GOTHENBURG

Sweden

The City of Gothenburg is a port city with a strategic location between Oslo and Copenhagen. It has a population of around 548 000 and is Sweden’s second largest city. It was classed by Forbes as the world´s 12th most inventive city in 2013. The Gothenburg region, which spans 13 municipalities in Greater Gothenburg, has a population of 1.1 million. The Gothenburg region is right at the epicentre of Scandinavia and the Baltic States, and the gateway to a market of 190 million people. 70 % of Scandinavia´s total industrial capacity is located within a 500-km radius of the Gothenburg region and 30% of Swedish foreign trade passes through the Port of Gothenburg. Traditionally an industrial city, Gothenburg lost its shipyards in the 1970 and thus became largely dependent on the local automotive industry as a large scale employer. The city now faces the challenge of replacing the waning industrial employment with new jobs in services, new high-tech enterprises and qualified jobs in the knowledge sector. Gothenburg has drawn up ambitious strategies for city development that aim to make it one of the most progressive cities in the world concerning climate impact, energy efficiency, mobility/logistics and social inclusion.

The aim is that by 2050 the city will have a sustainable and ambitiously reduced level of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions: the average level of CO2 equivalent emission per person in Gothenburg will have to be reduced to less than 2t per person for the goal to be reached. The city has adopted an interim target which states that by 2020 emission levels of CO2 will be reduced by at least 40 % compared to the levels in 1990. Gothenburg has signed the EU Covenant of Mayors and has committed to go beyond the objectives of EU energy policy.

To foster international cooperation and innovation, the City of Gothenburg participates in many European networks and programmes; EUROCITIES, Climate-KIC (Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership for climate change), the EIP Smart Cities and Communities, ERRIN, POLIS (President 2020-2021), LUCI and the European EIT Climate-KIC network. The City of Gothenburg is a member of 51 organizations. Six of the memberships are directly linked to the municipal government: EUROCITIES, Göteborg-Oslo cooperation, the Scandinavian arena, Cities for Children, ICLEI and the Mayors for Peace.

In recent years, substantial effort has been put in to establish strategies for the development of the city in the years to come, including strategies towards 2035. These are four guiding documents: 1. Vision Älvstaden, 2. Traffic Strategy for a Close City 3. Green Strategy for a Dense, Green City and 4. Strategy for Gothenburg 2035 Expansion Planning – jointly indicate the direction Gothenburg will develop in over the next 20 years.

The following agencies and municipal bodies will be involved in MOVE21: