Cologne – Rio de Janeiro: “The partnership helps us reflect on our own actions”

The cities of Cologne and Rio de Janeiro have been linked by a city-to-city partnership since 2011 and are also linked through a climate partnership. There are obviously huge differences between the two municipalities due to their location, their climate zones and the different social features in the cities. But what links the two municipalities?

Ute Dreiocker: Let me start with what connects us. However different the cities of Cologne and Rio de Janeiro may be, my sense is that the people of Rio de Janeiro and Cologne have a similar mentality. Working relationships are open and sincere, which makes collaboration with my colleagues very straightforward.

Bernardo Ornelas: That's my view too. Although Cologne and Rio have very different cultural roots, I saw on my first visit to Cologne how positive and hospitable the people are – which is in contrast to the traditional image we have of the Germans. I obviously also have to mention the carnival – a festival that unites our two cities. We share the same ‘DNA’ when it comes to celebrating life.

Ute Dreiocker: Our cities are also united by having similar strategic aims: the path towards carbon neutrality, the need for adaptation to climate impacts and implementation of the 2030 Agenda with its 17 SDGs. We are addressing the issue of “future-proof urban development”’ in different ways but the goals are the same. Both cities are also very well connected internationally. We now have 23 international municipal partnerships in Cologne, which are very important for Cologne and for our city community. Rio is also very prominently represented in many large international city networks such as C40 or ICLEI and has close contacts with a range of United Nations programmes.

Are there also things which make the collaboration challenging?

Ute Dreiocker: There was a change of mayor in Rio de Janeiro at the start of the second project phase. This meant a reshuffle within the city administration affecting many posts and also our previous contacts in the partnership project. We therefore had to make new contacts and spend time starting from the beginning again. The distance between the two cities is obviously also a major challenge. In this respect, however, the coronavirus pandemic actually played into our hands. Video meetings have now become the norm and we are also using other digital forms of communication to keep in contact. However, it is obviously meeting each other in person and working meetings during trips by delegations that really help us move forward.

Bernardo Ornelas: The different starting points of the two cities as regards cultural background are a challenge for the collaboration, as are the technical requirements. However these also offer us an opportunity for development and for learning together. We Cariocas* are very creative and my German colleagues are very innovative. This means together we can initiate processes of transformation. This was the case with our current joint project which was able to achieve a broad-based socio-environmental impact in Rio with relatively little financial expense.

*Inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro (note from the editorial team)

What was this project about? Were there milestones you achieved together?

Bernardo Ornelas: We launched a project to introduce the circular economy into the food and organic waste chain in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Our goal was to reduce the volume of food waste, to utilise a higher proportion of organic waste and also to reduce methane emissions at disposal sites. The project is therefore making a significant contribution to climate protection and fits into the city of Rio de Janeiro’s 2030 municipal action plan for sustainable development and climate protection.

Ute Dreiocker: Our current joint project follows on from a previous climate partnership as part of which, between 2014 and 2018, we set up a composting facility for green waste in Ecoparque do Caju in Rio de Janeiro. From the Cologne side, advice and technical support was provided for the project by the waste management company (Abfallverwertungsgesellschaft, AVG). In the current project we set up the technical equipment for a composting facility with a screening unit for the finished compost. In this project phase the technical element of the project was supplemented by a social component. This involved avoiding food waste by providing advice and building awareness. Among those involved are the city schools of Rio de Janeiro. Environmental education is a subject covered on the curriculum and pupils learn how food waste can be transformed into organic fertilisers. The school canteens also ensure that as little food as possible is left over. Any organic waste created is collected and taken to the composting facility in order that the loop is closed.

Bernardo Ornelas: The finished compost is partly being used as fertiliser for the school gardens but is also used by the Municipal Secretariat for Environment and Climate to help conserve the rainforest and maintain other green spaces in the city. The setting up of Rio de Janeiro’s food bank (Banco de Alimentos), which opened in May 2024, was also a particularly important goal for us. This is a type of food distribution centre which works together with the Zona Sul supermarket chain. Unsold fruit and vegetables which are still in a good condition are distributed to needy groups within the population with help of the city welfare department. There are some areas in Rio which we designate as “food deserts” because people there have no access to healthy food. For us at Comlurb, being able to contribute to improving the food situation by establishing the “Banco de Alimentos” represents a major success.

Ute Dreiocker: We also work together with the State University of Rio de Janeiro which supported the project in an academic context and with the city’s social department which had a say in determining who would actually be entitled to receive the food. With these two partners, the project has developed from the original waste management project into a circular economy and food security project.

How are your plans looking for future projects? Will you continue to work together?

Ute Dreiocker: We already have some initial ideas, however we'll be meeting each other in September at the partnership conference where we shall look in more detail at the planning. We can mention one initial rough project idea already. We want to take a city district in Rio de Janeiro as a pilot district and involve private households there in the collection and recycling of organic household waste. There is also a current project being run by the waste management operations (Abfallwirtschaftsbetriebe, AWB) in Cologne which involves the compulsory use of organic waste collection bins in two parts of the city.

Bernardo Ornelas: Yes, it needs to be about raising residents’ awareness of environmental issues and showing them that each individual can play a key role in the process of climate adaptation. Following Cologne's example, another idea is to convert the waste collection vehicles in Rio so that they can be fuelled using biogas from the recycling of organic waste. This would mean the project could make a key contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to achieving the goals of the City of Rio de Janeiro's 2030 Sustainable Development and Climate Action Plan.

Was there a particular ‘aha’ moment while working together in the climate partnership?

Ute Dreiocker: Well, my personal ‘aha’ moment was when I realised, on my first visit to Rio, that if I was going to continue to support this city-to-city partnership, then I absolutely had to learn Portuguese. That same year, I travelled to Rio again privately and enrolled at a language school. I now speak Portuguese and that is by far the best way to start building new relationships. An ‘aha’ moment in terms of the partnership itself was the realisation that, in Rio, many issues are not just addressed from a technical perspective but that social issues are always considered and responsibility is taken – for the city district and for the people.

Bernardo Ornelas: When our delegation visited Cologne, we realised that the people of Cologne were far more responsible in their handling of waste than is the case with us. In Rio, much more work needs to be done in the area of communication and publicity in order to generate this level of awareness among the people. Another ‘aha’ moment was that, even in a city with a high standard of economic and social development, the creation of support networks is still necessary to help those most in need. It was very inspiring to see how this works in Cologne with the food bank.

As a partnership you are hosting the conference between German, Latin American and Caribbean municipalities in September in Cologne. The theme of the conference is “Partnerships for future-proof urban development”. To what extent can cities inspire each other by collaborating in municipal partnerships and what can partnerships contribute to sustainable urban development?

Ute Dreiocker: For me, the city-to-city partnerships offer great potential because it's about two-way learning. If you have your eyes open in the partner city, you see many things which are not the norm for us at home but which work really well there. We might be able to learn something from this. On the other hand, we also look at how we do things here with fresh eyes because our partners ask us questions. The partnership therefore makes us reflect on our own actions. A municipal partnership is all about this change of perspective and is very enriching for both sides.

Bernardo Ornelas: Sustainable and resilient cities are increasingly dependent on urban planning which gives priority to climate adaptation and to the well-being of its citizens. The issue of climate adaptation is a pressing challenge both for Cologne and for the city of Rio de Janeiro – we only need to think of the recent and increasingly frequent heatwaves and floods. I see the collaboration as offering great potential in this area. The circular economy and nature-based solutions (NbS) might be key concepts in supporting a transition towards more sustainable urban development. In Rio, as well as the environmental challenges, there's also the problem of social inequality. This is because the poorest in the population are the most heavily impacted by extreme weather events – a form of climate inequality. Given this starting point, linking climate adaptation and social development is a strategy which the collaboration between the partner cities should follow.

What are your hopes and expectations from the partnership conference? As the host partnership, would you like to send out a message before it begins?

Ute Dreiocker: We are really looking forward to welcoming over 20 municipal partnerships to Cologne at the start of September. Personally, and also as a City of Cologne representative, I'm curious to see what the other partnerships have implemented and achieved. Good practice from other cities can be really motivating and inspiring and, after all, we don't have to keep reinventing the wheel. We can certainly learn a lot from each other. I would also like to pass on one experience from Rio: why not celebrate our successes and take pride in what we have already achieved? For me, the partnership conference is the perfect and fitting place to do this!

Bernardo Ornelas: My expectations are simply that I hope for the best possible outcomes. The conference offers us the opportunity to take a fresh look at our globalised world and to recognise what connects Germany and Latin America and not what divides us. This brings with it a ray of hope that a better world is possible if we reconsider how we live our lives on this planet. In my view, this is essential.

Text and interview: Julia Krakau