Welcome to ClairCity
In 2015, the project consortium of 16 partners across ten European countries proposed ClairCity to the European Union. We were responding to their Horizon 2020 call seeking to improve air quality and reduce the carbon footprint of European cities. Urban air pollution has been a huge challenge for local and national authorities for many years. One in eight deaths around the world is associated with air pollution, and the World Health Organisation estimate that globally, 92 % of urban dwellers live with harmfully high air pollution. At the same time, we are faced with the global problem of climate change, which will affect our way of life in ways we are only just starting to understand.
Citizens as leaders in our cities
ClairCity is focused on our six partner cities, but by the end of the project we will have a toolkit including models that can be applied to any European city with over 50,000 residents and a process that can be applied to meet the needs of other cities around the world. Our partner cities- Amsterdam( The Netherlands), Aveiro region( Portugal), Bristol( UK), Genoa / Liguria( Italy), Ljubljana( Slovenia) and Sosnowiec( Poland)- represent a diverse set of experiences and challenges. They are not
just“ living laboratories” for our plans. Each city is also a member of our project consortium, giving their input into the development of the project. By partnering with city and regional authorities we think that ClairCity can become a more useful tool for other local
authorities too.
Models and engagement
Our project includes complex data modelling to understand the sources and hotspots in each city. Crucially, we also include citizen engagement within the development of each city package. Through an app, a game, schools’ competition, citizen surveys, workshops, live events and online interactions, we are developing a suite of materials that can help all kinds of cities to interact effectively with their residents around the issues of air pollution, health and carbon emissions.
Our future with clean air
We know that to work best, interventions need citizen support and buy-in. By raising awareness of the problem of air pollution and the undeniable health impacts it has on all city residents, we want a more informed population to
understand and support action to tackle the problems in their cities. Our tools will help citizens to take control of the balance between protecting citizen health, reducing our contribution to climate change, and solving traffic or other problems facing the city. It will give them the power to decide what they think should happen.
The ClairCity team have been working hard since May 2016, with our first public events starting in Summer 2017. To keep in touch, you can follow us through our website www. claircity. eu and we are also on Twitter and Facebook.
Hans Bolscher, Project Director
Enda Hayes, Technical Director
ClairCity team, 2016.
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