October Days for Sustainable Development

21 October 2021

Rethinking Cities: from Smart to Human

Holger Robrecht

Deputy Regional Director for Europe

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability

Holger Robrecht is a specialist in local environmental and sustainability management and planning, and has more than 30 years of experience in supervising teams and the development and coordination of large-scale international and European projects. He joined ICLEI -Local Governments for Sustainability in 1997. As one of four Deputy Regional Directors for Europe, he is member of ICLEI’s Board of Directors and leads ICLEI’s Sustainable Resources, Climate & Resilience team.

Currently he focuses on innovative solutions to support sustainable cities and communities (including nature-based solutions, blue, green and digitally supported infrastructures), climate-resilient and carbon-neutral urban and regional transformation, and the role of sub-national and local governments in the UN Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

He represents ICLEI Europe in the UN CBD Roadmap process and is liaison to European Institutions and Biodiversity stakeholders. In partnership with the European Environment Agency, in 2013, he founded the European Urban Resilience Forum as an annual exchange platform of local practitioners and researchers aiming at mainstream resilience in urban areas. Holger has been member of several international and EU Expert Groups.

Before joining ICLEI, Holger led the Research department Soil Contamination, Soil Protection and Land-use management at the University of Dortmund, Institute for Environmental Research (1990-97).