Year: 2021

Baltimore and Turin Consolidating Exchange of Innovative Business Solutions for Social Impact

Baltimore City, through the Baltimore Development Corporation, has entered into a formal partnership with the City of Turin through the Torino City Lab to promote social innovation in both cities. The goal is to reinforce cooperation channels among Turin and Baltimore to cross-fertilize its local innovation ecosystems and favor the acceleration/growth of innovative businesses operating in the field of smart cities...

Makassar: Addressing Energy and Climate Change Issues

Capacity building for development of Climate Action Plan Makassar, the capital of Sulawesi Province in Indonesia, began its cooperation on energy and climate change within the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) programme in July 2019 when the European Union made a roadshow to the city. Across Indonesia, cities had faced two interlinked challenges: rapid population growth...

IURC-China Thematic Webinar: Green and Sustainable Buildings

The IURC-China programme held its first thematic webinar “Green and Sustainable Buildings” on 30th June. Participants from Barcelona, Bologna, Rome, Liuzhou, Beijing, Xiamen, Yangzhou, Yantai joined the event. Mr. Sebastien PAQUOT, Head of Section - Counsellor Climate and Environment of EU Delegation to China, made the opening remarks. He pointed out that the pandemic demonstrated how closely the human and...

EU-Thailand Heritage Highlighted

The history and shared cultural heritage of the EU-Thailand relations are reflected in the video "EU Urban Heritage", which is now available on the Facebook page of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) in Thailand. The video includes contributions by the Ambassador of the European Union to Thailand - H.E. Mr. Pirkka Tapiola - as well as from the...

Toyota, Japan & Grenoble-Alpes Metropole, France

Smart city solutions for people, industry and the environment For their city-to-city cooperation in the IUC programme, Toyota and Grenoble-Alpes Metropole were interested in developing smart city solutions for a sustainable city through innovation and creation of new businesses. They shared experience in renewable energy such as networking of hydrogen labs and startups, hydrogen fleet deployment, town development using hydrogen...

Iskandar: An Asian Leader in Climate Action

Developing a blueprint for a more sustainable region Iskandar Malaysia, a region in the State of Johor made up of five local authorities, is a leader in sustainable urban development, with a robust climate action “blueprint” for which it has secured backing from local, state and international governing levels. The Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) spearheads and coordinates climate efforts...

IURC develops city-to-city cooperation opening the door to a 50 million USD public-private partnership between Los Cabos, Mexico and Spanish private investment

As a result of the cooperation between the cities of Los Cabos, Mexico, and Almería, Spain, within the framework of the IURC 1st phase (IUC ), the contract for the new Los Cabos’ water supply network was awarded to the Spanish company Aqualia. The Los Cabos- Almería partnership through the IUC (1st phase of IURC) programme made possible the introduction...

IURC Asia & Australasia Information Event

On Wednesday 26th May 2021, the IURC Asia & Australasia project team collaborated with IURC colleagues in China and Brussels to organise a webinar to provide information for European cities willing to cooperate with Asian and Australasian cities within the IURC programme. The event highlighted how diverse and dynamic the Asian and Australasian regions are, as represented by the team...

Gwalior, India & Leuven, Belgium

Strengthening governance for the restoration of privately-owned heritage buildings in Gwalior RESULTS OF IUC-INDIA CITY-TO-CITY COOPERATION Located in the heart of Belgium next to Brussels, the city of Leuven has a legacy and ongoing practices to make use of heritage buildings in a way that their heritage structure and design are protected. Within the IUC programme, Leuven entered into partnership...

The Inauguration of Mannheim (Rhein-Neckar)-Chongqing Center Strengthens Two Cities’ Relationship

On 21st May, the inauguration of the Mannheim (Rhein-Neckar)-Chongqing Center witnessed the partnership further consolidated. The Center connects the European metropolitan region Rhine-Neckar with the Chinese urban region Chongqing. First Deputy Mayor, Christian Specht, who represented Mannheim at the virtual opening ceremony and initiated the cooperation with Chongqing himself, explained the background: “Mannheim was the first German city to be...