Izmir Metropolitan Mayor Tunç Soyerspoke at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Green Cities Conference in Vienna. Stating that İzmir is the first city in Turkey to prepare the Green City Action Plan with the EBRD grant, Mayor Soyer said, “Our success criterion in the projects we have implemented in İzmir is to do work in harmony with the nature and people of the city.” Mayor Soyer said that financial institutions, which play a critical role in harmonizing the infrastructure in cities with nature, should support cities more.
Izmir Metropolitan Mayor Tunç Soyer He attended the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Green Cities Conference between 20-21 October in Vienna. Speaking at the “Capital Markets” session, where the managers of the cities included in the EBRD Green Cities Program came together physically for the first time, Mayor Soyer stated that Izmir was the first city in Turkey to prepare the Green City Action Plan with the grant of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. started. Soyer said, “We live on a sick planet due to the climate crisis. That's why we need to change our view of the world. As we move away from nature and act against the laws of nature, inequalities increase. Our success criterion in the projects we realized in Izmir was to do works in harmony with the nature and people of the city. Our Living Parks project, which brings the people of Izmir together with nature again, and our support for products that will reduce water consumption in agriculture are also part of this understanding.”
“They stood behind our projects”
Mentioning the importance of the solutions produced locally, Mayor Soyer said, “You cannot change life by making laws. You have to make people a part of this change. For this reason, I would like to thank the EBRD. They understood us and stood behind our projects. If you want to change the world, you need to produce good examples so that you can set an example for other places, other institutions and cities. International financial institutions are critical to harmonizing the infrastructure in our cities with nature. Financial institutions should increase their capacities and produce new financial solutions in order to respond to the needs of cities in the face of the climate crisis.
“The climate war will be won in the cities”
LHV Bank Corporate Markets President Ivars Bergmanis emphasized that municipalities should have a good knowledge of finance and said, "This way, we can move forward in our fight against the global climate crisis."
Goran Heimer, Municipal Treasurer of Helsingborg, Sweden, also stated that it is necessary to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent in our cities and talked about the role played by citizens and companies in this process.
Irena Badelska, who works as a Revenue Specialist at Climate View, a technology company working on climate action plans, underlined that the effects of the climate crisis have been felt in many cities for a long time and said, “It has become a necessity for cities to take more assertive actions now. In this process, the preparation of the Green City Action Plan and the use of financial instruments come to the fore. Cities play a major role in this struggle. "The climate war will either be won in the cities or lost in the cities," he said.
Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Fatma Şahin took part as a speaker at the “E-mobility” session.
61 actions created
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, which received a grant of 300 thousand Euros from the EBRD, determined actions for environmental problems, including water, biodiversity, air, soil and climate change, with the Green City Action Plan prepared in Izmir for the first time in Turkey. With the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan, greenhouse gas reduction and climate adaptation actions were determined. The Metropolitan Municipality harmonized the strategies and actions of the two complementary plans and created 61 actions. With these two action plans, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, which aims to make Izmir resilient by adapting to the effects of the climate crisis, renewed its commitment to reduce greenhouse gases by 2020 percent until 20, as "reducing greenhouse gases by 2019 percent by 2030" with a parliamentary decision in 40.
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