European Commission's Directorate-General for Environment organizes the EU Green Week, an annual opportunity for cities to debate and discuss European environmental policy. EU Green Week 2018 will take place from 21 to 25 May with the theme of 'Green Cities for a Greener Future' and it will be all about making Europe's cities greener. The week will officially open on 21/5 in Utrecht (The Netherlands) and will close on 25/5 in Madrid (Spain).

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The high level EU Green Cities Summit will take place in Brussels, 22-24/5. On 24th of May, a conference will be organized at the European Parliament under the name “Building greener and more liveable cities: the role of zero emission construction sites”. This conference takes a closer look at zero emission construction sites: an important component to making cities greener and more liveable, focusing on the advantages of electric mobility as is the most promising measure to lowering climate-warming CO2 emissions and tackling hazardous air- and noise-pollution in urban areas.

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Construction sites are the source of different forms of pollution – including material waste, visible dust, noise, vibration – construction and demolition sites also produce less obvious pollutants which are of serious concern for human health, namely NO2 and particulate matter. Europe can rid itself of vast amounts of urban pollution by targeting the electrification of construction machinery. For example, since 2017, the City Council of Oslo, Norway, has set a minimum requirement of fossil-free construction sites in public procurement procedures because 25% of emissions in Oslo are from construction machines and thus the city has a target of reducing emissions by 50% by 2020, and by 95% by 2030.

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EU Green Week 2018 offers the unique opportunity to kick-start this important discussion at the EU level and thus this conference will gather policy makers, companies and NGOs in a common dialogue, building upon best practices from Norway.

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For more information click here 

 

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