EU Mission: Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities

What are EU Missions?

EU Missions are a new way to bring concrete solutions to some of our greatest challenges. They have ambitious goals and will deliver tangible results by 2030.

They will deliver impact by putting research and innovation into a new role, combined with new forms of governance and collaboration, as well as by engaging citizens.

EU Missions are a novelty of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme for the years 2021-2027.

What this EU Mission deals with

The importance of climate-neutral and smart cities

Cities play a pivotal role in achieving climate neutrality by 2050, the goal of the European Green Deal. They take up only 4% of the EU’s land area, but they are home to 75% of EU citizens. Furthermore, cities consume over 65% of the world’s energy and account for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions.

Since climate mitigation is heavily dependent on urban action, we need to support cities in accelerating their green and digital transformation. In particular, European cities can substantially contribute to the Green Deal target of reducing emissions by 55% by 2030 and, in more practical terms, to offer cleaner air, safer transport and less congestion and noise to their citizens.

Aims of the Mission

The Cities Mission will involve local authorities, citizens, businesses, investors as well as regional and national authorities to

1. Deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 
2. Ensure that these cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050 

As foreseen in its implementation plan, the Cities Mission takes a cross-sectoral and demand-led approach, creating synergies between existing initiatives and basing its activities on the actual needs of cities. 

State of play

In total, 100 cities in the EU and 12 cities in countries associated to Horizon Europe, were selected to participate in the Mission in April 2022. 377 cities from all EU member states as well as nine associated countries and countries negotiating association had submitted an expression of interest. The 112 cities are testing innovative cross-sectoral approaches including for citizen engagement, stakeholder management and internal governance to accelerate their path to climate neutrality. This makes them experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050.

Climate City Contracts

The 112 selected cities are invited to develop Climate City Contracts, which include an overall plan for climate neutrality across all sectors such as energy, buildings, waste management and transport, together with related investment plans. Climate City Contracts are co-created with local stakeholders and citizens, with the help of a Mission Platform (which is currently managed by the project NetZeroCities). The clear and visible commitments put together by the cities in the Climate City Contracts enable them to engage with the EU, national and regional authorities, with investors and with their citizens to deliver on their ambitious climate neutrality objective.

A first group of cities presented their Climate City Contracts in April 2023, which were reviewed by the Commission with the support of experts from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC). In October 2023, following a positive review, the first 10 cities received an EU Mission Label. In March 2024, a 2^nd batch of 23 cities received the EU Mission Label and in October 2024 a 3^rd batch of 20 cities, bringing the total number of cities with the EU Mission Label to 53.

EU Mission Label

The EU Mission Label is an important milestone in the cities' work. It acknowledges successful development of Climate City Contracts and it is intended to facilitate access to EU, national, and regional funding and financing sources, in particular private investment. 

The Mission Label gives the city access to the Climate City Capital Hub, an international finance resource launched in June 2024 that supports cities:

1. in accessing financial advice in cooperation with advisory services of the EIB
2. in structuring their financial needs and
3. in introducing projects to a range of capital providers, including lenders and investors from the public and private sectors

The non-confidential parts of the cities’ Climate City Contracts are published on the NetZeroCities Platform portal’s knowledge repository. Cities that received the EU Mission Label can now use it as a sign of confidence in their climate neutrality plans, especially when approaching public and private funders.

The Commission, together with the Mission Platform, will continue to support the effective implementation of the Climate City Contracts. The Mission Platform provides the necessary hands-on technical, regulatory and financial assistance to cities. In total, Horizon Europe is investing around €120 million per year in the Mission.

More information

• mission-oriented policy for Horizon Europe
• Horizon Europe

Contact

RTD-HORIZON-EUROPE-MISSION-CITIESec [dot] europa [dot] eu (RTD-HORIZON-EUROPE-MISSION-CITIES[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

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