We convened our 30th General Assembly in Marseille last week, co-hosted by the French Region Sud and featuring the closing conference of the LIFE IP SMART WASTE project. The General Assembly’s theme, “No sustainable future without a just, sufficient, and circular society,” underlined the importance of integrating social equity into circular economy strategies. The highlight was a keynote speech by Janez Potočnikv, Co-Chair of the International Resource Panel, and a panel discussion featuring key representatives from the European Commission, OVAM, the European Environmental Bureau, and Behaven. A significant consensus emerged on the need for a material footprint target. The assembly underscored local and regional authorities' dedication to driving change, despite uncertain environmental perspectives, and emphasized the need for adequate resources and tools from national and European institutions.
The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has introduced its new action plan, aiming to challenge current matchday mobility principles and improve waste management. This initiative is part of the broader ACCESS project, with various sports organisations publishing similar plans. The FAW’s plan focuses on enhancing public transport usage, reducing waste, and raising awareness among fans and staff.
ACR+ and a coalition of cities, regions, environmental authorities, national ministries, and partners of the Urban Agenda Partnership for Greening Cities, have issued on 11 June a call for the urgent adoption of the EU Nature Restoration Law. The letter addressed to the Environment Council of EU environment ministers, expresses our dismay at the continued delay in the adoption of the Nature Restoration Law, and highlights the dire consequences for nature and the dangerous precedent set by such inaction. It further underscores that the triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate change is hitting cities the hardest, undermining the ecosystem services vital to health and well-being.
Our coalition emphasises that the Nature Restoration Law is crucial for protecting green spaces and helping cities adapt to climate change. With 26 of the 28 European capitals containing Natura 2000 sites, the importance of urban green spaces for biodiversity and human health is clear. We argue that the law would support collaborative efforts across all levels of government and various stakeholders, creating more resilient and sustainable environments.
Read the letter in full here.
On 18 June, the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) celebrated its annual awards ceremony, honouring the most outstanding actions from the 2023 campaign. Held in sunny Marseille, the event brought together around 200 participants, including numerous EWWR coordinators and action developers. Åsa Ågren Wikström from the Committee of the Regions and Françoise Bonnet, Secretary General at ACR+, opened the ceremony with a warm welcome.
We are excited to announce that PREPSOIL will launch a Mobile App to promote soil health and soil literacy in June 2024. The Mobile App will include multiple features that will help citizens to learn about soil and contribute with their real-time observations on soils in their region. Thanks to the PREPSOIL Mobile App, universities, research centers and organisations working on soil topics will have the opportunity to create soil quests. In a soil quest, you can ask users for a picture of soil or any other kind of information that will help you to understand the soil state in a specific region and obtain information from citizens that will support your work and research activities.
