City of Vaasa among the finalists of the European Green Leaf 2026 competition
The City of Vaasa is one of seven European cities selected as finalists for the 2026 European Green Capital & Green Leaf Award. The competition, organised by the European Commission, focuses on how cities have succeeded in addressing and continue to address environmental challenges such as climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.
– The Green Leaf competition is a great way to highlight Vaasa’s leadership in climate and energy issues. We are the energy capital of the Nordic region, and in addition to our world-class expertise in energy technology, we now want to highlight solutions that create healthy environments for our residents. For example, the city’s stormwater solutions and the Aurora Botnia, the world’s greenest passenger ship, are great examples of the city’s ambition. Vaasa’s excellence has now been recognised by an impartial jury, and therefore a place among the finalists is already a victory in itself, rejoices Suvi Aho, Strategy and Regional Services Manager from the City of Vaasa.
– One of the reasons we entered the competition is that all candidate cities receive valuable feedback from independent experts on the effectiveness of our environmental efforts compared to other European cities. This will give us valuable peer support on how to improve the level of environmental protection in the future, says Energy and Climate Specialist Johanna Punkari.
The finalists for the 2026 European Green Leaf Award for cities with less than 100 000 inhabitants are Agueda (Portugal), Saint-Quentin (France), Sant Boi de Llobregat (Spain) and Vaasa (Finland). In the category of cities with more than 100 000 inhabitants, the finalists are Heilbronn (Germany), Guimarães (Portugal) and Klagenfurt am Wörthersee (Austria).
The finalist cities will present their environmental plans and communication strategies to the jury in October. The winners will be announced in this year’s European Green Capital, Valencia, Spain, on 27 November 2024.
The European Green Leaf title is awarded to one or two cities. Each Green Leaf winner will receive a cash prize of 200 000 euros, and the cities will host a series of international events during the title year.
Read the whole article: City of Vaasa among the finalists of the European Green Leaf 2026 competition | Vaasa
The leading development themes of InnoCity Vaasa are Sustainable and smart energy systems.
