1 Feb 2023

Cork signs European Commission Charter to ‘Restore our ocean and waters’

Cork is the first Atlantic City to sign up to the Charter of the European Commission’s Mission. 

The City will seek to play a meaningful local leadership role and set an example in contributing to the realisation of the initiative’s objectives. In doing so, a 10-point local Action Programme has been devised by which to embrace the River Lee and Inner Harbour as never before, through significant engagement with residents of the city. 

This will raise awareness of the importance, and the fragility, of these aquatic assets, as well as facilitating active participation in how they are managed and used in a sustainable sense.

Image – Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Deirdre Forde, attends the ‘Building the Atlantic-Artic lighthouse from the bottom up’, held at NMCI, Ringaskiddy. 

The high-profile Mission launch event, ‘Building the Atlantic-Artic lighthouse from the bottom up’, held at NMCI, Ringaskiddy on 24 November was addressed by Lord Mayor Deirdre Forde as well as her County counterpart, Cllr Danny Collins.

The initiative is just one of Cork’s many efforts to be a leader in sustainable development, with Cork also signed up to become one of Europe’s first climate neutral cities by 2030.  Cork was selected as one of 100 cities who will lead the way on climate action and smart cities across Europe

What is the Mission?

With a 2030 target, the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters” aims to protect and restore the health of our ocean and waters through research and innovation, citizen engagement and blue investments. The Mission’s new approach will address the ocean and waters as one and play a key role in achieving climate neutrality and restoring nature.

Cross-cutting enabling actions will support this objective, in particular broad public mobilisation and engagement and a digital ocean and water knowledge system, known as Digital Twin.

The Mission supports regional engagement and cooperation through area-based “lighthouses” in major sea/river basins: Atlantic-Arctic, Mediterranean Sea, Baltic-North Sea, and Danube-Black Sea. Mission lighthouses are sites to pilot, demonstrate, develop  and deploy the Mission activities across EU seas and river basins