Four municipalities stood out, in a special way, in the Regional Dialogue on climate finance promoted by the European Union’s International Urban Cooperation Program in Latin America and the Caribbean (IUC-LAC), which was held on 25 and 26 September in Cartagena das Indias (Colombia): the Intermunicipal Consortium of ABC and the municipality of São Leopoldo (RS) of Brazil, the Argentine of Río Grande and the Colombian city of Cali. These municipalities were selected as the most representative among the municipalities that sent information about innovative projects being carried out in the region under the IUC program.
The Executive Secretary of the ABC Intermunicipal Consortium, Edgar Brandão, presented at the workshop the projects for the organization of municipal and metropolitan public transport networks that are carried out in the consortium, the integration of fares between municipal systems and the high capacity structural network and the adoption of technologies to improve the quality of public transport services. The initiative is being carried out in collaboration with the city of Turin, Italy, sharing the Italian city’s successful experience in integrating traffic. This is expected to reduce pollution and travel time on public transport.
For his part, the Mayor of São Leopoldo spoke about the initiative that made the municipality meet with the city of Viana do Castelo, in Portugal, for the development of strategies for improving water management and urban sanitation in cities. The objective is to improve the efficiency of public services, introducing new technologies that can generate business opportunities in both cities and the exchange of experiences in projects of common interest in matters of energy efficiency. In addition, the project provides for the exchange of knowledge between the two cities in relation to new tools for water management at low cost and less environmental impact.
The Argentine municipality of Rio Grande also played a role during the event, exposing the project to diversify its economic matrix with which it seeks to promote a business environment that encourages the creation of new companies, the relationship with SMEs and internationalization. In addition, they also showed how they are working on energy diversification to reach 100% of public consumption and with respect for the environment. The expected results that are being worked on are the creation of a Business Innovation Center to promote the creation of start-ups and increase the weight of renewable energies in the energy sector of Rio Grande.
In Cali, thanks to the European Union’s International Urban Cooperation Program, an urban violence prevention program was developed for two years, with a positive impact on 4100 beneficiaries in 2018. The program achieved a 17% reduction in homicides in 11 neighborhoods among 2017 and 2018 and more than 55% decrease in band-related homicides.
