Starting points
Not all cities are the same, so understanding our partner cities’ lifestyles and locations has been a key focus for the ClairCity policy team. Here, we summarise some of the main findings from the Policy Baseline reports
Geography matters Political maps
The geographical location of a city is an important influence on air quality. Both Bristol and Ljubljana are situated in basins, so when weather conditions are calm there is poor dispersion of air pollution. In Sosnowiec winter temperatures average below freezing with consequent high heating demand; and low winds that contribute to pollution remaining over the city. On the other hand, prevailing wind patterns are favourable for air quality in Liguria, tending to blow pollutants away from the land.
The spheres of political influence affect air quality action across our case study areas. The Aveiro region has a history of inter-municipal cooperation, which has led to more opportunities to coordinate responses to the issue. Legal action against the national UK government has led to opportunities for local action in Bristol, with consultations on a“ Clean Air Zone” for the city centre that would not have had the financial backing necessary from national government otherwise.
Transport priorities
There are big differences in the dominant transport modes and political narratives around mobility in each of our cities. In Bristol, Sosnowiec, the Aveiro region, Liguria and Ljubljana, cars dominate the roads. The Vespa scooter was first invented in Genoa and is a source of local as well as national identity and pride, which increases public resistance to curtailing moped use. The Aveiro region is relatively sparsely populated, making public transport options more expensive to implement, and Sosnowiec has not had a history of investment in its bus network, although this is now changing.
Energy sources
Resident options on home heating energy sources are partly determined by the history and location of their cities. The dependence on low-quality household stoves( coal and waste fuelled) are a key air quality problem in Sosnowiec. Similarly although to a lesser degree, the Aveiro housing stock tends to be poorly insulated and partly dependent on biomass burning stoves for domestic heating. In contrast, Amsterdam as well as Bristol both use gas as a dominant source of energy, which reduces the air quality impact of household heating for their residents.
On the other hand, Amsterdam is the famous example of a city bucking the car-dominance trend. More people have a bike in the city( 72 %) than a driver’ s license( 66 %). Promisingly, even where car dominance has been a feature of the political landscape, our partner cities show that there is space for change. Ljubljana authorities pedestrianised central areas of the city in the face of initial public resistance, and the political calculation paid off: starting with just one street a decade ago, there is now widespread public support for the pedestrianised area which has expanded to cover an area of over 10 hectares in the city centre.
For more information see our baseline reports for each partner area at www. claircity. eu / reports
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