The public discussion on Tartu’s new Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan has started.

On November 11, the public discussion of the new SECAP of Tartu “Tartu Energy 2030” took place. The event was organised both physically and as a live web event with live streams on Facebook and YouTube.

Members of Tartu city government, the SmartEnCity project manager and deputy mayor of Tartu Mr Raimond Tamm, as well as Kaspar Alev and Jaanus Tamm presented the action plan and introduced the suggestions and comments received from the public beforehand. All in all, about 140 proposals were submitted from Tartu’s citizens, about half of them concerning the transport sector, e.g. cycling infrastructure, bike sharing system, new transport centers and services, etc. Additionally, topics concerning circular economy, heating and recycling were also raised.

After the presentations, a panel discussion with representatives from local businesses, environmental organisations and the public sector took place, along with a questions and answers session with the participants and virtual audience.

In total, about 50 people participated in the event physically and about 120 virtually. Tartu city government takes every suggestion received seriously and give each weight. Every person will receive personal feedback on their suggestion. As a next step, the SECAP will be presented to the city council in December this year, with the hopes of getting it officially approved by the end of the year.

The public discussion on Tartu's new Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan was very well attended. Picture@Andra Somelar/IBS.