Hamburg: European Green Capital 2011

In 2009, the European Commission launched the European Green Capital Award, in order to strengthen environmental awareness in Europe’s cities and promote sound economic growth compatible with the protection of natural resources. Stockholm was the first city to hold the annual title of European Green Capital and was succeeded by Hamburg on 15 December 2010. When stating the reasons for its decision, the European Commission particularly lauded Hamburg’s efforts to reduce air pollution, its management of urban traffic congestions and greenhouse gas emissions and its ambitious plans for future environmentally-friendly measures. The priority issues for this special year included the categories of climate & energy, sustainable consumption, mobility, nature & urban green space, protection of resources & economic activity, and urban development & housing.

As Hamburg’s year as Europe’s Green Capital 2011 draws to its end, we look back on a time filled with exciting activities. One of them was the “Train of Ideas”, which toured Europe on a mission to draw attention to its “visions for future cities”. In addition, the “My Tree – My City” campaign provided everyone interested with the opportunity to donate money for the planting of a particular tree in a particular location. As soon as sufficient money was donated for a particular tree, the city of Hamburg doubled the donated amount, so that the tree could be immediately planted in the designated place. These are only two of the many interesting activities that were carried out as part of the European Green Capital Initiative in the past few months. However, the year has not ended yet, and a visit to the website umwelthauptstadt.hamburg.de will provide Hamburg’s citizens and visitors with detailed information on the upcoming events in the next two months. For 2012, Hamburg will hand over the title of European Green Capital to the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz in the north of Spain.