City Changers met in Ostrava

Together with winter weather comes the period when Ostrava, as well as other bigger cities, is beginning to worry about smog situations. Therefore, the City of Ostrava co-organizes a meeting of experts who can help not only the North Moravian metropolis. The outcome of the two-day international conference “City Changers” should be the foundation for the creation of a national platform for urban mobility. The organizers of the conference are the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic, the City of Ostrava, the Transport Research Center and the Association of Cyclists.

The conference program itself is inspired by the European Green Capital Awards for 2020, which is addressed to cities and appreciates their contribution to positive changes in the urban environment. It is worth mentioning that one Czech city – Ostrava will also be looking for this prize. If Ostrava is successful and succeeds in winning the title of “European Green Capital”, it will rank among cities such as Stockholm, Hamburg, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Nantes, Copenhagen, Bristol, Ljubljana, Essen and the Dutch city of Nijmegen.

One of the great inspirations is Denmark, which has long been ranked among the happiest countries in the world. At the conference will be the first time to see the Satisfied Danes exhibition, which opens its pilgrimage to Ostrava and Bohemian towns in Ostrava. Co-organizers include the Danish Embassy and the Association of Cyclists.

“In the long term, we devote ourselves to the quality of air and resources in the city that affect its condition. Both the absolute and relative impact of industry, as a traditional source of emissions in the Ostrava region, is significantly decreasing over time and is already comparable with transport pollution or small local sources. The actual proportion of traffic to air pollution in our city is estimated to be between 20 and 80 %, depending on the location and the season. It is important to understand that the quality of the environment can be influenced by virtually everyone’s everyday behavior. That is why we would like to invite the public to not be satisfied with the current situation and to work on improving it together with us, “said Mayor of Ostrava Tomáš Macura.