How will our government turn Gozo into a climate-neutral smart city by 2030, considering it has been selected as one of the cities which are part of the EC’s 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities scheme?
By Marica Micallef
An article in Politico[1] reports that:
“As part of the European Commission’s 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities scheme, these cities have pledged to dramatically reduce their emissions by 2030 – and will receive EU support to achieve that goal”.
“Cities are at the forefront of the fight against the climate crisis,” said EU Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans. “Whether it’s greening urban spaces, tackling air pollution, reducing energy consumption in buildings, or advancing clean mobility solutions: Cities are often the hub of the changes Europe needs to succeed in our transition to climate neutrality.“
Out of 377 applicants, around 100 EU cities have been selected for a program in which they commit to become climate neutral by 2030. These 100 EU cities have committed to slash their emission to zero by the end of the decade. They are known as the climate-neutral and smart cities, which will lead the way for all other European cities to follow suit by 2050.
The list includes both cities that have lately risen to the challenge, like Paris and Milan, as well as places with a history of striving for aggressive climate targets, like Copenhagen and Gothenburg. If anyone is wondering whether Malta is in this list, well our Gozo is. The list can be found here:
Deputy Director of the Commission’s mobility and transport department Matthew Baldwin, who oversees the scheme, said that as part of the program, the 112 participating cities — in which roughly 75 million people live — will prepare “climate city contracts” setting out action and investment plans they intend to execute to achieve climate neutrality. He added that although the plans are not legally binding, cities have a powerful incentive to meet their target:
“No one is going to take them to court, but their reputations are at stake.”
Cities will be assisted in developing their contracts by a group of 34 climate change groups, specialists at the national and EU levels, and the Commission’s so-called mission label. According to Baldwin, this designation will make it easier to access “private finance capital that is sick of greenwashing projects and seeks actual initiatives in which to invest.”
Here is a marketing video:
And this is a video of how these cities will look like:
Although everything is pictured as a haven, this is part of Agenda 21/2030, which I have already dealt with in another blog. So many of us think that all of this looks sustainable which sounds great. Isn’t it about recycling and creative reuse, and creating zero-carbon cities and environment for us all? The answer is no. For larger countries, this is about moving populations into concentrated city centers and clearing them out of the rural areas. All systems must be brought into harmony to control them all because when systems don’t meet when they’re out of balance or are not in sync with one another, they can’t be controlled centrally, and the goal of this agenda is total control from a central unit. And what about smaller countries and smaller chosen cities, like Gozo? What is the plan?
This agenda 21/2030 enables and justifies monitoring and metering and restricting our energy and water usage through smart meters and these smart cities.
And they are called Smart Cities on purpose, because if they were called “open air prisons”, you would not want to live in them.
What will our government impose and come up with, in order to turn Gozo into a climate-neutral smart city by 2030? And what kind of EU support will our government receive in order to make sure that both government and Gozitans execute what they are ordered from the same EU?
[1] https://www.politico.eu/article/100-eu-cities-commit-climate-neutral-by-2030/