There were 32 people attending the conference, among them political representatives, stakeholders and listeners from the same organization as the project partners. Among the topics of the day was the political perspective of the outcome of participating in the project, information from the Interreg Europe Joint Secretariat and experiences of working in the project on the officials’ level.
Has cooperation and sharing of knowledge with the other partners in the project contributed to policy developments, was the main question. The conference gave many reflections about lessons learned throughout the project experience.
Video from the final conference
Positive contribution to policy development
-The SmartEdge project have had a positive contribution to our policy development within several dimensions. The sharing of knowledge and working together with the partners have given us a better understanding, both of our own situation, and of the similarities and differences between the regions in the project, said Annette Lindahl Raakil, Vice Mayor for Planning and environment in Viken County Council, Norway, in here introduction on the conference.
She emphasized the need for a holistic multi-level governance approach to city and regional development policies have been more and more apparent in Europe. To secure a sustainable development and reduce CO2 emissions we need to think and act, both cross sectoral and multi-level.
-The project results, the process and the partnership have all given us valuable insight. This will hopefully give us a possible platform for further cooperation, learning and sharing of knowledge. We can use the results from the SmartEdge project to showcase the importance of an even stronger connection between city development and climate action policies, said Annette Lindahl Raakil.
New regional development plan
- The collaboration within the SmartEdge has definitely led to many lessons learned. We are now starting off a major project with putting together the new regional development plan and those experiences will certainly be used in the process of making the new plan, said Malin Fijen Pacsay, Chairperson of the climate and sustainability committee, Region Stockholm.
She stressed how important the real estate sector is for the transformation to become climate neutral and how energy efficiency measures will lead to benefits, both environmentally and economically.
- We have recently launched the Stockholm Climate Arena to gather stakeholders and entrepreneurs in the region to speed up the work to become climate neutral. One of the two main priorities for this work is the real estate sector and the experiences from SmartEdge project will be used in the continued work in the Climate Arena, said Malin Fijen Pacsay.
SmartEdge have been profitable
-The exchange and the cooperation between the SmartEdge cities have been very profitable for us, in fact we have improve some of our action plans and policies. Milano and Brandenburg have helped us reach this change, says Ana Romera, Head of the Climatic Emergency Service and Environmental Education at the Barcelona Metropolitan Area.
Knowlegde and good practices is influencing policy instruments
Charo Camacho, Senior Policy Officer at the Interreg Europe secretariat told about the what the Intereg-programs has achieved, and an overview over future plans.
-There is 258 interregional cooperation projects wich includes alle regions in Europe, The work and the results from the projects is an important factor to influence policy instruments and improving regional policy. 60 projects is cooperation about low carbon economy, said Charo Camacho.
