What is the Cool Noons project?
To anticipate this issue, the City of Marseille, with its European Climate Neutral & Smart Cities Label for 2030, has been running the Cool Noons project since January 2024, with the help and funding of Europe.
Winner of the European “Interreg Euro-MED” program for the Mission “improving sustainable tourism”, this 33-month project bears witness to the city’s commitment to working on a daily basis towards a triple objective:
- Adapt to climate change
- Mitigate the impact of increasing summer heat waves
- respond to the challenges of ecological transition in urban environments through its international exchanges.
It is to meet this ambition that the Cool Noons project aims to facilitate cooperation between Mediterranean countries by helping to find concrete, shared solutions. The aim is to build a climate-neutral and resilient society for the benefit of its citizens.
To promote adaptation to climate change in Mediterranean urban areas, the Cool Noons project involves five “pilot” cities in different countries (Budva in Montenegro, Dubrovnik in Croatia, Lisbon in Portugal, Bologna in Italy and Marseille in France), as well as the Agency for Sustainable Mediterranean Cities and Territories (AVITeM), the University of Coimbra in Portugal, the American College of Greece and the Imola Faenza Tourism Agency.
Starting in the summer of 2024, each of the “pilot” cities will offer fresh tourist itineraries, and will develop and test innovative solutions to improve the comfort and experience of visitors and residents during the hottest hours of the day. At the same time, each of them will imagine new uses for urban spaces, better adapted to today’s climate challenges.
The Cool Noons project will thus contribute to improving the quality of life and the living environment, while structuring a new tourism offer for the benefit of all the town’s users.
