Second Event held 13^th of December 2021, “Connective Cities virtual exchange presenting good municipal Green Recovery practices and discussing the importance of Renewable Energy”, explored the crisis management mechanisms that cities employed and ways in which they envision green recovery especially on the bases of introducing the use of renewable energy. The pandemic tested the robustness and effectiveness of most municipal services, from transportation and waste management to governance and development. Pandemic-centered protocols set new behavioral patterns - many of which were quite stressful for urban economies. On the contrary, others - such as raised environmental awareness - made both city leaders and citizens rethink the status-quo regarding sustainability, resilience and in overall - stressed the importance of accelerating previous commitments and striving for even more. A similar structural pattern of the event to the last one, gave basis for a smooth and interesting flow of the session. During the event case of municipal responses to COVID-19 of Bursa (Turkey) was shared as a good example of a smart and green energy city transition. Special attention was paid to the use and importance of renewable energy, specifically – solar power, that proved to be successful for the city. Following the presentation an interactive panel, tackling the funding opportunities and alternative actions to support green recovery on the local scale took the stage and delved deep into exchange of views on challenges, visions, and possible scenarios of regional development.

The second event, serving as the last big event of the year, featured a distinct intervention from the Regional Network leads, presenting renewed SEE Regional Charter and Timeline of the Network and plan of its transition into self-sustaining platform.  Additionally, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the SEE Network and a Slovenian organization, symbolizing an ever-growing potential and scope of the Network itself.

Recording and resources of the second session can be found on Connective Cities Platform here.

As of last, we can say that these events served as a good summary of diverse but cross-cutting activities taking place in the SEE Region during past year of 2021.  When it comes to recovering from major disruptions and changes caused by Covid-19 we need to act on multilateral and transnational levels to achieve faster stabilization of the development pattern towards a sustainable and greener future. In this process Connective Cities and in particular the SEE Regional Network  will always try supporting urban practitioners and experts to find their way to either one another or to good practices available all around the world.