
Network of ambitious cities on climate neutrality grows to 184 on EU Cities Mission peer-learning programme
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News from NetZeroCities – the platform supporting the EU Mission "100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030" – for immediate release on 22 January 2025:
From January 2025, 24 more cities will quicken their pace towards climate neutrality as they join a vast peer-learning network of 184 cities across Europe and beyond, delivered through the EU Cities Mission and facilitated by NetZeroCities, the Mission platform.
The latest cities (listed below), representing 14 countries across Europe, have been selected as the third cohort to become ‘Twin Cities’ through the Twinning Learning Programme and paired with Mission Cities to learn from and feed into innovative climate-related pilot activities.
Cities with similar challenges and pursuing similar solutions related to their emissions are matched and will share their insights across domains such as buildings, energy, mobility, and waste, while leveraging governance, financing, and policy innovations.
Over 17 months, collaboration and knowledge exchange are at the heart of the programme and Twin Cities will gain insights and successful approaches from Pilot Cities to apply in their own local area, accelerating their transition towards climate neutrality and contributing to Europe’s collective climate goals.
Twin Cities will also have access to support from world-class practitioners and experts to facilitate the programme and help them achieve their climate goals.
The 24 cities add to a growing network linking with the EU’s Cities Mission – which aims to make more than 100 cities climate neutral by 2030 and to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050 – and includes five cities from associated countries of Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation fund.
The twinning programme offers concrete support to cities not already engaged with the EU Cities Mission (either as Mission Cities or on its previous Pilot or Twin programmes) and that have already committed to reaching climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest. This includes limited financial support: two in-person trips to and one visit from the matched Pilot City will be covered by the programme budget.
Relationships formed between cities during the programme are also envisaged to continue beyond the programme, encouraging long-term ties and partnerships on shared climate problems and possible actions.
Meline Gonzalez Piloyan, a project coordinator who co-leads the twinning programme, said: “With the selection of the third cohort of 24 Twin Cities, the Twinning Learning Programme now brings together 104 Pilot Cities and 80 Twin Cities, making it the largest peer-learning initiative under the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, significantly advancing the Mission’s second objective to ensure that the work of Mission Cities to act as experimentation and innovation hubs can enable all European cities to reach climate neutrality by 2050. Shaping this extensive programme is one of the most rewarding aspects of our work in NetZeroCities.”
|
Twinning Learning Programme Cohort 3 |
|
No |
Pilot Activities |
Twin Cities |
1 |
Oslo- PURE: Power-up a REnewable society (PCP Cohort 2) |
Holbaek Municipality, Denmark |
2 |
Trondheim- Carbon Capture Storage in waste-to-energy (PCP Cohort 2) |
Municipality of Tomar, Portugal |
3 |
Kosice, Bratislava - Building power (reducing building emissions and energy usage (PCP Cohort 2) |
1) Ajuntament d'Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain |
4 |
Angers Loire Metropole - Ambition |
Heraklion Municipality, Greece |
5 |
Antwerp - LINK |
City of Ghent, Belgium |
6 |
Athens - Ascend: Athen's Superblock |
Dos Hermanas, Spain |
7 |
Bordeaux - Acting by Collaborating Differently (ABCD) |
Girona, Spain |
8 |
Brussels - Empower - Empowering Local Energy Independence through Electricity Sharing and Solar Production |
Fyli Municipality, Greece |
9 |
Dunkerque - Net-Zero Urban Industrial Growth (NZUIG) |
Bandirma Municipality, Turkey |
10 |
Elbasan - Green and Sustainable Energy in Elbasan Buildings |
Menteşe Municipality, Turkey |
11 |
Gabrovo - NetZeroHero |
Municipality of Medijana, Serbia |
12 |
Helsinki - Systemic Heat Shift (SHS) |
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom |
13 |
Izmir - Digital Solutions for Electricity Decarbonisation by Global Climate Community Izmir (GCC-Synergy) |
Larisa Municipality, Greece |
14 |
Kalamata - SchoolHeroZ: A Holistic Roadmap to Net Zero Schools |
Balvi, Latvia |
15 |
Dublin and Cork - Build Capa-cities |
Communauté d’Agglomération de La Rochelle, France |
16 |
Leipzig and Dresden - EnAct4CleanCities |
Municipality of Pescara, Italy |
17 |
Dortmund, Heidelberg and Munich - Climate City Dash 2.0 |
Reggio Emilia, Italy |
18 |
Paris - Neighbourhoods Engaged for Accelerated Carbon Reduction (NEAR) |
Assen, Netherlands |
19 |
Sonderborg, Denmark - Zero Industry |
Municipality of Haarlem, Netherlands |
20 |
Reykjavik - Piercing through Gridlocks |
Town of Jakobstad, Finland |
21 |
Tampere - Mobility Mindshift: Co-designing a mindshift for sustainable mobility |
Limerick, Ireland |
22 |
Thessaloniki - ReGenWesT: Thessaloniki west centre Green Deal |
Valongo Municipality, Portugal |
23 |
Trikala - Trikala's City Climate Neutrality Hub with intelligent energy management |
Municipality of Treviso, Italy |