European Greening Cities Initiative
AML is part of the "GreeningCities" initiative, with the challenge of studying methodologies for integrating green and blue infrastructure into urban planning, promoting sustainable urban development and cleaner, greener cities.
The Ljubljana agreement, signed in 2021, established this theme as one of the four priorities for the Urban Agenda. The aim is to ensure greater involvement of European cities in the design and implementation of policies and to include or strengthen their urban dimensions.
The Green Cities partnership , developed within the framework of the European Union's Urban Agenda, is currently designing and implementing practical actions that articulate strategies arising from the thematic partnerships already finalized and underway.
The aim is to establish synergies, complementarities and lines of continuity for future European networks. The objectives of this new partnership are linked to the work of the thematic partnerships already concluded or underway, seeking synergies, complementarities and lines of continuity between the projects already carried out and the path to be followed by this and future European networks.
The partnership seeks to increase the public sector's knowledge base for sustainable urban development in order to apply existing funding lines, explain the associated benefits of green and blue infrastructure and highlight its potential as cost-effective solutions for promoting the health and well-being of urban communities.
This action is based on three pillars: better knowledge, better regulation and funding.
Knowledge seeks to provide guidance on good practices, regulation aims to establish a legislative framework at EU level to halt the loss of urban green spaces and to increase them over time.
The partnership has 31 members (ten cities, three regions, three national authorities, European organizations and institutions, and external partners).
Work began in 2024 and will continue until 2027.
Green and blue infrastructures
The implementation of green and blue infrastructures in urban development incorporates the city's entire ecosystem, from communication routes to peri-urban areas, covering a wide range of possible structures such as parks, gardens, green corridors, green rings, urban gardens in the case of green infrastructures and rainwater reservoirs, permeable soils or sustainable drainage systems in the case of blue infrastructures.
Action methodology
Greening Cities has developed several discussion forums, debating the green options to be adopted in European cities.
In October 2024, it began to develop an action plan, which will allow it to integrate the contributions of its partners in order to develop a European regulation that respects the European Nature Restoration Regulation.
The action plan is divided into six differentiated and sequenced actions: 1) methodologies to quantify the demand for green infrastructure at a local level; 2) a system of indicators for Urban Nature Plans; 3) implementation of policies to achieve urban restoration targets / Urban Nature Plans; 4) reinforcement of structural funding; 5) improving the use of innovative funding by urban authorities for green cities; and 6) an Urban Ecosystem Restoration manual.
The culmination of the work on the six actions mentioned above will be the production of a Manual by the end of 2025.
AML's vision
The Lisbon Metropolitan Area sees this partnership as central to the process of metropolitan consolidation that has already taken place, namely through three participatory processes at regional level that are currently underway: the Lisbon Regional Strategy AML 2030, o Metropolitan Climate Change Adaptation Plan and the Strategy for Food Transition.
The Green Cities partnership will be a significant opportunity to deepen AML's work in the field of urban sustainability.
The implementation of the Metropolitan Climate Change Adaptation Plan, embodied in the project CLIMA.AML - Metropolitan Meteorological Monitoring and Alert Networkallows AML to demonstrate its ability to identify methodologies and apply actions in the territory that contribute to more resilient territories.
AML's contributions
AML plays a relevant role in action 3 "implementation of policies to achieve urban restoration goals/Urban Nature Plans".
The projects that AML has developed, in collaboration with its partners, allow us to have a solid base, supported by environmental policy instruments, which is in line with urban nature.
The work of this partnership aims to promote and share best practices in future European Urban Agenda projects, contributing to the construction of fairer, greener cities and more effective public policies.
Implementation of policies to achieve urban restoration goals
Between March and June 2025, a series of six webinars were held, led by the Action 3 leader and with the support of an external expert.
In these sessions, external experts from public and private institutions were invited to share their experiences and contribute to improving thinking and helping to define the direction to be adopted in cities.
Restoration of urban ecosystems - Baselines and data;
Development of a Municipal Roadmap for Urban Ecosystem Restoration
Building Regulations and Space for Nature Restoration
Regulations for Nature Restoration on municipal land
Involving citizens and companies in restoring the urban ecosystem
Collaboration in National Restoration Plans
From action to impact
On June 16 and 17, 2025, the 7th face-to-face meeting of the partnership took place in Krakow, Poland. The purpose of the meeting was to outline the partnership's next steps, in a phase of delivering the first results and preparing the final products.
The meeting, co-organized by Polish entities, focused on strategic alignment and the development of products such as a series of webinars on the Nature Restoration Regulation and a political position on the reform of EU funding. One of the main focuses was the collaborative planning of the "Urban Ecosystem Restoration Manual" (UERM), to be finalized by the end of 2025, to support cities in achieving nature restoration goals.
On the second day, work focused on the dissemination strategy and strengthening the political visibility of the results, exploring participation in events and adjusting key messages for decision-makers. The importance of political support and collaboration with other UAEU partnerships, such as "Water Sensitive Cities" and "Compact Cities", were also discussed.
The Green Cities Partnership is now entering a decisive phase, with the aim of finalizing strategic products and ensuring their widespread dissemination, helping to provide European cities with tools and knowledge for a greener and more resilient urban future.
Schedule
During the months of July and August, the final reports on the results of the activities carried out in actions 2, 3 and 5 will be presented, as well as a report on the funding for the Nature Restoration Plans.
There were monthly online meetings between partners, as well as technical meetings between different actors.
