The “Smart, Resilient and Climate Neutral Cities” Initiative of the Government of Greece - Promoting sustainable development, resilience, and climate neutrality in Greek Cities by 2030 (and in the longer run by 2050)

Greek cities are characterized by a long-standing history, deep-rooted traditions and a wide cultural heritage reserve, being created, throughout the centuries, in a unique geomorphological context. VISION The Hellenic Government is committed to upgrading and improving urban areas in Greece so that they can effectively respond to the current and emerging challenges of addressing climate change impacts, safeguarding social cohesion, and ensuring economic growth and prosperity, in an inclusive and sustainable way, leaving no one behind. Through targeted interventions that cut across multiple thematic areas, the role of cities as the niches and backdrop for achieving all the thematic content of the SDGs at the local level, is being intensified, from poverty alleviation and improved livelihoods through more and better jobs, to sustainable urban mobility, improved waste management and circular economy, capitalizing on cities’ potential to mobilise involved actors and stakeholders. SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE INITIATIVE Towards localizing the SDGs at the urban context and promoting implementation of SDG 11 targets through their strong interlinkages with other SDGs, Greece (General Secretariat of Spatial Planning and Urban Environment of the Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy) is promoting a series of initiatives for achieving “Smart, Resilient and Climate Neutral Cities by 2030” in a wide array of sectors and in full concert with local governments. The policy innovations promoted are fully in line and correspond to the priority areas of the new European Urban Agenda (i.e. air quality, circular economy, climate adaptation, cultural heritage, digital transition, energy transition, housing, inclusion, innovative and responsible public procurement, jobs and skills, sustainable use of land and nature-based solutions, urban mobility, urban poverty and security), focusing on: • Increasing resilience, • Promoting climate neutrality, • Promoting urban accessibility, • Improving walkability and biking, • Buildings’ management and renovation (e.g. towards energy efficiency improvement and circularity), • Regeneration of open urban spaces and increase of urban green areas (through ‘green ways’ and ‘blue ways’), • Promotion of new technologies and digital transformation. The overall vision of the Greek Government translates into a series of dedicated thematic Strategies for all the above focus areas, providing overall strategic targets, objectives, and milestones. Interim milestones foresee the integration of these new strategic targets into the existing planning frameworks, at the various levels, by 2025. The various thematic Strategies that have been formulated though an extensive public consultation process, are being detailed, at a ‘lower level’, with: • The elaboration of Technical Specifications for concrete projects, • Analytical Practical Guides to Municipalities for the implementation of programmes, projects, and interventions at the very local level, leading to capacity building. • Key enablers for the implementation of the above, include: • Allocation of funds from diverse sources (e.g. NSRF and Regional Operational Programmes, RRF, Green Fund of the MoEE, etc), • Participatory planning processes to identify priority projects relevant for each Municipality, • Awareness raising, education and capacity building campaigns of local stakeholders including businesses, associations, and citizens, to enable their contribution and active involvement increasing prospects for transformation, • Accountability, evaluation, and monitoring mechanisms to ensure effective implementation on the ground across global, European & national commitments, and local goals, based on quantitative and performance indicators. Aiming to promote strong partnerships and coherence across all governance levels, the Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy has already set up a network of initially 80 Municipalities that have committed to the overall goal and signed an MoU with MoEE. This network is open, aiming to its potential enlargement to eventually cover all 345 Greek Municipalities. Additionally, the Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy, is already financially supporting several pilot projects such as the planning and construction of national biking routes|greek eurovelo routes, the regeneration of the south Attica coast (‘Athens Riviera’), the reclamation of large former industrial sites and their conversion into open public parks, the connection through biking routes of all university campuses in Attica, the establishment of an ‘ecological identity’ label for buildings, etc.