NetZeroCities will enable European cities and citizens to show the way forward towards an inclusive, thriving, climate resilient and sustainable future.

Our ambition is to accelerate cities’ transition to net zero emissions by 2030

Why cities?

Cities play a key role in achieving climate neutrality by 2050, the goal of the European Green Deal.

  • Cities take up only 4% of the EU’s land area, but they are home to 75% of EU citizens.

  • Cities consume over 65% of the world’s energy and account for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions.

Cities are central to the goal of climate neutrality, as they are centres of economic activity, knowledge generation, innovation and new technologies, and as they gather a large part of the European population. In a context where a substantial intensification of decarbonisation and an acceleration of the timescale for achieving it are crucial, cities have a leading role to play, not just in meeting the climate goals and targets set out by international policy frameworks such as the COP21 Paris Agreement, but in ensuring our decarbonisation efforts are equitable and contribute to the well-being of European communities.

The EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities

The NZC project will support the EU’s Mission of “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030” newly-launched as part of the Horizon Europe programme, by seeking to scale the activities of this project across 100 cities, and to tackle the unprecedented capital investments needed to make such a transformation possible.

The EU #MissionCities will involve local authorities, citizens, businesses, investors as well as regional and national authorities to

  1. Deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030
  2. Ensure that these cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow by 2050

100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030

A Call for Expression of Interest is open for cities to join the Mission.

Be a climate leader!

Two key NZC concepts

Climate neutrality

Climate neutrality ‘refers to the idea of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by balancing those emissions, so they are equal (or less than) the emissions that get removed through the planet’s natural absorption’.

Net Zero

Net Zero is a state where a balance between anthropogenic GHG emissions and removals is achieved. This can be done through reducing and avoiding emissions, and then implementing solutions to capture the remaining ones at the point of generation, or by removing them from the atmosphere.