53 European cities are funded with €32 million for their transformation path to climate neutrality

By Bart Brouwers

Fifty-three cities across twenty-one European countries are invited to embark on the NetZeroCities Pilot Cities Program. The project is managed by the Mission Platform of the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities (EU Cities Mission). These 53 cities will implement systemic and locally designed innovative actions that span multiple areas, from buildings to waste and levers of change, including governance, finance, and policy.

NetZeroCities is a project consortium comprising 33 partners from 27 European countries. The project supports the 112 European cities known as the Mission Cities in drastically reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to achieve climate neutrality. The EU Cities Mission supports the European Green Deal in building a low-carbon, climate-resilient future through research and innovation.

Decarbonizing Europe

The EU has freed up €723.8 billion in an effort to use the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to pull the European economy out of the recession caused by corona. Innovation Origins checked all 27 EU countries for their plans.

Pilot cities will experiment with new ways to decarbonize over the course of a two-year program. Selected from a wide array of 103 applications involving 159 cities from 33 countries across the European Union and Horizon 2020 Associated Countries, each pilot city aims to be a proving ground to transforming city systems.

Pilot Cities’ activities will be supported by €32 million in grants from the NetZeroCities project, which manages the Mission Platform. These grants are funded by Horizon 2020, the EU framework program for research and innovation preceding the current Horizon Europe program. The grants will complement the support provided by the City Advisors and the Consortium partners of NetZeroCities. The EU Cities Mission aims for 112 cities to be climate neutral by 2030.

Pilot Cities represent the start of a longer journey toward climate neutrality: one that will transform cities and bring them together around a shared vision for a just climate transition.

Learn more about the Pilot Cities Programme here.