Working within the EU Cities Mission requires both operations and innovation – but teams can get stuck on only one and miss the complementary benefits of the other. To help them overcome this familiar problem, NetZeroCities partners from the Technical University of Madrid introduce a method to examine and redirect their activities. During a rainy spring in Spain in 2025, players from central and city government, business, academia and other institutions were coming together to advance an ambitious goal and speed up building renovations on a large scale. But they met a familiar constraint: responsibilities and [...]

Research increasingly shows that energy and resource efficiency and technological innovation alone cannot solve our climate and environmental crises. Major actors like the IPCC and the EU Horizon Programme are therefore turning their eyes towards how resource demand can be reduced, while ensuring that everyone’s needs are met. A new NetZeroCities report by partner Demos Helsinki takes a deeper look at what sufficiency policy could mean for cities, especially when it comes to housing, mobility and food.   ‘Sufficiency’ has gained attention in recent years as a way of decreasing emissions and reducing environmental footprints while securing sustainable wellbeing for all.   A key takeaway of our report is that sufficiency offers cities a necessary complement to efficiency and technological innovation. Adopting sufficiency principles can guide cities to design fair and effective [...]

Imagine an island powered entirely by its residents, a grocery store fighting food waste while building a community, or a network of affordable homes shielded from market speculation. These aren’t utopian dreams – they're real examples in communities taking control of their own resources and rewriting the rules of local finance. NetZeroCities partners DemSoc take a closer look.  Across Europe, community-owned enterprises are showing that collective action can fund sustainable, inclusive, and resilient local economies in ways traditional markets often cannot.  Unlike conventional businesses, these initiatives are owned and run by the very communities they serve, ensuring that value circulates locally. They take many forms – such as housing cooperatives, mobility initiatives, [...]

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 [...]