CASE STUDIES
Discover how cities are turning bold ideas into real-world impact, from reimagining mobility and district heating to empowering citizens, unlocking green finance, and transforming local food systems.
DISTRICT HEATING
SUSTAINABLE FOOD
Milan: Milan Food Policy
Helsinki: Climate Meals – Illmastoannos
Berlin: Real Junk Food Berlin
France: Agroecology
SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Antwerp: EcoHouse
Madrid: Entrepatios Las Carolinas
Cloughjordan: Eco Village
BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE
Guimaraes: The one planet city
Lahti: 1.5 Degree Lifestyles
Tartu: Smart House Training Program
Stockholm: Pop-up Återbruk
Ljubljana: Applause
Netherlands, Belgium & Austria: Play!UC
Finland: Nappi Naapuri (Nifty Neighbor)
CO-CREATION WITH CITIZENS
Espoo: The co-creation toolkit
Belgium, Croatia, Latvia, Norway, Spain: PentaHelix
Madrid: City Studio Programme
Niš: Green Squares
COLLABORATIVE PLATFORMS
Reykjavik: Better Reykjavik
Spain: El Dia Despues
Athens: SynAthina
Bologna: Citizen Collaboration Pacts
Sveta Nedelja: Online transparency platform for budgeting and governance
Lada and Velilla: Just Transition Listening Platform
CITIZENS' ASSEMBLIES AND CITY LABS
Barcelona: Barcelona Citizens’ Assembly
Rzeszów: Urban Innovation Lab
Torino: Torino Social Innovation
Turku: Turku’s Climate Team
LOCAL ENERGY COMMUNITIES
Valencia: Local Energy Communities
GREEN FINANCING
Malmo: Green Bonds
Lisbon: Green participatory budget
Braga: You Decide
BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
Helsinki: Decarbonising apartment buildings
Schönau: Elektrizitätswerke Schönau (EWS)
Zagreb: Blok Program
Issy-Les-Moulineaux: Geothermal energy powering an eco-neighbourhood
SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY
Helsingborg: Safe and Active School Mobility
Bordeaux: Tackling Congestion
Vitoria-Gasteiz: Exploring shared mobility solutions & SuperBlocks
Helsinki: Ride Sharing Service
Castelo Novo, Municipality of Fundão: Sustainable Urban Mobility
Oulu: Cycling Superhighways
Taurage: Greening public transport
SMART CITY SOLUTIONS
Florence: Lighting the path to climate neutrality
Helmond: Brainport Smart District (BSD)
Paris: 15 min neighbourhood
Krakow: Climate Quarter Project
Madrid & Vienna: Clean Cities ClimAccelerator
SYSTEMS THINKING
Stepanavan (Armenia), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Prizren (Kosovo), Pljevlja (Montenegro) and Skopje (North Macedonia): City Experiment Fund
POLICY BRIEFS
Policy Labs, facilitated by NetZeroCities, explore a variety of pressing issues such as climate finance and investment, nature conservation, renewable energy, building renovation, decarbonisation of industry and sustainable transport. These sessions adopt a city-centric approach, fostering collaboration between Mission Cities representatives and EU Thematic Policy Experts. The outcome of these policy labs is the creation of Mission Cities’ Policy Briefs which offer a comprehensive set of policy recommendations aimed at EU decision-makers and national authorities.
CCC HIGHLIGHTS
The CCC Highlights provide thematic information extracted from labelled Climate City Contracts.
PUBLIC DELIVERABLES
Download the public deliverables of the NetZeroCities project from NetZeroCities, SGA-NZC, and SGA2-NZC.
NetZeroCities
- European climate initiative review and 2030 climate neutrality gap report
- Compatibility framework and operationalization
- Climate-neutral City Contract concept
- CCC resource package for one stop shop platform
- CCC online training sessions for cities recording
- Report on training modules for city guides
- City cluster portraits
- Report on support needs assessment for CCC
- Online Action Plan Scoping and Design Specifications
- CCC as a Governance Innovation Instrument
- Identified city needs for MEL, metrics, indicators
- Comprehensive indicator framework
- Identified climate impact indicators based on existing indicators review
- Report on assessment methodologies for planning and monitoring GHG emission reductions through urban greening and nature-based solutions
- Report on indicators & assessment methods for social innovation action plans
- Indicators for capital / finance needs and replication potential
- Shared data infrastructure concept, including shared data infrastructure, visualisation of KPIs and respective usability evaluation
- Evaluation report for CCC
- Assessment of the evaluation framework for social innovation action plans
- Evaluation report for large pilots
- Design and specification for the platform
- Capacity building programme plan
- One stop shop platform & Platform technical description and user guide
- Annual reports on platform performance
- One stop shop platform report
- Exploitation and business plan / model for the future of the platform and of the project results (demonstrator)
- Open call process guidebook
- Text of open call and related communication
- Draft report on implementation and impact of pilots – Year 1 of pilots
- Final report on implementation and impact of pilots – Year 2 of pilots
- Sensemaking workshop reports
- Cross-fertilisation insights report
- Replication and scale up report
- Twins call and selection criteria
- Structured twinning learning programme
- Catalogue of pilot cities
- Mid-term progress report on twinning
- One climate action plan roadmap per twin city
- 30 case studies of best practice
- Multimedia case study published
- Mapping of national and regional city collaboration
- National and regional city collaboration and multi-level governance report
- Report on systemic city transformation methodology and user journey
- Report summarising support given to pilot and twin cities on the CCC
- Report on pilot city systemic innovation needs in portfolio
- Report on capacity & capabilities building approach for systemic transformation in pilot cities
- Exemplar case studies for capacity and capability building among cities involved in pilots or aligned with the Mission
- City climate finance landscape, barriers and best practices in city climate finance
- Training programme & “embedded tutoring” on innovative finance for city officials overview
- Report describing innovative climate finance assessment and knowledge development
- Investment plan framework
- Feedback to First Cohort of Cities
- Financing methods for co-benefits
- Feedback to Second Cohort of Cities
- Policy recommendations
- Desktop research report on engagement
- Readiness in city governments action learning programme
- Citizen engagement model and template action plan
- Civic engagement map
- Civic engagement mapping approach
- Service model for citizen and stakeholder participation (initial version)
- Service model for citizen and stakeholder participation (final version)
- Method for coherent implementation of work at local level
- Learning report on implementation of transversal and systemic innovation
- SI observatory for climate neutrality
- SI methodologies for design, prototyping, testing, monitoring
- SI methodologies for SI scale up
- SI matchmaking service pool blueprints, customer journeys
- SI experimenting services pool blueprints, customer journeys
- SI capacity building services pool blueprints and customer journeys
- Evaluation of the SI learning programme
- Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation Plan
- Updated Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation Plan (1)
- Updated Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation Plan (2)
- Updated Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation Plan (3)
- Project website and social media accounts
- Report on Content Production
- Report on Community of Practice
- Report on three awareness campaigns
- Proceedings of NetZeroCities conference n°1
- Proceedings of NetZeroCities conference n°2
- Proceedings of NetZeroCities conference n°3
- Visual kit for cities
- Report on city needs, drivers and barriers towards climate neutrality
- Training materials for city guides
- Annual reports on engaging with pilot and twin cities
- Mid-term infographics on city interaction
- Final infographic on city interaction
- Mid-term report on city panel activities and recommendations
- Final report on city panel activities and recommendations
- Stakeholder map
- Report on consultation input to CCC concept and multi-level governance process
- Annual report: strategic sub-panel
- Annual report: CCC signatories sub-panel
- City finance and investment policy recommendations
- Policy framework media package
- Policy brief series: linking local lessons learned
- NetZeroCities white paper
SGA – NZC
- D1.1 – Climate City Contract Annual Trends Report V1
- D1.2 – Climate City Contract Annual Trends Report V2
- D1.3 – Climate City Contract Annual Trends Report V3
- D1.4 – Climate City Contract Case Studies Anthology V1
- D1.5 – Climate City Contract Case Studies Anthology V2
- D1.6 – NetZeroCities Climate Investment Model
- D1.7 – NetZeroCities Climate Investment User Guide
- D1.8 – Assessment of the Investment Model and User Guide
- D1.9 – CCC Resource Pack 2.0
- D1.10 – CCC Resource Pack 3.0
- D1.11 – CCC Mission Label Progress Report
- D2.1 – Model for coherent implementation of work at local level
- D2.2 – Report of Mission City Support v1
- D2.3 – Report of Mission City Support v2
- D2.4 – Support Needs Assessment Programme (SNAP)
- D2.5 – Report of support needs, barriers and enablers of second wave and all cities
- D2.6 – Handbook on city support groups, thematic working groups and sprint groups
- D2.7 – Process for implementation and Delivery of New Services
- D2.8 – Methodology for scaling of services through replication and digitalisation
- D2.9 – Pilot Cities Core support allocation and matching methodology
- D2.10 – Baseline Analysis of the Current State of Climate Investment for Cities
- D2.11 – Review report on the support and services provided to Mission, Pilot and second wave Cities
- D3.1 – SGA-NZC Pilot Cities Programme Deployment Plan
- D3.2 – Pilot Cities Programme Call 1 Guidelines
- D3.3 – Pilot Cities Programme Call 2 Guidelines
- D3.4 – Pilot Cities Programme Call 3 Guidelines
- D3.5 – Overview Pilot Cities Programme Calls and in-take analysis
- D3.6 – Bootcamp Programme Design and City Support Methodology
- D3.7 – Final report – CESF Requests and Deployment
- D3.8 – Final Report – Pilot Cities Programme Portfolio Learning, Impact, Insights
- D3.9 – Final Report – Pilot Cities Programme FSTP Delivery
- D3.10 – Final Report – Bootcamp and Core Support Service Delivery
- D4.1 – Learning vision and framework
- D4.2 – Learning vision and framework V2
- D4.3 – Year 1 Capacity and Capability Building Programme
- D4.4 – Year 2 Capacity and Capability Building Programme
- D4.5 – Year 3 Capacity and Capability Building Programme
- D4.6 – Proceedings and Lessons Learnt from Summer Schools 1 & 2
- D4.7 – Proceedings and Lessons Learnt from Summer Schools 3 & 4
- D4.8 – Mid-Project Insights Report: P2P learning for Mission and Pilot Cities
- D4.9 – Insights Report: P2P learning and sensemaking for Mission Pilot Cities
- D4.10 – Methodology and tools for GHG & economic accounting
- D4.11 – Lessons learnt from application of the Methodology and Tools for GHG and Economic Accounting
- D4.12 – Scaled twinning programme report
- D4.13 – Lessons learnt from Pilot Cities & agile city support
- D4.14 – Anticipation, Horizon Scanning & Foresight Report v1
- D4.15 – Scenarios for desirable futures
- D4.16 – Anticipation, Horizon Scanning & Foresight Report v2
- D4.17 – Recommendations from dialogues between Mission cities and EU
- D5.1 – Updated Design and Specification for the Portal
- D6.1 – Landscape report of net zero partnerships, initiatives and projects
- D6.2 – Framework Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
- D6.3 – Report on signed MoUs
- D6.4 – Periodic reports on structured policy dialogue and mutual learning
- D6.5 – Report on standards for climateneutral cities
- D6.6 – Report on support frameworks for effective national networks and platforms
- D6.7 – Policy, governance labs report (end of programme)
- D7.1 – Initial Feasibility Analysis on the Hub
- D7.2 – Definition of the key characteristics of the Hub
- D7.3 – Definition of the Hub’s protocol of interactions with cities & stakeholders
- D7.4 – Technical Assistance Programme Strategy and Method Statement
- D7.5 – Capital Facilitation Programme Strategy and Method Statement
- D7.6 – Synthesis Report the Cities Mission Capital Hub
- D8.1 – Governance and Process Strategy
- D8.2 – Data Management Plan
- D8.3 – Terms of reference of Committees
- D8.4 – Challenge-based, Innovation Lab periodic reports
- D8.5 – City Expert Support Facility Internal Guide
- D8.6 – Project Carbon Footprint report
- D8.7 – Community of Practice Method Statement
- D8.8 – Overview of the resources implementation Y1
- D8.9 – Overview of the resources implementation Y2
- D8.10 – Overview of the resources implementation Y3
- D9.1 – Dissemination and communication plan
- D9.2 – Internal Communication Strategy
- D9.3 – Proceedings of 2024 NZC Conference
- D9.4 – Exploitation strategy
- D9.5 – Report on Exploitation strategy
SGA2 – NZC
- D1.1 – Non-Mission City Needs & Pathways – First Report
- D1.2 – Non-Mission City Needs & Pathways – Annual Update
- D1.3 – Non-Mission City Needs & Pathways – Second Annual Update
- D1.4 – Non-Mission City Needs & Pathways – Final Report
- D1.5 – Design of Non-Mission City Portal User Experience and Customer Journeys
- D1.6 – Summary report on new portal content for Non-Mission Cities
- D1.7 – Second Summary report on new portal content for Non-Mission Cities
- D1.8 – Non-Mission City Portal Usage & User Satisfaction Report
- D1.9 – Second Non-Mission City Portal Usage & User Satisfaction Report
- D1.10 – Gap analysis of Capability Building programme
- D1.11 – Summary report on new content for capability building
- D1.12 – Second Summary report on new content for capability building
- D1.13 – Design of Accredited Online Hybrid Course for Civil Servants
- D1.14 – Summary report on status and activity of the online peer groups
- D1.15 – Second Summary report on status and activity of the online peer groups
- D1.16 – Progress report on the study visits
- D1.17 – Second Progress report on the study visits
- D1.18 – Report on the design of the twinning programme
- D1.19 – Final report on twinning programme
- D1.20 – Gap Analysis Report and Detailed Workplan (part 1 & part 2)
- D1.21 – Summary report on peer collaboration at sub-european level
- D1.22 – Second Summary report on peer collaboration at sub-european level
- D1.23 – Strategic findings of working with Non-Mission Cities – First Report
- D1.24 – Strategic findings of working with Non-Mission Cities – Updated Report
- D2.1 – Role Description of CFS
- D2.2 – City Needs assessment report
- D2.3 – Interim report specifying recommendations for tailor made IPs
- D2.4 – Final report specifying all recommendations for tailor made IPs
- D2.5 – Report on completeness check
- D2.6 – Finance Expert Support Facility Process and Governance Strategy
- D2.7 – Summary report of all completeness checks delivered for IPs
- D2.8 – Training Materials and methodology for delivery including modular breakdown
- D2.9 – Summary of CFS learnings from feedback loops in T2.2. (initial findings)
- D2.10 – Summary of CFS learnings from feedback loops in T2.2. (consolidated findings)
- D2.11 – City Finance Framework Tool
- D2.12 – Report and interim report summarising projects supported
- D2.13 – Report and interim report summarising projects developed
- D2.14 – Training materials for cities on attracting private capital
- D2.15 – Review of learnings and city feedback following workshops and roundtables
- D2.16 – Spreadsheet mapping of available public sources of capital at the EU, national and regional level
- D2.17 – Report outlining IP-compatibility with a comprehensive list of different public sources of capital
- D2.18 – Report on Connectivity Between Public Funding Options, Potential Obstacles, and offsetting Mitigation Strategies for Investment Plans Report
- D2.19 – Report summarising the need for a Special Purpose Vehicle for blended capital
- D2.20 – Report outlining IP-compatibility with a comprehensive list of different public sources of capital
- D2.21 – Spreadsheet mapping all potential private capital partners at a local, national and international level
- D2.22 – Report summarising the engagements with public and private sector sources of capital for the purpose of derisking investible opportunities
- D2.23 – Updated Spreadsheet mapping all potential private capital partners at a local, national and international level
- D2.24 – Updated Report summarising the engagements with public and private sector sources of capital for the purpose of derisking investible opportunities
- D3.1 – Governance and Proceed Strategy
- D3.2 – Data Management Plan
- D3.3 – Communication, Dissemination, & Exploitation Plan
- D3.4 – Review of City Advisor Engagement with Mission Cities
- D3.5 – Proceedings of 2025 Conference
- D3.6 – CESF Process and Governance Strategy
- D3.7 – Report on CESF Deployment
- D3.8 – Non Mission City Impact Metrics and MEL Methodology
- D3.9 – Guidance on Scope 3 Emissions
- D3.10 – Update of NZC, SGA1-NZC and SGA2-NZC Methodologies and Tools for GHG and Economic Accounting
- D3.11 – Data Management Plan Version 2
- D3.12 – Data Management Plan Version 3
- D3.13 – Data Management Plan Version 4
- D3.14 – Communication, Dissemination, & Exploitation Plan Version 2
- D3.15 – Final Report on Communication, Dissemination, & Exploitation
- D3.16 – Report on Internal Governance and Communication across WP and across NZC and SGA-NZC Grant Agreements
Publications
Ulpiani G, Vetters N, Melica G, Bertoldi P. Towards the first cohort of climate-neutral cities: expected impact, current gaps, and next steps to take to establish evidence-based zero-emission urban futures.
Sustain Cities Soc 2023;95.Ulpiani G, Vetters N, Shtjefni D, Kakoulaki G, Taylor N. Let’s hear it from the cities: on the role of renewable energy in reaching climate neutrality in urban Europe.
Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2023;183.Ulpiani G, Vetters N. On the risks associated with transitioning to climate neutrality in Europe: a city perspective.
Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2023;183Ulpiani G, Vetters N, Maduta C. Towards (net) zero emissions in the stationary energy sector: a city perspective.
Sustain Cities Soc 2023Della Valle N, Ulpiani G, Vetters N. Assessing climate justice awareness among climate neutral-to-be cities.
Humanit Soc Sci Commun 2023;10:440.Möslinger M, Ulpiani G, Vetters N. Circular economy and waste management to empower a climate-neutral urban future.
J Clean Prod 2023;421:138454.Ulpiani G, Rebolledo E, Vetters N, Florio P, Bertoldi P. Funding and financing the zero emissions journey: urban visions from the 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission.
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Nature Journal.Bresciani, S., Tjahja, C., Komatsu, T., & Rizzo, F. (2023). Prototyping for Policy Making: Collaboratively Synthesizing Interdisciplinary Knowledge for Climate Neutrality. In: International Conference 2023 of the Design Research Society Special Interest Group on Experiential Knowledge (EKSIG) Conference proceedings (pp. 104-116), Politecnico di Milano, Italy. ISBN: 9788894167436
Bresciani, S., Tjahja, C., Komatsu, T., & Rizzo, F. (2023). Social innovation for climate neutrality in cities: actionable pathways for policymakers. In De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy.
Bresciani, S., Rizzo, F., & Deserti, A. (2022). Designing Systemic Change for Urban Ecosystems: A Framework for Assessing Social Innovation. In Cumulus Conference Proceedings Series 10/2023 Detroit (pp. 779-795). USA. ISBN 979-8-218-07901-7
Bresciani, S., Rizzo, F., & Deserti, A. (2022). Toward a Comprehensive Framework of Social Innovation for Climate Neutrality: A Systematic Literature Review from Business/Production, Public Policy, Environmental Sciences, Energy, Sustainability and Related Fields. Sustainability, 14(21).
Bresciani, S. (2024). Assessment Framework for People-Centred Solutions to Carbon Neutrality: A Comprehensive List of Case Studies and Social Innovation Indicators at Urban Level. Springer Briefs in Applied Sciences and Technology. Springer Cham. ISBN 978-3-031-53111
Mondal, R., Bresciani, S., & Rizzo, F. (2024). What Cities Want to Measure: Bottom-Up Selection of Indicators for Systemic Change toward Climate Neutrality Aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 40 European Cities. Climate, 12(3), 41.
