The 2010 Best Practice Guide for European Mobility Week has been released. The document aims to promote best practice in European cities and towns, drawing examples from a selection of high-performing European cities. Included amongst the good practice examples are schemes from ICLEI members Stockholm and Sundsvall (Sweden), Budapest (Hungary) and Rome (Italy).

Taking place from 16-22 September, European Mobility Week promotes public awareness of the need to act against pollution caused by motorised traffic in urban environments. European Mobility Week 2010’s focal theme is 'Travel Smarter, Live Better', and, this year, organisers aim to focus on health and mobility.

Participating cities and towns organise their own events during the week to show their support for measures for a better quality of life in the urban environment. Over 1,000 cities have already registered to take part in European Mobility Week and registration is still open for any city that wants to host an event.

For a copy of the 2010 Best Practice Guide, click here. [PDF 1.4mb]

The CONCERTO City: Every-City conference will present the results that have been drawn from the experiences of the 58 European cities that implement the CONCERTO concept. The event will take place from 6-7 December in Place Rogier in ICLEI member the Brussels Capital Region.

The different sessions of the Forum will identify solutions found for some of the challenges that face cities today and propagate their European dimension and replication potential. Key topics include CONCERTO’s achievements so far, as well as how to optimise energy performance, financing sustainable built environment in European cities and creating the adequate regulatory and political environment, amongst others.

The programme includes half-day plenary and parallel sessions on the opening day, followed by another half-day plenary session on the second day. The CONCERTO initiative aims to support local communities in developing and demonstrating concrete strategies and actions that are both sustainable and highly energy efficient. Participation is free for this event and registration is currently open.

For further information, contact euro.keys@eurokeys.com.

Five of the six finalists chosen for the 2013 and 2013 European Green Capital awards are members of ICLEI; Barcelona (Spain), Malmö (Sweden), Nantes (France), Nuremburg (Germany), Reykjavik (Iceland) and Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain). These five cities were chosen from a list of 52 applicants.

The results will be revealed during the First European Green Capital Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, 20 – 22 October, 2010. An evaluation panel, set up by the European Commission, began the process of examining applications from cities after the 1 February 2010 application deadline. Cities are evaluated on the grounds of the competition selection criteria.

ICLEI member city Stockholm (Sweden) is the current, 2010 Green Capital. Hamburg, also an ICLEI member has already been selected as the 2011 Green Capital.The European Green Capital Awards aim to recognise the urban sustainability achievements of European cities whose environmental performance stands out from the crowd.

For further information, click here.

Joan Clos, a former mayor of ICLEI member city Barcelona, has been appointed head of housing agency UN-HABITAT. After being nominated by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the appointment was approved by the United Nations General Assembly. Clos replaces Anna Tibaijuka as the Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and is expected to serve a four year term.

Clos has had a long career in the Spanish Government both at the local and national level. Between 2006 and 2008, he was appointed Minister of Industry, Tourism and Trade. Between 1997 and 2006, he served two terms as Mayor of Barcelona. His last role was as Spain´s Ambassador to the Republics of Turkey and Azerbaijan.

UN-HABITAT aims to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. In 1996, ICLEI and UN-HABITAT signed a memorandum of understanding at Habitat II. Since then, ICLEI has been a partner in the UN-HABITAT Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme (BLP), which works with a decentralized network of organizations committed to the identification, analysis and dissemination of lessons learned from best practices.

For further information, click here.

The European Union has made €40 million available to support water partnership projects with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. To aid these water partnerships, a website has been launched by the University of Greenwich. It provides assistance in finding partners or help with drafting concept notes or full proposals, as well as offering more general advice and information.

The website’s aim is to help water utilities, local authorities and civil society organisations use EU aid to build not-for-profit water partnerships for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. It is funded under a contract from the European Commission.

Grants of between €250,000 and €1,000,000 are to be awarded for schemes that must last between two and five years. Concept notes of a maximum of four pages must be submitted by applicants by 6 October.

For further information, click here.