Climate action on 2 Mar 2023 by SmartCitiesWorld news team informs on:
Cities chosen for EU NetZeroCities Pilot programme
Cities from 21 countries will experiment with new ways to rapidly decarbonise, implementing systemic and locally designed actions that other cities can replicate.
Fifty-three cities have been selected for the EU’s NetZeroCities Pilot Cities initiative in which they will experiment with new ways to rapidly decarbonise over the course of a two-year programme.
The Pilot Cities programme is being managed by the Mission Platform of the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities (EU Cities Mission).
Locally designed climate action
The pilot cities from 21 European Union and Horizon 2020 Associated Countries will implement systemic and locally designed actions from buildings to waste, designed to bring about major change.
Cities will be a proving ground for taking systemic, inclusive, and multi-lever approaches to transforming city systems. Over their two-year journey, cities will reflect and learn as they go, providing opportunities for other cities to follow, replicating and/or scaling approaches and solutions relevant to their context. Pilot Cities’ activities will be supported by €32m in grants from the NetZero Cities project, which manages the Mission Platform.
“They will test new strategies to achieve their local climate goals. Their experience will serve as examples to all cities across the European Union and beyond”
The grants are funded by Horizon 2020, the EU framework programme for research and innovation, preceding the current Horizon Europe programme. The grants will complement the support provided already by the city advisors and the consortium partners of NetZeroCities. The Pilot Cities Programme is an important part of accomplishing the objectives of the EU Cities Mission to have 112 climate neutral cities by 2030.
In continuing work under the EU Cities Mission banner, an increasing number of Mission Cites will be supported to enhance their proposed activities and ascertain funding to implement them through the NetZeroCities Pilot Cities Programme, piloting their own approaches to rapid and systemic decarbonisation.
In addition, all the cities that were not selected as pilot cities at this stage will have other ways to engage with the Cities Mission, for example through a twinning and teaming programme that will start shortly.
“Congratulations to the 53 cities selected for the Pilot Cities Programme to contribute to EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities,” said commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth, Mariya Gabriel. “They will test new strategies to achieve their local climate goals. Their experience will serve as examples to all cities across the European Union and beyond.
“The Pilot Cities programme is only one of many building blocks put in place by the EU Cities Mission. I encourage all cities to check out all future initiatives, and to engage now with their citizens and stakeholders and prepare their strategy for becoming climate neutral.”
More than 100 applications were submitted, involving 159 cities from 33 countries across the European Union and Horizon 2020 Associated Countries.
The selected EU cities are: Aachen, Mannheim, Muenster (Germany); Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Groningen, Helmond, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht (Netherlands); Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, Valladolid, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Zaragoza (Spain); Bergamo, Bologna, Florence, Milan, Padua, Parma, Prato, Rome, Turin (Italy); Budapest (Hungary); Cluj-Napoca (Romania); Dijon, Nantes (France); Galway (Ireland) Guimaraes (Portugal) Kozani (Greece) Krakow, Lodz, Rzeszow, Warsaw, Wroclaw (Poland); Kranj, Ljubljana, Velenje (Slovenia); Lahti, Turku (Finland); Leuven (Belgium); Liberec (Czechia); Limassol (Cyprus); Malmo, Umea, Uppsala (Sweden).
Cities from associated countries: Bristol (UK); Drammen (Norway); Istanbul (Turkey) Rivne (Ukraine).
The NetZeroCities project supports the 112 European cities known as the Mission Cities in drastically reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to achieve climate neutrality.
The EU Cities Mission supports the European Green Deal in building a low-carbon, climate-resilient future through research and innovation.
