2021 IFLA Europe Award to Frans Timmermans, European Commission Executive Vice President of European Commission for the European Green Deal!
IFLA Europe – the European Region of the International Federation of Landscape Architects – is proud to announce the laureate of its 2021 IFLA Europe Award - Frans Timmermans, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for the European Green Deal!
The award was introduced in 2014 IFLA Europe General Assembly with the objective to recognise the work of exceptional people and organisations that believe that our way of perceiving and understanding the world – derived from our profession – could contribute to its sustainable development.
The Executive Vice President Timmermans will address the participants of the 2021 IFLA Europe General Assembly which will take place on 22-24 October 2021 in Granada, Spain.
Urban, agrarian and rural, coastal and natural landscapes require, today more than ever, the adequate protection, planning and management, as stated in the European Landscape Convention in 2000. More recently, the Paris Agreement, the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the EU Green Deal outlined a clear roadmap to curb climate change. Mitigation and adaptation specify measures to reduce greenhouse gases, on the one hand, and to adapt our environment to new climate scenarios, on the other. Landscape Architects seek to find new ways to ensure sustainability through the valuation of nature and ecosystem services, to provide qualitative and healthy landscapes, as well as preserving collective memory, heritage and culture, and creating places that anticipate social and economic well-being. The landscape is in the centre of all eyes and Landscape Architects have a lot to contribute, through their expertise and holistic approach.
IFLA Europe is embracing and supporting European Commission and Executive Vice President Timmermans’ collective ambition for enforcement and implementation of EU laws and instruments on climate, energy, environment and related policies, establishing a new climate culture in Europe under a European Climate Pact — bringing together regions, local communities, civil society, industry and schools- enhancing and promoting the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, progressing on the circular economy and the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy for sustainable.
Frans Timmermans is Executive Vice-President of the Commission, leading its work on the European Green Deal – Europe’s roadmap to becoming the first climate-neutral continent.
In this role, Frans Timmermans is responsible for implementing the European Green Deal and the first European Climate Law to enshrine the 2050 climate-neutrality target into EU law. He is in charge of stepping up the commitment to the 2030 emission reduction target, increasing it to at least 50% by 2030, and undertaking international negotiations on behalf of the EU to strengthen the ambition of other major emitters by 2021. He leads the Commission’s work on extending the Emissions
Trading System and coordinates work on the Just Transition Fund – a key progressive policy from the European elections. He is developing the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the Commission’s zero-pollution ambition, the circular economy and the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy, and many other initiatives.
Together we can bring skills that include design, construction and research and add to the body of knowledge required to ensure our efforts to recover our planet are successful. IFLA EUROPE and its members realise fully the importance of this work and share the vision! It is essential to take necessary efforts and fight climate change and environmental losses and create strategies and actions for a climate-neutral continent.
