Cities are increasingly recognized for the unique and important position they hold in the fight against climate change. As our world becomes increasingly urban, cities represent a key source of carbon emissions and resource use, especially given their high population density. In fact, cities now represent 70% of greenhouse gas emissions and 75% of energy use worldwide. Without proper planning and a clear development approach, cities can quickly breed new development challenges, such as air and water pollution issues that negatively impact public health and quality of life, while exacerbating the severity of climate change. Cities act as dense nodes of population and production, therefore producing outsized global impacts compared to their size. However, this means strong climate mitigation actions in cities can have exponentially positive impacts in fighting climate change and improving global quality of life. Clear and aspirational plans for green transition in cities are thus a crucial component for facilitating the green transition and a more prosperous and sustainable tomorrow.

However, many cities lack the direction, capacity, and resources to implement sustainable changes or build greener development and planning agendas. The European Bank for Reconstruction (EBRD) recognized this challenge, spurring the Green Cities initiative. This initiative seeks to aid sustainable development in partnered European cities. Central to this initiative is the creation of Green City Action Plans (GCAPs) which support the construction of politically and economically feasible green transition plans tailored to a city. CENER 21 is delighted to contribute to this initiative by supporting GCAP development in the Brčko District. Over the course of 25 months between August of 2022 to 2024, the CENER team will facilitate the GCAP process through improving stakeholder engagement, facilitating identification and prioritization of green city challenges, goals, and actions, and ensuring capacity building among local actors.

This consultancy specifically seeks to facilitate broad public participation in GCAP development while fostering ownership over the development process by stakeholders and citizens. Moreover, the initiative supports the Brčko District in identifying and prioritizing key environmental challenges and preparing a list of infrastructure investments to be implemented and managed by the District, regional and national governments, and utility governments. Finally, CENER 21 will support the preparation of a list of policies, regulations, guidelines and other measures to address priority environmental challenges and support infrastructure investment projects. Specific deliverables and outcomes of the consultancy include:

  • Development of a Stakeholder Engagement Plan for the Brčko District
  • Preparation of a Policy and Urban Framework Report (PUF) including considerations such as policy mapping, defining District jurisdictions and responsible authorities, financial analysis, social and economic assessment of conditions, and representation of gender and vulnerable populations.
  • Preparation of a City Environmental Baseline and Prioritization report
  • Preparation of the Green City Action Plan
  • Holding 4 stakeholder engagement meetings throughout the process to ensure local participation and ownership over the process.
  • Developing and conducting training and capacity building activities for District officials
  • Preparation of a Lessons Learned Report to reflect on the process of GCAP creation to guide improvements in future EBRD initiatives.