This summer, 2015, the EPM course did an exciting trip to Riga, the capital of Latvia. This city was chosen after a democratic vote and has recently been in the news as the location for the EU Riga Summit.
We, EPM students, learned and discovered about important environmental issues in the capital, by meeting with several organisations and engaging with the work and research that they do. The excursions visited the Meteorological Centre, Department for Housing and Environment, Riga Technical University, Waste Management Association, and Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology. This wide range of organisations allowed us to have an overview of the issues Riga faces over the 21st Century and the kind of policies in place as mitigation.
The most intriguing discussions with the organisations were about air quality, transportation system and waste management. Through the meetings, we also learned the different careers across the environmental sector within the European Union.
Riga has similar environmental problems as any other city, particularly in transportation and air quality. These type of problems could be said to be one of the consequences of an increasing population living in the cities. The development of future policies to control these problems, and at the same time create social and economic stability, will be complex given the diverse number of variables to consider.