City of Oulu has signed the Euro­pean Cir­cu­lar Cities Dec­la­ra­tion among the first cities in Europe

By sign­ing the Euro­pean Cir­cu­lar Cities Dec­la­ra­tion the city of Oulu is com­mit­ted to accel­er­ate the tran­si­tion to a cir­cu­lar econ­o­my togeth­er with major Euro­pean cities. The Dec­la­ra­tion was launched at the 9th Euro­pean Con­fer­ence on Sus­tain­able Cities & Towns on the 1^st of Octo­ber 2020.

Cities and regions sign­ing the dec­la­ra­tion are com­mit­ted to fos­ter the cir­cu­lar econ­o­my and sup­port each oth­er on the way towards a sus­tain­able future. The dec­la­ra­tion high­lights the need of accel­er­at­ing the tran­si­tion from a lin­ear to a cir­cu­lar econ­o­my that leads to a resource-effi­cient, low-car­bon and social­ly respon­si­ble soci­ety.

The city of Oulu has pub­lished a new envi­ron­men­tal pro­gramme in which the cir­cu­lar econ­o­my plays a sig­nif­i­cant role. As part of the pro­gramme, a roadmap for the cir­cu­lar econ­o­my will be pre­pared by the end of 2020, which will include activ­i­ties that are to be imple­ment­ed dur­ing 2021–2026.

“Cities are respon­si­ble for, for exam­ple, zon­ing and organ­is­ing of urban mobil­i­ty and waste man­age­ment, which means that they have a key role in the tran­si­tion towards a more sus­tain­able future. We also want to be active and proac­tive in projects that cre­ate know-how, busi­ness and net­works that pro­mote the cir­cu­lar econ­o­my,” says Päivi Laa­jala, the May­or of Oulu.

The sig­na­to­ry cities will form a strong col­lab­o­ra­tive net­work. Oth­er Euro­pean cities that have signed the Euro­pean Cir­cu­lar Cities Dec­la­ra­tion include Tirana (Alba­nia), Prague (Czech Repub­lic), Copen­hagen (Den­mark), Oslo (Nor­way), Ljubl­jana (Slove­nia), Seville (Spain) and Malmö (Swe­den). The Finnish cities of Helsin­ki, Lappeen­ran­ta, Tam­pere and Turku have also signed the dec­la­ra­tion.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion:

www.circularcitiesdeclaration.eu

Syn­the­sis Report: The Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my in Cities and Regions

Satu Pieto­la, Envi­ron­men­tal Spe­cial­ist, satu.pietola@ouka.fi, 040 620 2767