Cities play a pivotal role in achieving climate neutrality by 2050, the goal of the European Green Deal. They take up only 4% of the EU’s land area, but they are home to 75% of EU citizens. Furthermore, cities consume over 65% of the world’s energy and account for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions.

Since climate mitigation is heavily dependent on urban action, we need to support cities in accelerating their green and digital transformation. In particular, European cities can substantially contribute to the Green Deal target of reducing emissions by 55% by 2030 and, in more practical terms, to offer cleaner air, safer transport and less congestion and noise to their citizens.

Aims of the Mission

The Cities Mission will involve local authorities, citizens, businesses, investors as well as regional and national authorities to:

• deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030;
• ensure that these cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050.

As foreseen in its implementation plan, the Cities Mission takes a cross-sectoral and demand-led approach, creating synergies between existing initiatives and basing its activities on the actual needs of cities.

The 112 cities are testing innovative cross-sectoral approaches including for citizen engagement, stakeholder management and internal governance to accelerate their path to climate neutrality.

The 112 selected cities are invited to develop Climate City Contracts, which include an overall plan for climate neutrality across all sectors such as energy, buildings, waste management and transport, together with related investment plans. Climate City Contracts are co-created with local stakeholders and citizens, with the help of a Mission Platform (which is currently managed by the project NetZeroCities). The clear and visible commitments put together by the cities in the Climate City Contracts enable them to engage with the EU, national and regional authorities, with investors and with their citizens to deliver on their ambitious climate neutrality objective.

Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission 2023-2025 Work Programme

Climate neutrality for cities is associated with important co-benefits and urban qualities such as reduced air and noise pollution, improved health and well-being, reduced urban environmental footprints, enhanced urban greening, reduced soil sealing and improved water

management. It is also associated with policy coherence across sectors and with participatory and inclusive decision-making. Therefore, in addition to a significant contribution to the objective of the European Green Deal to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050, the actions funded will also contribute to the UN Agenda 2030, the EU Zero Pollution Action Plan, the Fit for 55 strategy, the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change, the EU Industrial Strategy, the EU Bioeconomy Strategy and the New European Bauhaus initiative. In the process, they will support cities in their twin green and digital transformation.

Topics under the 2023-2024 calls will continue to work on developing and scaling up R&I activities and solutions while fostering synergies and joint actions with Horizon Europe Partnerships as well as other EU Missions. The envisaged actions will aim at accelerating the transition of European cities to climate neutrality by exploiting the potential of electric, automated and connected as well as shared people mobility and freight transport through a joint action with the Horizon Europe Partnerships dedicated to Zero-emission Road Transport (2Zero) and Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM).

Missions and Cross-cutting Activities:

• engaging cities in decisive climate mitigation and adaptation efforts to reduce emissions, based on innovative use of urban greening and nature-based solutions through a joint action with the Adaptation to Climate Change Mission;
• developing and testing a digital twin of a Positive clean Energy District (PED) covering modelling, management, citizen interaction, self-optimization, decision support/scenario analysis.
• rethinking urban spaces towards climate neutrality by developing and applying methods and tools for a smart urban public space design and physical infrastructure management;
• delivering better and innovative local measures against pollution through increased knowledge about the exposure of citizens to pollution and health impact assessments and strategies to reduce health impacts related to air, water, soil and noise pollution;
• exploring, analysing and evaluating the effectiveness of mobility management schemes, influencing behavioural change, travel demand and travel supply, in achieving a decarbonised and energy-efficient urban mobility system;
• fostering the integration of green and smart mobility, energy, industry and governance solutions and measures within peri-urban development and planning practices to reduce GHG emissions and to improve liveability.

Useful links

• Implementation plan of the Mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030”
• Work Programme 2023-2025.
  12. Missions and Cross-cutting Activities
• Climate-neutral and smart cities : foresight on demand brief in support of the Horizon Europe mission board 
• EU website dedicated to the Mission Climate neutral and smart cities