Limerick has been selected as one of 24 European cities to be given ‘Twin City’ status in an ambitious project intended to support cities across the continent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve ‘climate neutrality’.
Limerick City & County Council’s application to ‘NetZeroCities’ has been led by the Active Travel department and supported by colleagues across the Transportation & Mobility directorate, the Climate Action team and Limerick’s Citizen Innovation Lab.
The selected 24 Twin Cities, including Limerick, have been matched with a Pilot City or cluster of cities already innovating and piloting decarbonisation activities, as part of the Twinning Learning Programme.
Limerick has been matched with Tampere, Finland for the initiative.
Tampere is focusing on increasing sustainable modes of transport to reach 69% of mobility choices by 2030. These efforts have been focused on strengthening infrastructure such as bike lanes and public transport.
Limerick and Tampere are to begin an 18 month programme which facilitates knowledge sharing and the transfer of best practices. The two cities will work together under the remit of ‘Mobility Mindshift – Co-designing a Mindshift for Sustainable Mobility’.
Mayor of Limerick, John Moran, said:
“Limerick, like other cities across Ireland, Europe and indeed the globe, is rightly putting a greater focus on sustainability and the need for climate-resilient infrastructure than ever before. Sustainable transport options form a key part of that focus. Ensuring Limerick continues to grow and improve its infrastructure for people to walk, wheel and cycle safely, along with rail development and enhanced bus facilities, will provide the options for people to buy into this change. I congratulate the team in Active Travel and the Transportation and Mobility directorate as a whole for their work in Limerick’s application to the ‘NetZeroCities’ initiative and look forward to seeing the learnings from and progress of our partnership with Tampere, Finland.”
61 applications from 17 different countries were received for Twin City status in what is the third cohort callout for the project. Previous callouts have taken place in 2022 and 2023.
Through practical knowledge exchange and peer learning, Pilot Cities share their experiences with Twin Cities, who, in turn, integrate these lessons into their own urban planning through an Action Plan after the programme’s completion.
Behavioural Scientist with the Active Travel department at Limerick City & County Council, Toby Goodwin, commented:
“A big part of what we’re doing here in the Active Travel department is not only improving our infrastructure to give people more options to walk, wheel and cycle safely in Limerick, but ensuring we bring as many people with us as possible along that journey. We’re conscious of the diverse needs of Limerick people as we enhance our sustainable transport facilities and in some cases change the makeup of our road space. Our partners in Tampere have been undertaking great work in stakeholder engagement, particularly towards young adults, and we’re excited to learn from them over the coming months.”
The Twinning Learning Programme covers travel costs of selected Twin Cities like Limerick to their paired Pilot City (for up to two Twin City representatives per selected Twin City to attend a site-visit to respective Pilot City), and hosting costs when hosting the site visits of the Pilot City. These site visits enable Twin Cities to gain an in-depth understanding of the pilot activities, while also enabling the completion of the Twin City Action Plan.
Living Lab Co-Ordinator at Limerick’s Citizen Innovation Lab, Madeleine Lyes, added:
“We’re delighted to have collaborated with the Active Travel team to achieve Twin City status and match with Tampere. The UL/LCCC Citizen Innovation Lab works to accelerate and embed citizen involvement in climate action and policy in Limerick, and that approach was an important part of our project pitch. A climate neutral Limerick by 2050 is the ultimate aim and we hope being part of the NetZeroCities project can help us towards achieving that objective.”
More information on the NetZeroCities project can be found here.
