Bis 2025 will Nantes den Ausstoß von Treibhausgasen um 50 Prozent senken. Um dieses ehrgeizige Ziel zu erreichen, geht die Stadt einen in Frankreich bislang einzigartigen Weg: 150 Haushalte der Stadt nehmen ein Jahr lang am so genannten „L’Atelier Climat“ teil. In regelmäßigen Schulungen lernen sie nicht nur mehr über ihr eigenes Verhalten, sondern entwickeln die Klima-Strategie der Stadt maßgeblich mit. Das Projekt soll die Bürger für umweltbewusstes Verhalten sensibilisieren. Darüber hinaus findet eine detaillierte Auswertung statt, zum Beispiel über monatlich erhobene Fragebögen und eine Ermittlung der individuellen CO2-Bilanz der Teilnehmer. Anhand dieser Daten will die Stadt Maßnahmen und Empfehlungen für ihre Bürger entwickeln, die wie maßgeschneidert zu ihren individuellen Bedürfnissen passen.
Öffentlicher Nahverkehr statt Privatauto
Als erste Stadt Frankreichs führte Nantes 1985 die Straßenbahn wieder ein. Heute bildet das Straßenbahnnetz in der Loire-Stadt mit 42 Kilometern das längste im ganzen Land. Fähren und Busse ergänzen das öffentliche Verkehrssystem. Nantes zeigt, dass sich Ökonomie und Ökologie nicht ausschließen.
Die Atlantik-Metropole zählt zu den am stärksten wachsenden Städten Frankreichs. Das gut entwickelte Nahverkehrssystem trug jedoch dazu bei, den Autoverkehr in den letzten Jahren zu reduzieren. Für seinen nachhaltigen Stadtverkehr erhielt Nantes 2009 einen Preis der EU.
Grüne Lunge der Stadt
Lebensqualität und Luftqualität sind für Nantes zentrale Elemente der Stadtplanung. So muss niemand weiter als 300 Meter laufen, um pestizidfreie Biodiversität zu erleben: Auf jeden Bewohner kommen 57 Quadratmeter Grünfläche, insgesamt 3.366 Hektar. Darüber hinaus forstet Nantes Stadtwälder auf – bis 2016 entstehen 800 Hektar Waldfläche.
Der Blogeintrag zur Station
3 in 1
Nantes is going to be European Green Capital 2013, following the Basque town Vitoria-Gasteiz (2012) and Hamburg (2011). In Nantes all three Green Capitals came together when representatives of the cities visited the Train of Ideas.
"Congratulations Hamburg: This Train of Ideas is an excellent initiative", said Jean-Marc Ayrault, the Mayor of Nantes, during the opening ceremony of our exhibition in his town, which is going to be the next European Green Capital but one. And Idoia Garmendia, Deputy Mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz, who visited the Train for the second time after Barcelona even announced that her city would be interested in taking over (parts of) the exhibtion for Vitoria's Green Capital campaign next year. Number three in the "European Capital Triangle" was Hamburg's Wilhem Schulte, Head of Urban Planning and Landscape Department.
All three representatives emphasized the importance of communication and of exchanging experiences and informations. In the case of Nantes this is even one their contributions to our exhibition: A "Climate Workshop" was held to evaluate basic informations about what the people in Nantes know about climate change and what they can do against it. 150 households are now taking part in testing out all kinds of measures. This is one of Nantes' focus points: saving CO2 emissions in private households, urban mobility and economy.
Therefore Nantes is taking great effort to promote public transport, cycling and its walkability. In 1985 Nantes was the first city in France to bring back its tram system (given up in the 50's) and recently invented a so called "busway": A separate lane for buses with higher platforms for an easier access, just looking like a stop for trams. This is actually what it's meant for: to be "upgraded" in a tram lane later. So the traffic planner already set the course anticipatory for a system change in the time being. Everywhere downtown you can see construction sites and signs explaining that this or that road is getting reconstructed to gain more space for pedestrians and green spaces. Thanks to the consequent traffic concept and an ambitiouse climate protection plan Nantes was already able to minimize its yearly CO2 emissions to 4,77 tons per capita.
Wilhelm Schulte was very much impressed by these projects - and also by the urban development on the Loire river isle Île de Nantes which reminded him of the Hafencity in Hamburg. Yes, this is true, but I was also reminscented of the Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA) on Hamburg's river isle Wilhelmsburg. In both projects it's about redevelopping and reshaping a poor, unstructured quarter that is dominated by high rise dwelling, seedy old buildings and industry. On both river isles old houses are getting refurbished, closed areas turn into open public spaces, barriers get eliminated and new architecture shapes lively places. So that was fascinating to see that some of the ideas we knew from Hamburg are followed in Nantes as well - or vice versa.
And of course it's fascinating to see and learn how Nantes and other cities manage their competitions in general. We had the occasion to visit and learn from 13 cities within the last 11 weeks. Today we are closing the exhibition in Nantes and come back to Hamburg for a summer break and will have to digest all those overwhelming impressions. I guess we all deserve a little break now: The whole team, myself and of course our Train of Ideas - as more than 30,000 visitors left their marks on the exhibits! But in six weeks the Train (and this Blog) will start again. Next stop: Paris on September 1st.