Parma is among the cities that have signed the Charter for ‘Nature-Positive Cities’, as part of the National Conference of Green Cities.
Cities, large, medium and small, generate the majority of greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on natural capital and are also the places increasingly exposed to the consequences of the climate crisis – heat waves and islands, flooding, floods – to environmental degradation and air pollution. In cities, however, there is an even greater concern among citizens for the climate crisis and for the environment and the request for measures
more effective ecology. In addition to Parma, the following have joined: Bologna, Brescia, Carini, Casalecchio di Reno, Catanzaro, Cervia, Cesena, Città di Castello,
Correggio, Crotone, Florence, Genoa, Imola, L’Aquila, Lecce, Legnano, Livorno, Milan, Monza, Naples, Olbia, Pianezza, Pistoia, Prato, Ravenna, Rho, Rome, Turin, Treviso, Trezzano sul Naviglio, Vignola, Viterbo
To help gather this push from cities, the Charter for “Nature-Positive Cities” was presented at the National Conference of Green Cities taking place today in Milan, organized by the Green City Network and the GEDI Group, with the participation of a first group of 33 cities* from all over Italy, 2 in Calabria, Catanzaro and Crotone. The objective of the Charter is to overcome the climate and ecological crisis by focusing on a positive role for the nature of cities through 10 measures.
“Cities, where the majority of greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on natural capital are generated, can become protagonists of the green transition – declared Edo Ronchi, President of the Foundation for Sustainable Development, presenting the Charter – the crisis
climate does not allow us to slow down our commitment. The sooner we become aware of the urgent need to build a positive relationship with nature in cities, the sooner we will be able to mitigate the climate crisis and reduce our vulnerability.”
Here are the ten measures: 1 – Promote sharing, knowledge and information on the value of natural capital and ecosystem services in cities – A “positive nature” strategy aims in cities at a well-being that is not based on the consumption of nature, but on its protection, its restoration, its increase.
2 – Restore degraded natural capital by intervening with consistent, demanding and multi-year actions on groundwater, often contaminated, on cemented waterways and in a poor ecological state, on polluted areas and soils and green areas and trees, which require greater
care and maintenance.
3 – Stop land consumption by recovering and using existing buildings more efficiently, with greater shared use of offices, enhancing remote working even in the towns and small villages of the internal areas.
4- Increase natural capital by massively growing trees, green areas, peri-urban forestation, green roofs and the greening of building envelopes.
5 – Save the withdrawal and consumption of natural resources by supporting the transition from a linear and dissipative production and consumption model, with a high consumption of natural resources, to a circular and regenerative model.
6 – Strengthen adaptation measures to heat waves by using and strengthening green infrastructures, increasing the use of lower temperatures of groundwater and water bodies for cooling and with binding bioclimatic guidelines in building interventions
7 – Implement the energy transition by reducing fossil energy consumption in transport and improving the energy efficiency of buildings, doing much more for the production and use of renewable energy sources, also making better use of the new opportunities offered by development from renewable energy communities.
8 – Protect water as a scarce natural resource by rapidly eliminating losses from water networks and promoting water saving, reusing grey, purified and controlled water, reusing rainwater, spreading dual systems for drinking water and for those for other uses.
9- Reduce vulnerability to flooding and floods by increasing the water absorption capacity in soils and green areas, reducing the waterproofing of pavements, increasing the lamination capacity with the restoration and expansion of the riverbeds and floodplain areas of the rivers and with wet and green areas that can be flooded.
10 – Implement an Action Plan for the Nature Positive transition not only short-term to 2030, but multi-annual to 2050, to implement the proposed measures in an integrated and coordinated way, establishing the resources – financial and human – necessary to implement them, preparing it by involving i
citizens and interested stakeholders.
