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/// BACKGROUND

The new climate agreement reached by 195 governments at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention on Climate Change (COP 21) in Paris on 12th December 2015 is a turning point in respect of global efforts to tackle climate change. Many countries in the Baltic Sea region have been actively involved and provided inputs in the negotiations. The time has now come to work towards the implementation.

The Baltic Sea region is especially vulnerable to climate change. Many municipalities already suffer the impacts of extreme events such as floods and droughts, which shows that action in this field is necessary. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has also clearly pointed out the need for scenarios at the regional and local scales, to enable appropriate action.

Many cities and regions are leading the fight against global warming, calling for the EU to step up its emissions reduction efforts. A number of them, across the Baltic Sea region, are already engaged in climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives. Many organisations across the Baltic Sea region are engaged in climate change initiatives, both in respect of mitigation and adaptation. They are thus well placed to become instrumental in implementing many of the measures the Paris Agreement entails.

There are relatively few events where a cross-sectoral overview of efforts and projects on climate change mitigation and adaptation specifically focusing on the cities and municipalities in Baltic Sea region can be showcased. In particular, there is a paucity of events where stakeholders from across sectors, i.e. academia, national and local governments, industry and NGOs can have the opportunity to come together to discuss strategies and approaches to implement climate change mitigation and adaptation in cities and regions across the Baltic. The developments seen at COP 21 means that this gap needs to be bridged.

It is against this background that the Symposium “The Road from Paris: Implementing Climate Change Management and Strategies in Cities and Municipalities in the Baltic Sea Region” is being organized by Uppsala University, Sweden and HAW , Germany in the Baltic University

Programme (BUP), together with Union of Baltic Cities (UBC, and Uppsala municipality under the auspices of the International Climate Change Information Programme (ICCIP). Cooperation partners include the Council of European Regions and Council of Baltic Sea States (CBSS).

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The Symposium is a timely event, held six months after COP21, and will involve stakeholders in the field of climate change in the widest sense, not only from local and national governments, but also from academia, NGOs and enterprises from across the Baltic. The Symposium will focus on the contributions of cities and municipalities in addressing the mitigation and adaptation challenges they face, and will contribute to the further development of this fast-growing field.

/// AIMS

The aims of the Symposium are as follows:

i. to provide representatives from local and national governments, as well as academia, NGOs and enterprises from across the Baltic Sea Region with an opportunity to debate the influence of climate change to cities and municipalities, and introduce on-going and planned projects and strategies aimed at addressing it; ii. to foster the exchange of information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of projects, especially successful initiatives and good practice; iii. to discuss methodological approaches and projects which aim to facilitate the implementation of climate change strategies at local level and; iv. to network the participants and provide a platform so they can explore possibilities for further cooperation.

The networking and personal interactions enabled by the Symposium will be very positive for participant organizations interested in international collaboration on climate change, helping them to foster partnerships. Those planning to initiate new projects in the field of climate change and looking for new partners, will also find the Symposium very useful.

Moreover, a further aim of the event will be to document and disseminate the wealth of experiences on climate change taking place in the Baltic Sea region today. To this purpose, a peer-reviewed publication titled “The Road from Paris: Implementing Climate Change Strategies in Cities and Municipalities in the Baltic Sea Region” will be published, with all accepted papers. This will be a unique, state-of-the-art publication, which will document and promote the climate change initiatives taking place across the Baltic Sea Region. The publication will be part of the award-winning “Climate Change Management Sustainability Series” (launched in 2008), published by Springer, one of the world´s top five scientific publishers.

/// PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTS

Delegates attending the Symposium will come from a cross-sectoral range of areas. These are:

i. Representatives from regional and local governments, ii. NGOs working with climate change and its impacts, iii. Enterprises, iv. Research staff at universities; vi. Project officers and consultants;

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vii. Other people interested in the field.

It is believed that this wide range of participants will help to outline the need for integrated approaches towards implementing climate change strategies, and hence contribute towards advancing this field of work even further.

/// STRUCTURE OF THE EVENT

The Symposium will be organized around two main strands:

Strand 1: the poster displays

Participating organizations will be able to put-up poster displays describing their works and projects and to distribute the relevant information to the participants. The posters will be the backbone of the event and will allow close, one-to-one contacts between the participants and the exhibitors.

Strand 2: the presentations

A set of presentations, divided into two main sections will be organized, dealing with issues of strategic value in reviewing the state of the art of research on climate change today. These are:

Session 1: Implementing Climate Change Mitigation Strategies

Session 2: Implementing Climate Change Adaptation Strategies

Submitted papers will be structured around these two main sessions.

/// DEADLINES

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 20th February 2016

Deadline for submission of papers: 10th April 2016

Deadline for full, revised papers: 30th April 2016

Deadline for registrations: 30th April 2016

Since the book will be launched soon after the Symposium, the deadlines need to be followed.

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/// REGISTRATION

In order to register for the Symposium, please follow the link: http://www.balticuniv.uu.se/index.php/registration-the-road-from-paris

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/// TIME-TABLE

MONDAY 6th JUNE 2016 TUESDAY 7th JUNE 2016

Afternoon: Morning A. Plenary Session 15:00-18:00 – Arrival, registration and set-up Keynote 1: The Swedish Climate Strategy Anders Wijkman, of displays chairman of the Commission for the Swedish climate strategy, former member of EP. 19:00-20:30- Informal get together Keynote 2: Uppsala Climate Strategy, Björn Sigurdson, Climate strategist Uppsala Municipality. B. Parallel Sessions 1 and 2

Afternoon: A. Plenary Session Keynote 3: Climate actions in the Baltic Sea region municipalities, Björn Grönholm, Director, UBC Sustainable Cities Commission, Turku, Finland. Keynote 4: After Paris – global climate policies and the EU 20-20-20, Prof. Walter Leal, HAW, Hamburg, Germany. B. Parallel Sessions 3 and 4

Evening: Dinner on the invitation of the City of Uppsala

WEDNESDAY 8th JUNE 2016 WEDNESDAY 8th JUNE 2016

Morning Afternoon A. Plenary Session Keynote 5: Divestment as a municipal strategy. tbc 14:00-16:00 Final plenary session and close of the event, Keynote 6: The UN SDGs and role of local authorities. tbc with the hand-over of the Best Paper Awards

B. Parallel Sessions 5 and 6 16.00- Departure

13:00-14:00- Lunch

In order to ensure an efficient use of the time, delegates are kindly asked to organize their travel in a way that allows them to arrive on time to attend the plenary session and travel back in the late afternoon of 8th June 2016, since the best papers awards will be handed over at around 14.30 on that day.

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/// THE VENUE AND FEES AND CHARGES

VENUE

The Symposium “The Road from Paris: Implementing Climate Change Management and Strategies in Cities and Municipalities in the Baltic Sea Region” is hosted by and will be held at Uppsala University (UU) in Sweden. The meeting will be held at Uppsala University Centre for Earth Sciences at Villavägen 16, just close to the Botanical Garden.

TRAVELS

Uppsala is served by Stockholm Arlanda Airport, easily reachable from across the Baltic and elsewhere. The city is connected to the main railway lines and trains travel from Stockholm City and from Arlanda Airport to Uppsala at every 30 minutes.

HOTELS

The room reservation has been made at several hotels in Uppsala city centre, which are within a 25-30 minutes walking distance from the Symposium´s venue. List of the hotels together with the special codes will be sent to the participants after the registration.

QUESTIONS RELATED TO POSTERS AND LOCAL DETAILS

Lyudmyla Babak Baltic University Programme Secretariat, Uppsala University E-mail: [email protected]

FEES AND CHARGES

A discounted fee of € 250 (plus 19% VAT) will be charged to delegates who register until 30th March 2016 (early bird registration). After that, delegates will need to pay the full fee of € 300 (plus 19% VAT). The reduced fee for MSc/PhD students is € 100. The fee includes free lunches and coffee breaks on 16th-17th June 2016 and free electronic access to the publication “The Road from Paris: Implementing Climate Change Management and Strategies in Cities and Municipalities in the Baltic Sea Region”, expected to be launched soon after the Symposium.

Organisations or individuals not able to pay this fee should contact the Secretariat so that it may be reduced in special cases. Interested people and organisations are encouraged to register by completing the application form provided. This is a self-funded event and the organisers are unable to pay any travel or accommodation costs of any kind. They are however happy to issue letters of invitation to support delegates to request funding for their participation.

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/// ORGANISERS and INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS

 Uppsala University, Sweden  Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Research and Transfer Centre “Applications of Life Sciences”, Germany  Baltic University Programme (BUP), Sweden and Germany  Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development, Sweden  Uppsala City, Sweden  Union of Baltic Cities, UBC Sustainable Cities Commission, Turku, Finland  International Climate Change Information Programme (ICCIP) (Institutional partner)  European Committee of the Regions (Institutional partner)  Council of Baltic Sea States, (CBSS) (Institutional partner)

Uppsala University, founded in 1477, is one of the most prominent higher education institutions in Scandinavia, and a global leader in energy research. City of Uppsala, Sweden´s 4th-largest city and Earth Hour Capital of Sweden 2013, is working to be the first fossil-fuel free city in the country in 2030.

The Baltic University Programme (BUP), a university network with more than 200 members in the Baltic Sea region, has been working for 25 years with matters related to sustainable development and climate change at universities, and with cities and regions on education, research and applied projects.

The International Climate Change Information Programme (ICCIP), is the world´s leading programme on communication, education and knowledge transfer on climate change. Apart from organising landmarks events across the world, ICCIP runs the publication series “Climate Change Management” and the International Journal of Climate Change strategies and Management.

/// SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Co-Chairs Prof. Walter Leal, HAW Hamburg, Baltic University Programme, Germany Prof. Lars Rydén, Uppsala University, Baltic University Programme, Sweden Members Prof. Alexander Feher, Slovak University of Agriculture, Nitra, Slovakia. Prof. Arvo IItal, Technical University of Tallin, Prof. Maris Klavins, University of , Riga, Latvia Prof. Linas Kliucininkas, Kaunas University of Technology, Dr. Paula Lindroos, Abo University Academy, Turku, Finland Prof. Michael Shilin, Russian State Hydrometeorological University, St Petersburg, Russia

/// EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AT UPPSALA UNIVERSITY

Dr. Christian Andersson, Baltic University Programme Secretariat MEcon Maria Hejna, Baltic University Programme Secretariat MA Lyudmyla Babak, Baltic University Programme Secretariat MA Magnus Lehman, Baltic University Programme Secretariat

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/// SCIENTIFIC INPUTS, STRATEGIC COOPERATION AND GUIDANCE ON THE PUBLICATIONS

Questions on scientific inputs, strategic partnerships, as well as the book, should be sent to:

Professor Walter Leal Professor Lars Ryden HAW Hamburg Uppsala University E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

All questions related to abstracts and registrations should be sent to:

Dr. Mihaela Sima Institute of Geography Romanian Academy E-mail: [email protected]

/// HOW TO SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT

An abstract should be up to 200 words; it should describe the rationale and aims of the paper, and some of its results. General descriptions of broad contexts should be avoided. The full contact details about the author(s) need to be provided. Abstracts should be written in the third person and not in the first or second one (e.g. I, me, or my paper). Please see below a sample abstract. Authors, whose abstracts have been accepted, will receive further details about how to submit their full papers, and further logistical information. Please send your abstract to: [email protected].

SAMPLE ABSTRACT

Implementing Climate Change Adaptation in Cities: addressing the challenges posed by urban heat islands

Walter Leal Research and Transfer Centre „Applications of Life Sciences“ Hamburg /Hamburg University of Applied Sciences Lohbruegger Kirchstraße 65, 21033 Hamburg, Germany E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract Cities are among the major drivers of global climate change. The majority of the world’s population already lives in urban areas, a trend bound to increase, with global urban population projected to have increased to 66% by 2050. The growth of urban agglomerations combined to population migration from rural to urban/suburban areas will exacerbate the problem. Cities consume up to 80% of total global energy production, and account for 71% to 76% of global CO2 emissions. Cities are also severely affected by climate impacts. Apart from the pressures they already suffer and which are inherent to urbanization, cities are becoming increasingly vulnerable to one of the consequences of climate change, namely urban heat.

This paper focuses on a description of the nature and impacts of urban heat islands in a sample of cities. It identifies good practice and introduces a set of innovative solutions, which may guide policy-making and the substantial investments in this field, which are going to take place in the next two decades. Due to its nature, the paper provides a long-lasting contribution towards addressing the many problems posed by climate change in urban settings.

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