The Swedish city of Lund has a unique perspective in the EU Cities Mission – how has it shaped its climate activities and learning? In a recent interview, Tommy Bengtsson and Juliet Leonette from the city’s climate team explain.  Of the many valuable opportunities available through the EU Cities Mission Cities, the chance to learn from peers in other cities is unique. Over 180 cities have already participated in peer-learning programmes through the Mission, collaborating not only with near neighbours but across more distant European borders too.   Lund, a mid-sized city on the southern tip of [...]

What happens when you bring together Albanian municipalities, a Mission City, national institutions, academia, and NetZeroCities representatives? A great co-creation process begins! Natalia Lewandowska from ICLEI Europe writes that the stage is now set for establishing an Albanian national platform to accelerate climate neutrality.  Albania’s path toward EU accession has placed sustainability, climate action, and urban development high on the national agenda. As the country aligns its policies with the European Green Deal and the EU’s climate objectives, cities have a central role to play in driving this transformation – but mobility remains one of Albania’s [...]

Will we run out of the materials we need for clean energy generation? How do we balance adapting to a changing climate with mitigating and preventing its worst effects?  And what role could AI play in achieving climate neutrality? These are some of the key questions facing cities and, in three upcoming papers introduced in this post, NetZeroCities  partners Dark Matter Labs, Demos Helsinki and Polimi take a deeper look. Anticipating future problems and opportunities should be a priority for organisation’s risk management and to inform their decision making – and cities are no exception.  Yet [...]

Can a single neighbourhood become a testing ground for a city’s net-zero future? Milan’s Climate City Contract team is putting the theory into practice in the northeastern district of Adriano-Crescenzago-Lambro and report here on how urban experimentation, social equity, and ecological regeneration can work hand in hand to accelerate the climate transition.  Molecules of change  When facing a huge challenge, ‘start small’ can be helpful advice: breaking the problem down into manageable chunks can help to avoid becoming overwhelmed, while the mini successes of each completed task can build momentum and make progress more noticeable.  But [...]