Go Green Exchange:
Cyprus 2023
May 2023:
At the end of April 2023, Dr Noel Doyle and Seamus Meagher from the Leave No Trace office went to Cyprus, to the SYNTHESIS Research Centre for the first ever week of GoGreen Training events!
This week was a true deep dive into discussions and expert sessions on on Waste Management, Water Management and Cultural Heritage, and how local authorities can make these three areas more sustainable to meet the EU Green Deal standard.
For three days, all partner organisations worked on this waste and water management aspect of the toolkit, which included going to the Ayia Napas water treatment plant, where the partner organisations were shown the methods used to effectively conserve and reuse the water from domestic use.
The final two days focused on partner meetings to progress module development in the educational toolkit. This toolkit will help local authorities and communities implement the EU Green Deal at the local level.
Thank you to everyone who was involved in this exchange, and we look forward to the progression of this project over the following years!
Leave No Trace Ireland is one of six partner institutions involved in the ‘GoGreen – Local Action for the EU Green Deal Project’. Included are three municipalities in Portugal, Belgium, and Spain, two environmental NGOs (ASPEA – Portugal, Leave No Trace – Ireland) and a research centre in Cyprus that will lead the project.
The Go Green partner organisations are:
- Synthesis Centre
- Município de Lousada
- Gemeente & OCMW Zoersel
- ASPEA Associação
- Ayuntamiento Soto del Real
- Leave No Trace Ireland
The European Green Deal aims to transform the 27-country block from a high- to a low-carbon economy, without reducing prosperity and while improving people’s quality of life, through cleaner air and water, better health and a thriving natural world.
The green deal will work through a framework of regulation and legislation setting clear overarching targets – a bloc-wide goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and a 50%-55% cut in emissions by 2030 (compared with 1990 levels) are supposed to be at the core – alongside incentives to encourage private sector investment, with action plans for key sectors and goals such as halting species loss, cutting waste and better use of natural resources.
