EUA is even better embedding systems thinking through integration of social equity and inclusive urban development in EU city policies. The focus on the three pillars – regulation, funding, and knowledge – demonstrates that the EU prioritises action to address real-world obstacles such as those I mentioned above; the European Urban Initiative (EUI) also offers an excellent framework for innovative urban action.
Of note is the EUA’s goal to involve urban authorities in the design and implementation of EU policies, a goal which calls for whole-systems training for city professionals to empower them in holistic planning, advocacy, and other skills. For example, the New European Bauhaus has great potential to support the EUA and city authorities by co-creating bridges to address urban complexity and empowering an inclusive movement of capacity building for transformative change. In addition, I would seek to support EU cities in building their capacity to contextually adapt and embed flexible and transparent tools that promote cohesive implementation and progress assessment of EU policies across the EU.
Above all, the EUA is grounded in cross-cutting, multi-level partnerships that champion co-benefits and evidence-based urban policy making. The agenda is reinforced not only by policies such as the European Green Deal and the New European Bauhaus but also by funding instruments such as Horizon Europe and its inspirational missions for climate adaptation and better health outcomes. Combining the EUA’s system-wide collaborative approach with intensive, on-the-ground efforts to build the capacity of urban authorities – as is one of the EUI’s missions – can guarantee that we achieve EU urban sustainability transitions goals.
