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Illustrasjon: Colourbox

Urban sustainability: how can Europe’s cities move to a sustainable future?

Cities are the engines of Europe’s economy. They are increasingly recognized as key players in Europe’s transition towards a low-carbon economy.

Today, cities are home to about three out four Europeans, and European urban population will rise to 80% in 2050. Thus, it is vital to ensure a sustainable urban environment.

The European Environmental Agency (EEA) has a key role in promoting such sustainable urban development. Recently, they published several outputs on the relevance of cities’ environment transitions towards sustainability.

NILU has contributed to these publications through two of EEA’s topic centres: The topic centre on Air Pollution, Transport, Noise and Industrial Pollution (ETC/ATNI), and the topic centre on Climate Change Mitigation and Energy (ETC/CME).

“In addition to this, we collaborate with the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) through our joint  strategic institute initiative project on urban sustainability assessment”, says senior scientist Hai-Ying Liu. “We are happy to contribute with our research to increase sustainability on both city and European level.”