Limerick City and County Council together with the University of Limerick and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government held a learning exchange symposium in Limerick’s Citizen Innovation Lab on the 13th of October. The Citizen Innovation Lab, established through the Horizon 2020 +CityxChange project, embodies the New European Bauhaus (NEB) values of sustainability, beauty and inclusion. As the national contact point for the New European Bauhaus policy initiative, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage supported this symposium to amplify the Citizen Innovation Lab approach.
The Symposium focused on three themes:
New European Bauhaus – It’s not just that we decarbonise that is important, how we do it is important too. The New European Bauhaus (NEB) policy aims to connect plans to become climate-neutral to people’s living spaces and day-to-day lives. This panel presented some perspectives and projects relevant to the New European Bauhaus in Ireland.
+CityxChange – A Limerick story of the climate-neutral transition. The Positive City Exchange (+CityxChange) project explores the development of a structured approach to decarbonising cities. Members of the +CityxChange implementation team presented infrastructural demonstrators, insights and learning from +CityxChange implementation in Limerick to date.
City Collaboration and The Climate Neutral Cities Mission in Ireland. This panel explored perspectives on city collaboration in the transition to climate-neutrality. Contributors included Thomas Osdoba who leads the Net Zero Cities Consortium – coordinator of the EU Cities Mission Platform – and Julio Lumbreras of Spain’s CitiES2030, Spain’s National Cities Mission Platform.
The symposium was opened by Nuala Gallagher, Director of Planning Environment and Placemaking, Limerick City and County Council with keynote addresses from Ciarán Cuffe MEP, European Parliament Rapporteur for the revision to the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive and Borislava Woodford, New European Bauhaus Policy Analyst, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.The Symposium was closed by University of Limerick President Kirsten May who highlighted the importance of collaboration between the Council and the Univsercity and public participation in the transition to climate neutrality.