Financing Sustainable Urban Development Opportunities and Threats 2022

4 October - 2022 , Toronto and Online

METREX at Urban Economy Forum 4

10:00 – 11:00 hrs EDT (16:00-17:00 hrs CET)

METREX is pleased to participate in the fourth Urban Economy Forum, represented by our President, Jakub Mazur

Over the years many funding programmes have been developed and deployed in Europe. But often these programmes followed the silos that our practice of urban development had grown into.

In the current situation, we must accelerate on adapting to climate change not only by ‘technical’ solutions for practical and direct problems, but also through soft policies that address societal changes needed to change our behaviour. And very recently, we have seen that the war in Ukraine is adding new constraints, such as in the supply of energy, but also in acute needs due to the huge number of refugees. There is a real danger that we will be rowing back on our efforts to create a sustainable environment.

The complexity does not only consist in finding the right solutions, but also in the integrated approach required to make these solutions add up and work most effectively.

This session will look at ways of financing sustainable urban development in Europe, on the various, existing levels, but also look at opportunities to better integrate on and between these levels to achieve better and quicker results.

We will learn from the level of the World Bank, looking at the European Funding programmes, the national level linking the EU Recovery and Resilience Funds to metropolitan and local level, and the local level in how to deal with national government budgets.

Finally, we will also learn from the huge challenges that the Ukrainian war and its consequent stream of refugees in Poland adds to the complexity of finding funds.

Programme

Moderator: Henk Bouwman, Secretary General, METREX

10:00
Welcome by Jakub Mazur, President of METREX and 1st Deputy Mayor of Wrocław

10:05
Wojciech Deska, Senior Urban Sector Specialist at the European Investment Bank: on financing urban development on the European level

Massimo Allulli, Italian Association for Local Communities (ANCI Italia): overview of how Italy is distributing EU RRF funds to the Metropolitan and city level

Sandeep Shingadia, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Delivery Integration at the West-Midlands Combined Authority – Greater Birmingham: on raising funds at the national level

Jakub Mazur, 1st Deputy Mayor of Wrocław Poland: on financing the refugee issue in Poland due to the Ukrainian war

10:45
Q&A
Henk Bouwman, Conclusions & further exchange opportunities Close

10:55
Henk Bouwman, Conclusions & further exchange opportunities

11:00
Close

UEF welcomes you to join on 3-4 October 2022, either virtually or physically from 09:00-17:00 (Canada Eastern Time). Buy tickets online here