When cities embrace bike-friendly design, they not only reduce emissions but encourage healthier communities, calmer streets and a culture of sustainability. Acting EU Cities Mission Board Chair Paulo Ferrão and board member Françoise Guaspare reflect on the significance of a citizen-driven initiative to promote the European Declaration on Cycling at COP30. Not all roads to COP30 in Belém, Brazil were created equal. This was especially true for hundreds of riders in the COP Bike Ride, a citizen initiative that carried ten proposals to leverage cycling for climate protection to November’s  UN Climate Conference in Belém. The [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

As Europe’s cities accelerate their climate ambitions, the need for structured, practical collaboration is becoming increasingly essential. In response, NetZeroCities launched the first Online Discussion Groups in autumn 2024, a peer-learning initiative open to all cities designed to help them move from climate planning to delivery.  The initiative was specifically designed for cities that are not part of the 112 EU Mission Cities, but that share the same bold climate ambition and mission-driven mindset. These Mission-minded cities joined the Online Discussion groups to accelerate their transitions by learning from those already further along. Over the course [...]

Torino in northern Italy has been announced as host of the next EU Cities Mission conference on 27-29 May 2026. NetZeroCities caught up with its mayor to ask about the city’s own climate ambitions and why it wished to host the Mission’s annual event.  What motivated the city of Torino to host the 2026 EU Cities Mission conference?  Torino is deeply committed to the transition towards climate neutrality and hosting the Cities Mission Conference 2026 represents for us a unique opportunity to strengthen the dialogue between European cities that share the same vision. Being one of [...]