"We, local and regional leaders, are at the frontline of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and at the same time working to meet the Green Deal objectives. The situation in which we find ourselves is difficult but we need to be ambitious." Rafał Trzaskowski, Mayor of Warsaw made these remarks during the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy Political Board meeting. The meeting was attended by Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy.
Trzaskowski emphasised the need for transparent and non-political criteria when distributing the funds for recovery and resilience building. He reiterated his call for direct access to EU funds to complete concrete project on the ground such as switching public transport from fossil fuels to cleaner alternatives.
Speaking on the need of working together and sharing of good practices to achieve the European Green Deal ambitions Trzaskowski said "We have to work together for better results, building upon the frontrunner practices being developed all over the EU. We must adopt the right methodology, translate our goals into real actions, we need to engage the citizens, especially the young generation, communicate better the benefits of climate mitigation to them, we also need to work together, exchange best practices and make a better use of the Covenant Platform."
Warsaw is currently taking a number of actions aimed at meeting the reduction target of 40% by 2030 and becoming climate-neutral not later than in 2050. Giving an on the ground example, Trzaskowski said that: "Warsaw was one of the founding members of the Covenant of Mayors, joining the initiative in February 2009. In 2011 Warsaw City Council adopted "Sustainable Energy Action Plan for the City of Warsaw", where the commitments of the Covenant were translated into concrete local actions that lead to achieving climate targets. The main activities covered three sectors: energy, buildings, and transport."