Territorial perspective of green industrialisation
ESPON seminar


Venue

Luleå, Sweden

Kulturenshus

14 June 2023 to 15 June 2023

Skeppsbrogatan 17
972 31 Luleå
Sweden
Tel: +46 920 45 59 00
Web: https://www.kulturenshus.com

The ESPON seminar was organized on 14-15 June in Lulea in cooperation with the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council in the framework of the ESPON 2030 Cooperation Programme. Under the title “Territorial perspective of green industrialisation” the seminar aimed to explore the opportunities and challenges regions and cities face in their effort to combine green transition and industrial investments. 

You can watch the videos of the main presentations on YouTube All the presentations of the speakers are now available below, and photos of the event can be found here.  

Wiktor Szydarowski, ESPON EGTC director, welcomed participants and explained why Lulea was selected to organise the ESPON seminar: The city provides a unique opportunity to examine the example of Northern Sweden which is experiencing a development boom of renewable-powered industries, with plans underway for further large scale fossil-free investments, giving participants the opportunity to better understand its impact on the regional economy, but also local communities and the environment.

Those experiences and different perspectives were presented by the state secretary to Minister of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure, Dan Ericsson, and also Anders Öberg, chairman of the regional board of Norrbotten region and Tomas Mörtsell, president of the CPMR Baltic Sea Commission. They emphasized on the advantages of North Sweden, the benefits of rich natural resources and cheap energy but also to the need for more skilled workers, more staff for the supportive services and a sustainable way of development that will equally benefit local people.

On the other hand Tomas Kuhmunen, from the Sami Parliament shed light on the Sami cultural heritage and landscape perspective. He presented the impact of the industrialisation process on indigenous Sami’s land and their nomadic way of living.

Claes Nordmark, from the Association of Municipalities in the Norrbotten Region Municipalities explained what how green industrial revolution evolved so far in Northen Sweden and Therese Kreisel from the Skellefteå Municipality gave concrete examples of how the city combines city development with quality of life and sustainable development.

Eventually, Juana Lopez Pagan from the Spanish ministry for ecological transition and demographic challenge presented the main priorities of the upcoming Presidency of the Council of the EU, focusing on demography, depopulation and the role of small and medium cities in this transition processes

The presentations were followed by questions from the audience, on the impact of industrialisation, the needs in terms of skills and human resources and the necessity to take into account the priorities of the indigenous people in the process.

In the next session of the first day researchers and academics provided evidence on the past, present and future of industrialization in Sweden.

Sverker Sörlin, from Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm described the historical perspective of industrialisation in Northern Sweden, Ann-Kristin Bergquist from the Uppsala University highlighted the drivers behind this process and Luisa Pedrazzini expert from Lombardy explained how SDGs can be used in green industrialization.

Finally, Michaela Gensheimer from the ESPON EGTC and Carlos Tapia, for Nordregio introduced the first draft of the joint ESPON – Nordregio policy paper “Territorial perspective of green industrialisation”.

Presentations were concluded with an inspirational speech from Rob Hopkins of the Transition Network who traveled with us to the future and presented how a climate neutral world would look like in 2030.

After the end of the presentations participants had the opportunity to actively discuss and exchange experiences and ideas during the working groups of the world café session and present the main outcomes of these exchanges later in the plenary.

Workshops were also held in the second day, with experts presenting evidence on green industrialization and issues related to:

Governance (Anneloes van Noordt, Department of Environment and Spatial Development, Flanders, Ola Saua Førland, Rogaland County, Philipp Gareis, BBSR),

Digitalization (Marius Grønning, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Johanna Jokinen and Carlos Tapia, Nordregio)

And finance (Sissy Windisch, Board Member, EU Mission: Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, Merja Haapakka, EU Commission, Regional and Urban Policy).

The seminar closed with a concluding panel conversation where the moderator, Karin Hübinette, with Sverker Lindblad from the Swedish ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure, Thiemo Eser, of the ESPON Programme Managing Authority, and Wiktor Szydarowski reflected on the results and lessons learned from the different sessions and replied to questions from the audience.



Documents

01-Anders Öberg.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 1.13MB

02-Kuhmunen.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 1.95MB

03-Claes Nordmark.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 2.26MB

04. Therese Kreisel.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 2.15MB

05-Juana Lopez Pagan.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 1.68MB

07-Ann-Kristin Bergquist.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 3.23MB

08-Luisa Pedrazzini.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 2.96MB

09-Michaela Gensheimer - Carlos Tapia.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 2.17MB

10-Rob Hopkins.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 22.98MB

C1-Anna Berlina.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 1.08MB

C1-Jenny Breslin.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 1.48MB

C2-Agatino Rizzo.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 2.81MB

C2-Miguel Angel.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 40.45MB

C2-Sophie Forsberg.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 11.69MB

C3-Kristina Nilsson.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 8.06MB

C3-Leena Suopajärvi.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 358KB

C3-Marcia van der Vlugt.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 2.33MB

D1-Anneloes van Noordt.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 2.63MB

D1-Ola Saua Forland.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 4.19MB

D1-Philipp Gareis.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 1.54MB

D2-Carlos Tapia.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 1.15MB

D2-Johanna Jokinen.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 2.27MB

D3-Merja Haapakka.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 1.28MB

D3-Sissy Windisch.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 1.09MB