About NetZeroCities

NetZeroCities is a consortium of 34 partners from 13 European countries managing the platform of the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities. It supports more than 100 Mission Cities in implementing their pathway towards climate neutrality by 2030. 

Operating as a service-oriented platform, NetZeroCities helps Mission Cities address structural, institutional and cultural barriers that can hinder systemic climate action. It also engages Mission-minded cities (meaning aligned with the Mission’s objectives, and aiming to reach climate-neutrality by 2050 or earlier) through capacity-building activities, peer exchange and knowledge-sharing opportunities, contributing to replication and scaling across Europe. 

NetZeroCities strengthens capacities in areas such as systemic transformation, citizen and stakeholder engagement, democratic governance, capital and financial structuring, and social innovation, supporting cities in designing and implementing integrated, inclusive and financially viable climate transition strategies.

Objectives

  • Develop an approach to support climate-neutral transformation in cities 
  • Help cities build capabilities and ways of working to advance systemic change using innovation 
  • Forge a platform for cities to use for all services & expertise critical to climate neutrality 
  • Facilitate a pipeline of cities accelerating towards climate neutrality

Methods

  • Capacity-building & peer learning for cities 
  • Pilot activities 
  • Multi-actor engagement and policy / funding dialogues 
  • Finance assistance
  • Innovative instruments, e.g. Climate City Contracts

Barriers

  • Institutional barriers are the most significant obstacles cities face in achieving climate neutrality. The primary institutional barriers consist of regulatory challenges and fragmentation of responsibilities across different government levels. 
  • Cross-sectoral barriers are the most significant challenge, with over 350 identified barriers, highlighting the need for stronger collaboration across sectors to overcome institutional-related challenges in climate actions. 
  • Behavioural barriers account for 19% of all mapped challenges. Within this category, different types can be identified, such as a lack of participation, opposition to climate action, and a lack of awareness of society in climate actions. 
  • Infrastructure barriers, namely those inherently linked to the infrastructure and technologies necessary to achieve climate neutrality, were also significantly identified by the cities (18%). The required size of infrastructure and high upfront costs of climate mitigation were most often mentioned for this category

NetZeroCities Partners

NZC partners