Aachen Signs the Circular Cities Declaration to Accelerate its Circular Transition @CircularCityEU Some of the main challenges of our era, such as climate change, housing and mobility issues, ageing population, inequality and societal polarisation are especially palpable in cities. At the same time, cities have a huge innovation potential to tackle these challenges. In October 2021, the city of Aachen signed the Circular Cities Declaration, a major step in the city’s efforts to speed up its transition to the Circular Economy, alleviate existing challenges, and pave the path to a more sustainable future. As demographic and economic epicentres, cities have a critical role to play in making the transition to the Circular Economy happen. The Circular Cities Declaration (CCD) allows local and regional governments to communicate their commitment and gives them a chance to create a shared vision as well as a network of committed organisations to share experiences, challenges, and successes. The signing ceremony in Aachen’s town hall gathered more than a hundred stakeholders from different organisations, such as universities, business, city administration, civil society – a diverse network as a base for fruitful collaborations in the circularity journey. As a supporting partner to the CCD network, the CSCP is sharing its circular economy expertise, including holding webinars to signatories. The webinars offer a combination of state-of-the-art theoretical knowledge as well as hands-on advice. In October 2021, the CSCP held a webinar on the topic of citizen engagement and behaviour change for circular cities. Drawing on insights and experience from projects such as Day of the Good Life or the Consumer Insight Action Panel, the webinar highlighted how circularity is highly dependent on citizens, for example in their role as waste and, therefore, resource producers. Other interesting topics revolved around practical examples of engagement and lively discussions with the cities. Upcoming signatories of the Circular Cities Declaration have the opportunity to achieve better international profiling, access advice and support, and enhance city-to-city cooperation. The CSCP calls on cities to sign the Declaration and become pioneers in the path to a Circular Economy. Do you have further questions? Please reach out to Cristina Fedato and let’s engage together! Photo by © CCE/IME.