Cooperation is municipal therapy – Notions from the Live Stream session

Ms. Georgi from EEA reminded us that joint actions and cooperation needs something tangible for basis. The tangible basis can be built through different initiatives that activates cities. Cities are the basic unit of governance, the level in which practical actions often are taken. So, what happens in cities, matters for Europe.

The IUME process is one initiative that is building tangible basis and possibilities for cities to learn from each others. As Mr. AtKisson said in yesterday’s panel discussion “If you cannot measure sustainable development, it will remain just a nice word”

Ms. Mühlmann from ICLEI reminded that integration and cooperation are the key to success and that there is also a key set of indicators in the Capacity Development Package on www.localmanagement.eu which functions as e-platform for the European Partnership for Integrated Sustainability Management.

Ms. Maliszewska from the Sendzimir Foundation emphasized the need for continuous capacity development on two levels: individual and institutional. She also saw that IMS can have a role as being practical tool in developing good governance.

Several comment speeches noted that good governance and sustainability management are challenging goals for cities but the networks have important role as supporters in the process. Mr. Hooli from UBC summarized the experiences from implementing IMS by referring to a civil servant who had stated in IMS workshop that “Cooperation is municipal therapy”.

Photo: Lauri Hooli from UBC.

Implementing sustainable development in Polish cities

The polish cities need urgently a shift in the attitude towards climate change, both in terms of adaptation and mitigation actions, states Karolina Maliszewska, Board member of Sendzimir Foundation- I personally think that IMS is a real innovative process that the polish cities should take into account for becoming more sustainable.

Ms. Maliszewska also recognizes that implementing sustainable development is a very important thing but at the same time is a very complex issue that should be dealt with the right tools. That's why the Sendzimir Foundation has decided to be part of the CHAMP European Partnership: cities gain support and a stimulus from being part of a network.

The Capacity Development Package set up in CHAMP may address perfectly the complexity of the topic: its practicality is a support for Polish cities and bring strong benefits.

The challenge of climate change can only be solved with cooperation

In her interview, Birgit Georgi from the European Environment Agency emphasized the role of cities in achieving the goals of the EU 2020 strategy. However, she also stated that climate change is a problem we cannot solve on one level of government. The local level neither the European level can not solve this challenge alone but all levels of government are needed.

After this, Pamela Mühlmann from ICLEI introduced the European Partnership for Integrated Sustainability Management, which is working to mainstream integrated management to build more sustainable cities and regions. The European Partnership aims to form a bridge between European policies and local authorities. It focuses in increasing the capacities of local authorities

At the moment the European Partnership is still an open network, so if your organisation is interested, please contact us! You can find more information on the in the Introducing the European Partnership section.

Live stream today at 11-13 (CET+1)

Our second live stream session will start just in a minute. You are welcome to follow us there and participate through chat or posting your comments to the speakers on the comments section of this post!



Today our topic is European cooperation for mainstreaming the integrated approach to fight climate change and you can find the detailed programme under the Live Stream site.

The Polish Training Hub: A fresh perspective to the European Cooperation

We are glad to invite Karolina Maliszewska to present the Polish perspective to the European cooperation for mainstreaming the integrated approach to fight climate change, at the Live stream on Thursday 15th December. Karolina acts as Vice president of the Sendzimir Foundation –one of the leading sustainability organizations in Poland.

The Sendzimir Foundation is one of the newer partner of the CHAMP consortium, involved as the Polish Training Hub in the most recent phase of developing a European Cooperation for mainstreaming the integrated approach to fight climate change.

In her work, Karolina specializes in the social aspect of sustainability, corporate responsibility, sustainability management systems, social dialogue and environmental conflict resolution. She has more than 10 years of experience in training within the field of sustainability in Poland as well as facilitating participatory processes of strategic planning in local communities, supporting local authorities in sustainable development implementation.

Karolina will speak in the LIVE Stream on Thursday 15th of December at 11.40-12.10 (CET +1).

The European Environment Agency's perspective to local climate change response

The European Environment Agency (EEA) is working to provide information and assessments as the basis for decision- and policy-making. The EEA is focusing on preparing a ground for coherent action and joint response to tackle urban issues, such as climate change.

We have the pleasure of having Birgit Georgi from the EEA to speak at the European Climate Champions conference!

Birgit has lead the work on urban issues in the EEA for the last 5 years, but for the last year she's been focusing specifically on climate change adaptation on local level. In the conference, she will speak about the role of the cities in European policy and reflect the Europe 2020 strategy and the climate challenges for municipalities. We will also hear about the EEA-driven process towards an Integrated Urban Monitoring in Europe (IUME).

Birgit will speak in the live stream on Thursday, the 15th of December at 11.00-13.00 (CET+1).

Alan AtKisson - the change agent

We are very happy to welcome Alan AtKisson to our conference and the live stream on wednesday Dec 14th!

Alan has been working with sustainability issues for over 20 years and is one of the pioneers in sustainability consulting. In 1992 he established the AtKisson Group, a global network of sustainability consultants, trainers and communicators all working towards a sustainable development of the world.

He is busy as inspirational speaker, trainer and communicator at conferences, workshops and in media. We are looking forward to hearing about his method and approach for integrated planning for climate change and hope for good discussions in the panel and with you, the participants.

Pose your questions and remarks to Alan during the Live stream in the chat (will be provided with the live streaming) or also here in the blog.

Alan will speak on Wednesday Dec 14th between 11-13.30h (CET+1)! Welcome!