Ella Morgan, Author at NetZeroCities

Mini‑grids, Major Momentum: How the Hague is Wiring up a Cooler Future

Ella Morgan2025-09-30T14:26:24+02:00September 24th, 2025|

Author: Barbara Jarkiewicz Stories from Pilot Cities: The Hague is one of the 112 cities participating in the EU Mission to deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities, and the Pilot Cities Programme – a component of the Mission that focuses on exploring and testing pathways to rapid decarbonisation over a two-year period. When Petra Bijvoet from the City Hall talks about The Hague, she speaks with the urgency of someone who knows that time is running out. "We're the most densely built city in the Netherlands," she says, "and we sit right at sea level. If [...]

Everybody needs good neighbours: How four nearby European cities are taking on big climate challenges together

Ella Morgan2025-09-23T14:59:57+02:00September 23rd, 2025|

One began their Mission City journey from ‘less than zero,’ while another is a former European Green Capital – but all share a similar need to meet their climate ambitions. They told a meeting of experts from across Europe how they’re changing their cities. What does it take to become a European Green Capital? Measured on seven indicators, including air quality, biodiversity, and climate change mitigation, any winning city will be pursuing high environmental and sustainability standards. Yet, even with the knowledge acquired through this work, the challenge of climate neutrality requires another level of ambition [...]

Building for the Future: How Warsaw’s Green Building Standard is Changing the City

Ella Morgan2025-09-25T12:33:43+02:00September 16th, 2025|

Author: Ayden Maher A library that set the tone Before it even opened its doors, the new public library in Warsaw’s Białołęka district was winning awards. Designed with solar panels, natural lighting, and spaces shaped by greenery, it became the first municipal building to be certified under the Warsaw Green Building Standard (WGBS). For the city, the library was more than just a local success; it was proof that climate ambition could be translated into tangible, physical spaces. “We cannot have a strategy that says we will protect biodiversity and then build as business-as-usual,” says Jacek [...]

Marseille’s Pilot Cities Transformation

Ella Morgan2025-09-15T13:50:28+02:00September 15th, 2025|

Author: Ayden Maher Stories from Pilot Cities: Marseille is one of the 112 cities participating in the EU Mission to deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities, and the Pilot Cities Programme – a component of the Mission that focuses on exploring and testing pathways to rapid decarbonisation over a two-year period. How businesses and neighbourhoods are building a climate movement together When Marseille joined the Pilot Cities Programme, it wasn't to add a few more environmental projects to its to-do list. The ambition was bigger: to change how climate action happens in the city, by making residents, businesses, [...]

‘There is already such a will’: becoming climate neutral in Issy-les-Moulineaux, a Twin City Interview

Ella Morgan2025-09-08T16:17:39+02:00September 8th, 2025|

Luca Fayoux-Cinelli is the deputy director in charge of communication and innovation for the municipality of Issy-les-Moulineaux, which sits in the south-western suburbs of Paris. As part of the first Twinning Learning Programme, it was connected with the nine Italian cities working on their joint Let’sGOv project, which included exploring ways to improve the availability of data and support more detailed monitoring, making interventions to reduce energy-related emissions more precise. “[The Twinning Learning Programme] was really the key for us to discover new cities […] with similar challenges and similar wills as us,” says Fayoux-Cinelli. What [...]

Twin City interview with Jordi Mazon, Deputy Mayor of Viladecans

Ella Morgan2025-09-08T16:23:47+02:00September 5th, 2025|

Jordi Mazon is the deputy mayor in Viladecans, a city close to Barcelona. He has a PhD in physics from the department of physics at the Technical University of Catalonia. To tackle energy poverty and promote sustainable energy, Viladecans established an energy company with citizens through an innovative public-private citizen partnership (PPCP) model. The project included the creation of a local digital currency – the Vilawatt – to incentivise energy saving and which could be used in dozens of stores, boosting the local economy. The original project ended in 2020 but now acts as a platform for other local [...]

Cooling Athens: Targeted Urban Interventions for a Resilient City

Ella Morgan2025-09-25T15:15:19+02:00September 3rd, 2025|

This blog post comes from the original. By Vangelis Marinakis, Assistant Professor of the National Technical University of Athens Athens is on the frontline of climate change. With summer temperatures frequently soaring to dangerous levels, prolonged heatwaves and nights offering little relief, the city is experiencing first-hand the harsh realities of urban heat stress. Concrete surfaces trap heat, amplifying discomfort and health risks for residents. In this context, urban cooling is not a luxury; it is a matter of public health, quality of life and resilience. A City in Transition Over the [...]

Climate action shines bright in Liepāja

Ella Morgan2025-08-27T09:53:47+02:00August 27th, 2025|

A major modernisation of street lighting in the Baltic city will cut energy consumption and CO₂ emissions – and costs for citizens Cities across Europe with ambitious climate goals are looking to save emissions across many domains in a cost-effective way and use smart technology to maximise their impact. Through a major project to upgrade streetlights and in public buildings, the Mission City of Liepāja in Latvia is combining all these elements to produce significant gains for citizens. In one part of the modernisation programme, over 13,000 outdated lighting fixtures have been replaced in 27 educational institutions across the [...]

Mission-driven policy innovation: accelerating cities’ journeys to climate neutrality

Ella Morgan2025-10-02T16:34:41+02:00August 18th, 2025|

Written by Lilybell Evergreen, Alan MacKenzie, and Georgia Cameron On the road to reach climate neutrality, cities across Europe are confronting a well-established obstacle when it comes to making policy: traditional approaches often fall short when tackling the complex, interconnected challenges of climate action. The tight links to other complex topics like industrial policy or energy security multiply the difficulties of action and, too often, cities spend their time managing symptoms, rather than getting to the underlying problems that they see. But within the EU Cities Mission, where more than 100 Mission Cities are striving to [...]

Different Cities, Common Ground: Westminster’s Twinning Story

Ella Morgan2025-08-18T12:23:29+02:00August 13th, 2025|

Author: Ayden Maher In the heart of London, Westminster is home to a diverse community of residents, institutions, and businesses, presenting a uniquely layered challenge for the climate transition. At first glance, it bears little resemblance to cities like Leuven in Belgium or Lund in Sweden. But through the Twinning Learning Programme, these cities are united by a common goal: to transform how urban areas are heated and to do so in a way that brings long-term benefits to local people. What happens when cities with vastly different contexts come together to tackle one of the most complex aspects of [...]

About Ella Morgan

ABOUT NZC

CONTACT

NZC NEWSLETTER

RECENT POSTS

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Categories