Background
In March 2024, the city of Aachen submitted its Climate City Contract (CCC) with a total of 134 commitments from the urban community actors. In October 2024, Aachen’s CCC was awarded the EU Mission Label. This important milestone marked the beginning of the collaboration with the Climate City Capital Hub (The Hub)1 within NetZeroCities (NZC) and the finance experts responsible for Aachen. In October 2024, the Capital Hub kick-off took place in Aachen with the Aachen Transition Team, representatives from the NZC consortium and European Investment Bank (EIB). The Hub’s support services and the EIB’s offerings for mission cities were presented and discussed.
As all cities in the EU Mission for Cities, the city of Aachen faces the major task of implementing its Climate City Contract (CCC) (link to English version) (link to German version). One of the biggest challenges in this regard is finding suitable and smart financing solutions for the climate action measures. These can consist of municipal loans, subsidies, public financing, venture capital, private capital, or a combination of several of these options. A total of approximately EUR 7.2 billion has been calculated in Aachen’s investment plan, which must be raised citywide to implement the city’s CCC and achieve climate neutrality until 2030.
As Aachen is located in a structurally weak region and in the “Rheinisches Revier”, the city can also draw on funding and financing from the Rheinisches Revier structural change fund, the Just Transition Fund (JTF), and the ERDF, in addition to the generally available funding and financing options.
The CCC’s catalogue of measures is extremely heterogeneous. Specifically, it includes measures taken by the city administration (IKSK 2.0), municipal holdings, and the 134 local actors committed to climate action. Since its submission, the group of commitment providers has grown to 158 and is expected to continue to grow.
In addition, there is many unspecified actions that must be implemented by the entire local community, such as converting the heating supply, renovating buildings, etc., for which capital is also required.
In IKSK 2.0, the measure “Establishment of a climate fund at Sparkasse and Volksbank in cooperation with the climate agency and funding management” was formulated and politically decided upon.
Description of this measure:
The city of Aachen is supporting Sparkasse and Volksbank in setting up a fund to finance local climate protection projects. Projects to be funded make a direct contribution to GHG reduction. The climate fund promotes local investments and innovations for greenhouse gas reduction. The amount of funding for greenhouse gas reduction measures is based on the number of emissions saved or offset. Criteria for deposits and the promotion of climate protection measures (e.g., social impact) are being developed for this fund.
Status of the city’s work on financing aspects:
A dedicated working group comprising CCC partners has developed an initial concept for the fund, which will be made available to the subcontractor as a basis for further development.
The requested support will specifically cover the further development of the fund’s governance structure, investment and allocation criteria, operational processes and implementation roadmap. The aim is to prepare the fund to the greatest extent possible during the support phase so that it can be implemented without delay following approval.
The support to the City of Aachen requires a close cooperation between the subcontractor (selected as a result of this request) and the Capital Hub (resourced already). To ensure effective use of CESF resources and clear coordination with existing EU Mission support structures, the roles of the Hub and the subcontractor are clearly defined, highlighting that the City of Aachen acts as the operational counterpart and validates the results.
About the request
The subcontractor provides embedded, financial expertise to the City of Aachen with the objective of advancing the Aachen climate fund to implementation readiness.
The subcontractor is responsible for translating strategic guidance from the Hub into locally implementable fund design and supports the preparation of key operational elements required for the fund’s launch.
The structured coordination between the CESF subcontractor and the Capital Hub will ensure that Aachen’s financing approaches are aligned with EU Mission methodologies while being adapted to local institutional, financial, and political conditions.
In contrast to the subcontractor role, the role of Capital Hub will continue to be providing strategic, methodological, and EU-level support to the City of Aachen and its partners. In this capacity the hub will continue guiding the city on climate finance approaches aligned with the EU Mission, EU taxonomy, and relevant EU financial instruments. Act as a strategic coordination and strategic coordination and advisory counterpart vis-à-vis the City of Aachen and Geschäftsstelle Klimaneutrales Aachen 2030 in the frame of its strategic advisory function on climate finance approaches within the EU Mission.
Timeline and additional information
Interested parties are invited to submit their proposals by 09 June 2026 (23:59 CEST Time) to Luisa Carretti and Mateusz Hoffman [CESF@netzerocities.eu]. Proposals should include and address all specific requirements related to the request which can be found below.
