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Launching the EU Climate Pact
On December 16th, the EU will officially launch its Climate Pact.
Here is the official blurb on the EU Commission's climate action web page, enticing you to join the online event on the said day:
"The European Climate Pact invites everyone to take action to fight climate change and work together for a climate-friendly society. Join us for the online launch event on 16 December 2020 at 09:00-11:00 CET [...] The Pact’s main objectives are twofold:
- Spreading awareness
- Supporting action
The Pact will connect people and organisations from all walks of life to:
- improve our understanding of climate and environmental challenges
- develop solutions big and small
- find ways to influence and change behaviours
- trigger and scale-up positive change"
The EU Climate Pact is part of the EU's Green Deal, which aims to make the European continent carbon neutral by 2050 in an inclusive way.
The Green Deal targets the following policy areas:
- Biodiversity
- 'From farm to fork' (i.e. sustainable food systems)
- Sustainable agriculture (including the common agricultural policy - CAP)
- Clean energy
- Sustainable industry
- Building and renovating
- Sustainable mobility
- Eliminating pollution
- Climate action (i.e. climate neutrality)
While the Green Deal is a comprehensive package of multi-level actions, strategies, regulations and funds, the Climate Pact will aim to trigger a wide range of more granular, bottom-up initiatives. You can be part of the movement and create a Climate Pact satellite event. You can also become an ambassador with the dedicated hashtag #EUClimatePact.
The EU Climate Pact recognises climate action must happen now. Picture credit: Jasmin Sessler - https://pixabay.com/de/photos/climate-action-fridaysforfuture-4150536/, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91785894
Call for blog posts
On this occasion, for the period from now until late January 2021, the blog of the AESOP Young Academics invites you to submit contributions, to share your research, insight, thoughts, reflections and/or ideas for how spatial planning can / does / should contribute to the EU Climate Pact, the Green Deal, and/or other relevant policies and initiatives for bold climate action.
Some key, burning questions include:
- Does spatial planning address climate change and climate action sufficiently?
- What agency do planning academics, educators and practitioners have to foster and amplify climate action from the level of individuals and neighbourhoods to the EU policy level, including at all intermediary spatial scales in between (e.g. local council, metropolitan, county, region, national)?
- Is the issue of climate change really too big for spatial planning?
- Is spatial planning all about adaptation to irreversible changes? Can / should we try to mitigate risks as well through careful design, planning, and management?
- Any other relevant question for climate action at a wide range of spatial scales, geographies, and other types of space (e.g. digital, governance, infrastructure, temporal, built environment, public space, informal space, economic space, envisioned space, in-door space, spiritual space...) and places (including displacement).
Please send your contribution in any compelling format you would like: blog post, video abstract, podcast, artistic contribution... You can share existing research or thought pieces. You can also submit already published posts (the original publication source will of course be credited). Please send your contributions to:
Looking forward to seeing your contributions showcased on the YA blog!