Citizen engagement session in Eindhoven, the Netherlands

On 19 May, the Horizon Europe Mission on climate-neutral and smart cities organised together with the municipality of Eindhoven an online dialogue with representatives from seven local sustainability groups to discuss how citizens and local groups can contribute to the Cities Mission. The challenge of achieving climate neutrality in 100 Cities by 2030 is not only financial but also social as nobody should be left behind as a result of the energy and climate transition.

Participants included Eindhoven City Climate Councillor Rik Thijs, Cities Mission board member Daniel Termont and staff from the Cities Mission Secretariat. The discussion covered a wide range of topics: waste management, circular economy, greening of streets, charging stations, insurance for electric shared vehicles to and Eindhoven airport.

Suggestions from the local group representatives focused mainly on:

• Improving communication between all local initiatives, activities and residents, also when it comes to languages; considering the many nationalities that live in Eindhoven.
• Ensuring consistency in policies (energy/climate/sustainability); climate policy should be systematic and included in all levels of policy (local/regional/national) and be coherent at all levels.
• The local groups also expressed their willingness to continue to give input to the Cities Mission.

The feedback from this event will contribute to the report that the climate-neutral and smart cities Mission board is currently working on.