Eight cities are in the running for Europe’s top urban environment prizes for 2028, Euronews reports. Five are finalists for the European Green Capital Award, open to cities of more than 100,000 people: Aalborg in Denmark, Bielsko-Biała in Poland, Košice in Slovakia, Porto in Portugal and Zaragoza in Spain.
Three smaller places are shortlisted for the European Green Leaf Award, for towns of 20,000 to 100,000 residents: Benidorm and Chiclana de la Frontera in Spain, and Estarreja in Portugal. Benidorm’s case rests on visible change. Since 2012 the resort has expanded its public gardens from 350,000 square metres to more than 1.5 million, and nearly quadrupled its number of trees.
Judges looked at seven areas, including air and water quality, biodiversity, waste, noise, emissions cuts and climate resilience. The Green Capital winner receives €600,000 and each Green Leaf winner €200,000, and the titles are awarded well ahead of time so cities can prepare a year of environmental projects. The winners will be announced on 8 October in Guimarães, Portugal.
Source: Euronews