Africa’s climate finance landscape must shift from inefficient, insufficient, and unfair to efficient, adequate, and just. We can no longer tolerate a narrative that perpetuates inequality. Informed by the reality on the ground, we must act to build a financial landscape that truly reflects our commitments to fairness and sustainability. The ...

Starting with a comprehensive background and clear definitions of NbS, this compendium will aid in facilitating subsequent discussions and case studies. A non-exhaustive review of the policy landscape, covering international commitments, national policies, constitutional provisions, and relevant legislation, underscores the robust legal and policy ...

The special issue of "Future Cities and New Economy" includes the ideas and practices of different countries and regions in the world in their efforts to promote the agenda for sustainable development and achieve carbon neutrality through green innovation. It also contains a wealth of cases, demonstrating how new technologies, models, and methods ...

This study simulates transition scenarios for European cities to meet the Green Deal objectives for the transport sector by 2030 and 2050. It is an update of a 2021 study, including more mobility measures, different impact dimensions, and a new baseline for the simulation. Based on twelve city prototypes of European cities, the study explores ...

Global green finance flows, to technologies such as wind, solar, batteries and electric vehicles, have grown to around US$1.3 trillion annually,6 however this only represents a fraction of the US$8.4 trillion needed each year until 2030 to support the global transition.7 This wider transition to net zero faces interconnected obstacles such as ...

Drawing from a diverse range of global contexts, the report highlights both the challenges and successes of integrating nature into the urban fabric, offering practical solutions that can be adapted to various cityscapes. The insights shared here are grounded in real-world examples, with an emphasis on replicability and scalability.

Report on the global state of the urban science-policy interface by the International Expert Panel on ‘Science and the Future of Cities’ endorsed by Nature Sustainability

Decarbonization policies and strategies intersect with existing inequalities, resulting in varied impacts. This means transition will affect people differently, with groups better able to adapt than others. Given the recognized disparities in transport related to income, gender, race, age, and physical abilities, a just transition focused on users ...

India is uniquely positioned to scale up the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs), leapfrogging traditional mobility models that perpetuate congestion, air pollution and oil dependence, while enhancing innovative business models and driving down costs of components’ manufacturing. As India undergoes a deep economic transformation, rapid growth ...

In 2023, renewable energy globally was on a path of recovery and progress, set against persistent challenges and disparities among technologies and regions. The energy crisis of the previous year continued to abate, with the world witnessing a remarkable boom in solar photovoltaics (PV) and a significant surge in energy investments. Global ...

Developing projects to empower women and other people in vulnerable situations: This paper was developed as part of the project “Building Inclusive Urban Resilience: Strengthening ASEAN Cities through Collaborative Action and Empowerment of Vulnerable Groups” and supported by a grant from the German Federal Foreign Office. This paper ...

The TPI Centre’s State of Transition Report 2024 reviews the progress that more than 1,000 of the world’s highest-emitting public companies have made on responding to climate change. Collectively worth around US$39 trillion, these are the key public companies for both investors and the climate. The report also shows the extent of the corporate ...

More than half of the world's population lives in cities, and that number is rising every day. Urban areas are becoming more crowded, corrosively reducing green spaces within cities, and causing loss of biodiversity, and in turn, affecting people’s mental and physical well-being and exposure to disaster impacts. At the same time, cities are ...

The essential role of renewables in creating more resilient, inclusive and cleaner energy systems is undisputed. COP28 underscored this with a pledge to triple renewable capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030, while transitioning away from fossil fuels. This pathway, adopted from IRENA’s World Energy Transitions Outlook, represents our ...

Cities can do a lot to reduce the energy intensity of their biggest energy-consuming sectors, namely buildings and transport, given the powers at thei disposal. However, various actors must work together to address the unique financial, technical, and socioeconomic barriers. The example of Zhytomyr, Ukraine, illustrates the benefits of improved ...

Miami-Dade County is leading the way in comprehensive and robust greenhouse gas inventories.

This guide is designed for individuals working with or within local or regional governments who want to implement the principles of Doughnut Economics in their communities. It offers real-world approaches and adaptable examples suitable for various scales, from cities to rural regions. The guide combines insights from Doughnut Economics ...

Nature-based Solutions Catalogue-An elaboration of ten NbS categories in the Dutch situation: This catalogue describes ten categories of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in the Dutch situation. Dividing up NbS into categories helps to gain a better understanding of the solutions that already exist, how and where they are most effective and which ...

Finding synergetic uses for energy and nature-based actions can improve outcomes for both, whether by improving the use of space through co-location, providing general well-being improvements for users, identifying alternate sources of finance and business models to allow for simultaenous uses, and generally improving the use cases for both ...

The Urban Transitions Pathways review series aims at supporting Urban Transition Mission (UTM) cities globally in providing additional instruments to strengthen their approach towards climate neutrality. Built by experts of the UTMC consortium, the practical implementation guides aim at helping staff in each UTM city in shading the light on ...

Infographic explaining the relationship between the UTM Center and Cities for Climate Action and Urban Transitions Mission

Shaping habits for a better future

See how the city of Łódź, Poland took up the challenge "Change habit not climate"! The challenge is to tackle the climate crisis by supporting children and adults to take their own action and to educate new agents of change. Natural resources on the planet are running out, so we need to develop new habits and encourage people to ...

Based on the ASI - "Avoid-Shift-Improve" approach, these 10 principles for sustainable urban transport include compact city planning, promoting walking, cycling, and public transport, advocating for clean vehicles, and improving transport efficiency. Auhour: GIZ Year: ...

The Inclusive Community Engagement Executive Guide highlights the importance of inclusive climate action for equitable policies and fair distribution of benefits. It offers principles and policy recommendations for city leaders to ensure genuine engagement and provides an overview of The Inclusive Community Engagement Playbook, detailing steps for ...

The Roadmap for Inclusive Planning Executive Guide highlights the importance of inclusive climate action in cities, detailing why it is needed and how to achieve it through inclusive planning. It provides key principles, policy recommendations, practical steps, supporting tools, case studies, and guidance for city leaders on implementing equitable ...

The Toolkit for Equitable Impacts Executive Guide emphasizes inclusive climate action in cities. It provides guidance and training for urban practitioners to ensure equitable outcomes by measuring impact distribution, offering key principles, recommendations, and practical implementation steps. emphasizes inclusive climate action in cities. It ...

The Inclusive Community Engagement Playbook guides cities in engaging all community members, especially marginalized groups, in climate action. It shares global best practices for inclusive, equitable responses tailored to local contexts, aiming to overcome social and economic barriers and maintain public support. Authors: C40, Citi Foundation, ...

This guidebook outlines a people-centred approach to achieving net zero in neighbourhoods. It provides ten actionable strategies, supported by global examples, and an implementation pathway emphasizing emissions calculation and progress monitoring. Aimed at local governments, it also involves developers, national bodies, residents, and businesses, ...

The new Sourcebook on Adapting Urban Transport to Climate Change addresses how extreme weather events, exacerbated by climate change, affect transportation systems in developing countries. It aims to raise awareness and outlines the expected impacts on urban passenger transport, along with possible adaptation measures to mitigate these ...

A sustainable approach, known as A-S-I (Avoid/Reduce, Shift/Maintain, Improve), focuses on meeting people's mobility needs rather than expanding car infrastructure, aiming to reduce GHG emissions, energy consumption, and congestion, ultimately creating more livable cities. Author: ...

trainingtrainingdfd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5PtMrXbJH8

Urban Transitions Mission Center Presentation Flyer

The study identifies five functions through which NbS can provide benefits with respect to the provision of infrastructure services: 1. “Deliver” infrastructure services directly 2. “Enhance” the delivery of services by built infrastructure 3. “Protect” built infrastructure against the impacts of climate change and natural ...

A qualitative assessment of needs and opportunities around mobilising finance for climate and health solutions deployment.

To solve a problem, one must be able to size it, determine what is being done to address it, establish whether those measures are proving effective, and identify what more needs to be done. Yet in the case of climate finance, this is easier said than done. There is wide consensus that mitigating the negative effects of climate change and ...

An awarded initiative on urban mobility for the City of Cascais. It is the first Mobility as a Service (MaaS) system of Portugal combining operators, services, and infrastructure solutions for Cascais citizens, stregthening local economies and social inclusion while accelerating climate neutrality.

Bringing clean energy to those most in need will require the creation of in-country ecosystems to help speed that transformation. That means working to build local expertise; strengthening institutions; engaging civil society, utilities, and regulators; establishing sound transition plans; and helping to bring in outside capital of all ...

While it has been readily acknowledged that new approaches are needed to finance the climate transition, there are no formalized guidelines or clear process for designing, financing, and implementing a coordinated effort for policymakers and investors seeking to activate capital for climate action at a geography-wide scale. This Playbook ...

The essential role of local governments has been increasingly recognised in the legislation of the European Green Deal. The objective of this publication is to list the new opportunities and obligations for local governments within the Green Deal, and to raise awareness on the key role they will be called upon to play. There has been a push to ...

Developed in partnership between CCFLA and the Penn Institute for Urban Research, the Green City Finance Directory is the first and only directory of PPFs targeted to help cities access sustainable finance. The GCFD is a resource to help subnational governments and stakeholders identify project preparation facilities that can support them in ...

Inclusion is important for the energy transition for many reasons. From an energy democracy perspective, everyone should be able to participate and enjoy the benefits of the energy transition, provided they accept the associated responsibilities. Inclusion is also the process of ensuring equal access to clean and affordable energy for all ...

To ensure bankability, an important step is considering internal financial constraints, as well as leveraging on own resources and revenues; this will help ensure financial sustainability of the action, as well as increase the creditworthiness of the city towards financing institutions. “Rethinking City Revenue and Finance” from the World ...

In order to integrate climate change considerations into capital planning and budgeting decisions, decision-makers within municipalities need reliable and consistent climate-related information. While the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations were developed for use by the private sector, increasingly cities are ...

Around the world, cities are growing at an unprecedented rate. According to the UN, 68% of people will live in cities by the year 2050 (Ritchie and Roser 2019). And yet, many cities lack the necessary financial resources to deliver basic services consistently and universally to their citizens, including housing, clean water, electricity, ...

The Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA) is a multi-level and multi-stakeholder coalition aimed at closing the investment gap for urban subnational climate projects and infrastructure. CCFLA provides a platform to convene and exchange knowledge among all relevant actors dedicated to urban development, climate action, and/or ...

The "Resilient cities, thriving cities: The evolution of urban resilience" report providing an overview about climate resilience in cities and some good examples to get inspired on Nature-based Solutions, circular economy and sustainable development.   You can find the report at this ...

Investing in climate infrastructure in cities has never been more important. According to data published by CDP, the opportunity to invest in these projects is growing and urgent. Insights in CDP’s Global Snapshot, launched November 2023, highlight the infrastructure priorities of over 1,000 cities reporting their environmental data through ...

This study examines the role of nature-based solutions (NbS) for global climate protection and in international climate policy. It provides a critical assessment of global mitigation potentials of NbS in forests, croplands, grasslands, terrestrial and coastal wetlands, and settlements and provides recommendations for international climate policy.

Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) are an effective way to strengthen the resilience of urban communities by enhancing the natural functions of ecosystems and providing social, ecological, and economic benefits. Ecosystems within and around urban areas play an essential role in retaining and infiltrating water, regulating temperature, controlling soil ...

As part of the work of research done in the identification of Nature-based Solutions in cities of the Mediterranean region, IUCN-Med organised a discussion with a group of international experts, in order to discuss the opportunity of joining efforts in promoting this concept; and to identify the most suitable scope of a common project in that ...

A series of 5 webinars was held between October and December 2023. Five webinars to discuss with researchers, development operators and farmers the issues and challenges of the agroecological transition in five representative agrosystems in North Africa: mountain agroforests, oases, cereal plains, peri-urban areas and irrigated valleys.

CURB is an interactive tool designed specifically to help cities take action on climate by allowing them to map out different action plans and evaluate their cost, feasibility, and impact. Access the tool here: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/infographic/2016/09/22/curb-tool-climate-action-for-urban-sustainability  

The Green Future Index (GFI) 2023 is the MIT Technology Review’s third annual comparative ranking of 76 nations and territories on their to develop a sustainable, low-carbon future for their economies and societies.

In 2021, the IEA published its landmark report, Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. Since then, the energy sector has seen major shifts. Based on the latest data on technologies, markets and policies, this report presents an updated version of the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) Scenario; a pathway, but not the only one, for ...

The Net Zero+ synthesis report sits alongside three other flagship OECD initiatives on climate action. First, the OECD’s Inclusive Forum on Carbon Mitigation Approaches, which looks to improve data and information sharing about the comparative effectiveness of different carbon mitigation policy approaches. Second, the International Programme for ...

Overall analysis with key findings on the state of play of local heating and cooling plans across the EU. It also includes recommendations to policy-makers on what will be needed to make them game-changing tools for decarbonised and climate-resilient living environments. The analysis is currently available in English, but can soon be read in ...

What are the links between the digital and the green transitions, and what research is required to make the twin transition a success? The main reasons for asking these questions are the power of the digital transition of society, at a time when climate change, loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation are existential threats to the ...

This second special issue of the publication series on Future Cities and New Economy aims to stress the important role of cities in tackling climate change and achieving carbon neutrality. In particular, the publication points out the need to invest in innovation to improve and broaden sets of solutions to achieve carbon neutrality. Cities need to ...

Planning the infrastructure transition to carbon neutral from a street through to grid level.

The book is a compilation of articles and community projects from the Institute of Culture, History, and Environment (ICHMA), a grassroots organization with almost fifteen years work on the conservation of natural and cultural heritage in San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima. A valuable testimony on heritage and environmental community management in the ...

Living-in.EU is the European movement which sustains the European way of digital transformation across Europe. In times when cities and communities are looking to digital solutions to tackle a growing range of interconnected challenges, we must boost these efforts through a ‘European Way’ where digital solutions help to create places where ...

This video depicts the Waste Management for a Public Event (Temporary City in 30 Hectares with 10 Million+ visitors). It has been very effective way for collection wastes, route the vehicle without impacting public transport, segregation of waste at source and compression at station for recycling. The entire area was Geo Tagged using GIS, Vehicles ...

This application was created for the use by administrations and service providers with interface with Work Tracking System and Public Mobile App (link shared in separate KS). This is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) based, Geo Tagged and Modular Application to provide services to citizens with paper forms (saving trees and ink), saves transit ...

This video depicts the mobile application created for one of the Largest Gathering of Humans on Earth (called Kumbh Mela). It enables citizens and visitors to avail the services, share the issues and also provide feedback. The work allocation for service request is Geo Tagged and directly routed to the associated ground team member based on their ...

Recording of the UTMC Knowledge Repository Launch hosted on Wednesday, 05 July 2023 at 13:00 CET. The presentation included the closing remarks from Rosalinde van der Vlies, Clean Planet Director at DG Research and Innovation in the European Commission; and Vice Chair of the Mission Innovation Steering Committee. Agenda: - UTMC INTRO ...

Presentation slides used to guide the UTMC Knowledge Repository Launch hosted on Wednesday, 05 July 2023 at 13:00 CET. The presentation contains: - UTMC INTRO (relevance and goals) - UTM FRAMEWORK (connection with UTMC & NZC) - UTMC GLOBAL COLLABORATION PLATFORM FEATURES & OPPORTUNITIES - UTMC KNOWLEDGE REPOSITORY (Resources, ...

ChatClimate is an AI tool grounded on the latest IPCC Report. Its goal is to make Climate Risk understandable and climate information more accessible to the broader communities. This tool might be useful to help both contrasting insights from any climate project or plan development, or to design communication or engagement strategies with ...

The City has successfully implemented a sustainable local energy policy interdisciplinary management system, after developing and approving a number of strategic documents in the sector of sustainable energy development, renewable energy sources, and urban mobility. After the implementation of the first Municipal Energy Plan 2017-2020, which ...

Promoting free access to buses and shared bicycles for Cascais residents, students, and workers.

This is a compilation of different participatory project development methods & tools that can guide your climate planning and action. They are grouped in the following categories:        Data Collection Systems Mapping Guide People and Connections Map Challenge Map Empathy Mapping Challenge-based Systems ...

This is a selection of relevant european case studies from Eurocities focused on citizen engagement and solutions & technologies in energy, mobility and construction. Please click on the links on the shortlist below to see more details: A network inspiring solutions in Uppsala A holistic approach to sustainable energy efficiency ...

The Urban Transitions Mission Centre (UTMC) is a global platform that promotes urban sustainability and facilitates climate-neutral transitions. UTMC will assist cities in bridging the knowledge and capacity gaps by linking them with policy, implementation, and funding solutions through exchanges that transcend national and regional ...

The Free Mobility Program of Cascais promotes free access to buses and shared bicycles for Cascais residents, students, and workers to increase Public transportation use and reduce GHGs emissions. Also, the Program seeks to promote social inclusion by easily connecting the people to their jobs, social events, education, health care and leisure ...

The Net-Zero Tracker presents the net-zero targets that have been communicated in a Party’s nationally determined contribution (NDC), long-term low GHG emissions development strategy (LTS), domestic law, policy, or high-level political pledge such as head of state commitment. This tracker is a resourceful tool to compare climate commitment ...

A comprehensive resource book for practitioners to map, analyse and facilitate systemic change. Includes many canvases and practical tools. The tools are presented in a simple and visual approach to support practitioners’ every-day work on climate change, transition, and system innovation. You can acces and download the Toolbox ...

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) system combining operators, services, and infrastructure solutions for Cascais citizens. 

A successful public-private partnership to reduce the city's external energy dependency and accelerate climate neutrality

Community transition to climate neutrality through the implementation of local energy policy.

This is a shortlist of relevant Knowledge Repositories or Libraries around the globe which can help your climate neutrality planning and actions. These come from different institutions, organizations and UTMC partners working towards achieving net zero goals. Here you will find a diverse variety of resources like best practices, case studies, ...

This tool has been designed by NZC to help you find the right funding for your projects. It is based on a questionnaire that will help you define your financing needs and filter the types of funding that are appropriate: https://netzerocities.app/financeGuidanceTool

The Net Zero Cities framework is based on three pillars: Purpose, Process and Plan, which conform the Climate Transitions Map. Purpose: The NZC proposes a collective transformative systemic approach to accelerate decarbonisation. This will be implemented as an iterative Process through the ambitous journey of the 112 cities working together with ...

This is a selection of relevant case studies focused on solutions & technologies from the Covenant of Mayors - Europe Library. Please click on the links on the shortlist below to see more details. Also, you can access the full library here: https://eu-mayors.ec.europa.eu/en/resources/library Osterund: Green bonds to finance ...

This Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance – CCFLA provides innovative financial strategies and resources that can help cities overcome the multiple barriers they face in accessing climate finance. Here are some of them: Financial Instruments Toolkit This toolkit showcases potential financial instruments, highlighting case studies and ...

Presentation Slides used to guide the UTMC Platform Pre-Launch Meeting. The meeting was dedicated to the 48 UTM Cities and hosted on Wednesday, 07 June 2023 at 13:00 CET. The presentation contains: INTRO: - WHY is UTMC important? - HOW is UTMC supporting cities? - WHAT will UTMC do? PLATFORM FEATURES & OPPORTUNITIES: - Knowledge Repository - ...

The IN-PLAN Practice, developed under the framework of the LIFE IN-PLAN project, aims to provide municipalities, regions, and other public authorities with a comprehensive guidebook for integrating climate adaptation, mobility, and energy planning into spatial planning processes. It fosters institutionalised collaboration across different ...

Methods to implement social innovation in projects and in cities: Phase 1 - Analyze the Context Context Map Canvas: The Context Canvas is a framework used to help understand the context. The template can map out the trends and different perspectives. This brings out drivers outside the organisation and the forces that could shape the project now ...

This page summarizes the main learning programs offered by NZC Learning Map (Work in progress to systematize the learning offer of NetZeroCities​)   For all cities: THE NZC SYSTEMIC INNOVATION APPROACH: Impact Pathways & Monitoring [tool: Barometer] The Systemic Approach [tool: Solution Bundles] The Climate Transition ...

Work of Oslo to decarbonise the construction sector

On this page you can find the list of all NZC resources on social innovation for climate neutrality in cities: (1) quick read; (2) video; (3) Social Innovation Actionable Pathways map; (4) NZC Seasonal Schools resource; (5) Social Innovation Learning Club; (6) case studies; (7) methods to implement social innovation in cities; (8) Social ...

Quick Reads are short overviews of key NetZeroCities concepts providing essential information in a practical and visual way. More comprehensive resources and additional information will be available in the knowledge repository.   01. Climate City Contracts The Cities Mission Climate City Contract (CCC) is a governance innovation tool to ...

In order to translate high ambitions into fair and sustainable realities, cities need to engage deeper not only in ‘what’ they are aiming for but also ‘how’ to create the needed transformative change alongside other actors. This ‘how’ is a question of governance. In this piece, we break down what climate ...

The GreenInCities initiative, submitted under the HORIZON-MISS-2023-CLIMA-CITIES-01 program, aims to revolutionize urban planning by integrating Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) to combat climate change and enhance resilience in cities, particularly in deprived areas. In recent years, urban regeneration has focused on affluent regions, often ...

This case study describes the national Climate City Contracts in Sweden, demonstrating effective multi-level governance for the transition to climate-neutrality in cities. It is part of a series of resources aiming to shed light on innovative multi-level governance approaches.

This case study investigates the role of the regional level in the Mission, focusing on Poland and their support to cities in achieving their climate-neutrality objectives. It is part of a series of resources aiming to shed light on innovative multi-level governance approaches.

This case study investigates the role of the regional level in the Mission, focusing on the Region of Blekie and their work with the Regional Smart Specialisation Strategy. It is part of a series of resources aiming to shed light on innovative multi-level governance approaches.

A National Platform is a multi-level, multi-stakeholder space for collaboration and innovation, established across EU Member States and Associated Countries. Its goal is to support and accelerate the transition of cities in the country towards climate neutrality.

This case study investigates the role of the regional level in the Mission, focusing on the Region of Valencia as a signatory of the Climate City Contract. It is part of a series of resources aiming to shed light on innovative multi-level governance approaches.

Florence is illuminated by over 40,500 lampposts and 3,500 traffic lights, all of which required upgrades to meet the energy-saving targets outlined in the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (2020) and the Smart City Plan (2030-2050). The challenge was to design a solution that respected the requirements of UNESCO recognition while improving ...

Vitoria-Gasteiz has launched a major car-pooling initiative to help achieve its climate neutrality aims. At the beginning of 2023, around 25,000 residents drove their own cars to industrial parks for work every day. Now, after a pilot project brought about 600 carpool trips a week, the measure will become long term.

Vitoria-Gasteiz has launched a major car-pooling initiative to help achieve its climate neutrality aims. At the beginning of 2023, around 25,000 residents drove their own cars to industrial parks for work every day. Now, after a pilot project brought about 600 carpool trips a week, the measure will become long term.

This policy brief gives some early results of the LOCALISED project that highlight the critical insights into the regional distribution of investments needed to achieve net zero emissions across Europe. For example, LOCALISED provides the first estimate of projected investment needs in individual regions and offers a solution with an innovative ...

Core objective: The City as Studio workshop is designed to enable city participants to creatively consider what success looks like in 2030 for their city, and what achieving this success entails in the context of thinking about the whole city as a system of systems. Working back from 2030, participants will plot key delivery and impact points, ...

Climate and Biodiversity: synergies for Urban Transformation - A Common Ground for Collaboration between NetZeroCities and NetworkNature

On this page, you will find the collection of NetZeroCities resources  on the topic of Finance: (1) videos on the training program on the investment plan; (2) The finance Guidance Tool; (3) information on Cities' Action and Investment Plans and (4) Deliverables. 7.1: Training programme and embedded tutoring on innovative finance for city ...

On this page you can find the list of all NZC resources on technical solutions to achieve climate neutrality in cities: (1) Thematic areas for services definition; (2) Catalogue of solutions & co-benefits; (3) Expert services for deploying climate neutral city actions; and (4) Deliverables.   1. Thematic areas for ...

Tool for Embedding Stakeholder Engagement in Urban Projects* A major challenge for cities is determining when and how to initiate stakeholder participation. Often, project teams feel they must have every detail finalized before engaging stakeholders and/or the wider public, leading to missed opportunities for meaningful collaboration. The ...

Tool for Building Distributed Networks for Urban Transformation The Scaffolding Emergence Canvas is a tool that supports cities that aim to create a distributed network for change. It guides municipalities beyond one-off engagement, fostering a collaborative ecosystem where cities work closely with frontrunners to shape and maintain a dynamic ...

This page is dedicated to NZC research events and resources. Upcoming publishing opportunities for researchers: Special issue on "Co-design and Social Innovation for Climate Neutrality" in  Sustainability | Deadline: February 2025 ​   Edited book with proceedings of the event​ Chapters ...

Visual overview with interactive links to NZC learning content

The city’s emissions for 2019 stood at the equivalent of 352 ktCO2, a number that Ioannina has committed to reducing by 80% by 2030. Reaching these ambitious targets will require targeted initiatives informed by technical expertise. To make this possible, the Municipality of Ioannina has partnered with the Technical Chamber of Greece to create ...

This document provides an overview of the NetZeroPlanner methodology and a detailed review by decarbonisation lever.

The economic model as a tool is a fundamental part of the Climate City Contracts, and it is something that has been worked with each city in a particular way, with a tailor-made approach. Why Economic Case Analysis for City Decarbonisation is crucial? Cities have a clear and fundamental role to play in addressing the climate emergency and ...

The NZC impact pathways, theory of change, monitoring, evaluation and framework with indicators Quick read: https://netzerocities.app/QR-Monitoring (to be updated) Download the pdf version of the figure, with interactive links to the portal content per category Video Impact Pathways and Indicators - Presentation Slides (PDF) ...

NetZeroCities impact pathways diagram pdf with active links to dedicated portal pages

Malmö’s political leadership tasked the Finance Department to investigate green bonds as a potential instrument for raising capital for investments that benefit the climate and environment. It resulted in the development of the Green Bond Framework and the issuance of their first green bonds in 2018.

In 2022, Grenoble Alpes Metropolitan Area embarked on an ambitious initiative to involve its residents as key players in its climate transition. The metropolitan area, composed of 49 towns and villages and home to 450,000 inhabitants, has a strong tradition of citizen participation in public life. Consult this case study to understand their ...

The main objective of the Sun4All Capacity and Training Package is to help cities and other stakeholders to understand and address energy poverty more efficiently, ensuring fair energy transition across Europe. This document aims to ensure that Sun4All financial support scheme remains as a stable programme to tackle energy poverty and ensure ...

This policy brief highlights the role of national governments in fostering the development of energy communities in their territories overall, and in particular on how to support energy communities in fulfilling their potential for social cohesion. The policy brief first reviews the transposition process of the first-generation EU legislation on ...

This short animated video explains the Sun4All solution to alleviating energy poverty, and presents the project in an accessible manner. It can be used by cities or utilities replicating the Sun4All scheme when approaching vulnerable stakeholders, implementing community work plans, and communicating on the local level.

Rzeszów Urban Innovation Lab is both a physical space and an organisation/city department which allows residents and stakeholders including local authorities, government officials, scientists, and business representatives to meet, exchange ideas, and share perspectives. It has been used by the city to facilitate conversations and promote ...

With the ambition of becoming a one-planet city, Guimarães needed a way to measure how many planets-worth of resources the city and its residents are consuming. This would allow for monitoring progress towards the shared vision. In collaboration with the Global Footprint Network and the University of Aveiro, the city introduced two types of ...

Lisbon is an internationally acknowledged leader in participatory budgeting. The city implemented this process at a municipal scale since 2008. This allows residents to have the power to decide how a part of the municipal budget is spent by submitting and voting on project proposals.

Purpose: Adapt and refine the tool to each city, to enable quantification of the economic case for decarbonization – to build the rationale for ambitious climate action, support strategy and identify priority areas as defined in the Climate City Contract.

In the sustainable transition of a city, climate solutions such as decarbonising transport and heating can provide additional value other than CO2 reductions. These co-benefits are an essential part of the total economics case for city decarbonization and support the investment case of solutions. Co-benefits also help cities prioritize and compare ...

Cities have a clear and fundamental role to play in addressing the climate emergency and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Many are working hard to decarbonise, but face significant challenges due to inertia in existing systems, pre-existing policy environments, and limited budgets. A key obstacle is the seemingly high cost of ...

Proposed solutions must operate under a changing climate. Throughout their entire lifetime, these solutions will both impact and be impacted by the environment through various feedback loops. Climate risks need to be reduced to acceptable levels through enduring changes that are environmentally sound, economically viable, and ...

Bordeaux's Réseau Vélo Express or 'ReVE,' is the express bike network. Extended by 60% from the existing cycle network, it involves an additional 250km of bike paths with 14 dedicated routes planned. The ReVE aims to encourage shifts from private cars to cycling.

Helsingborg increased its cycling rate for school commutes by creating a school-focused digital platform and using behavioural science and nudging techniques.

The Climate Assembly was designed to get proposals for the City Government on how to make Tartu’s streets safer and healthier, reduce traffic-related noise and air pollution in the urban space, and shape a more climate-friendly future.

The Climate Assembly was designed to get proposals for the City Government on how to make Tartu’s streets safer and healthier, reduce traffic-related noise and air pollution in the urban space, and shape a more climate-friendly future.

The Climate Assembly was designed to get proposals for the City Government on how to make Tartu’s streets safer and healthier, reduce traffic-related noise and air pollution in the urban space, and shape a more climate-friendly future.

The Citizens' Climate Assembly in Barcelona, Spain is a deliberative process of 100 people chosen by lottery between the ages of 16 and 75 to discuss the climate emergency situation in the city and they defined actions and solutions to improve it.

Deep dive into the CCC drafting and submission process, with facilitated breakout sessions on the Commitments, Action plan and Investment plan by thematic area.

The aim of this CCC Info Session was to help cities be ready for Window 4 submission. Colleagues from the Joint Research Council (JRC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) joined to share their "top tips" to ensure cities' submissions are as complete as possible.

The aim of this CCC Info Session was to help cities be ready for Window 4 submission. Colleagues from the Joint Research Council (JRC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) joined to share their "top tips" to ensure cities' submissions are as complete as possible.

The aim of this CCC Info Session was to help cities be ready for Window 4 submission. Colleagues from the Joint Research Council (JRC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) joined to share their "top tips" to ensure cities' submissions are as complete as possible.

• Passenger transport levers • Freight transport levers • Buildings & heating levers • Electricity levers • Waste levers • Appendix: Lever sensitivities • Appendix: Model Updates & Improvements

The economic case is the foundation of a city’s decarbonization strategic plan as documented in the Climate City Contract (CCC). The NZC Economic Model is a tool that supports a process for creation of the economic case. Through the process, cities validate and improve upon their Climate Action Plans and Investment Plans for inclusion in the ...

The CCC Highlights provide thematic information extracted from labelled Climate City Contracts. These CCC Highlights delve into the diversity of actors that signed the Commitments Document of the first cohort of labelled cities.

Valladolid has been at the forefront of climate action initiatives, and in recognition of these efforts, it was one of the first cities to be awarded the Mission Label by the European Commission. A key element of the city's success in promoting climate neutrality has been the development of communication and engagement campaigns in collaboration ...

Pop-up Återbruk is a temporary reciclying service provided by Stockholm Vatten och Avfall. From April to November, two metal sheet containers move around all neighbourhoods of Stockholm offering two main services: the collection of small objects to recycle and a second hand shop where citizens can buy things collected on the same containers

Since 2018, Dubrovnik has implemented a participatory budgeting project, allowing residents to directly influence the allocation of public funds to community projects. This initiative aims to enhance civic participation, improve local infrastructure, and foster a sense of community ownership.

Join NetZeroCities User Panels!  The project of NetZeroCities wants to empower cities with the essential tools, resources, and knowledge to combat the climate crisis and build sustainable urban environments for everyone.  We are thrilled to invite you to participate in NetZeroCities User Panels. These interactive virtual meetings are ...

Case study about the Milan Food Policy

The NZC Solution Bundles is a tool to inspire and show in a diagram how the technologies and levers can be combined together to implement solutions. It provides an interactive visualisation of city systems. Here you can have access to the tool. There will be a City Panel to validate the tool on April 30. If you want to particiapte, join us in the ...

Espoo is collaborating to ensure waste heat can be captured from its data centres and fed into its district heating supply.

Launched in 2021, VeniSIA, the Venice Sustainability Innovation Accelerator, aims to develop and scale business ideas and technological solutions to address environmental, social, and economic challenges in Venice and beyond.

A co-creation model is a toolkit for developing sustainable and smart urban areas. It describes a general model for urban co-creation, considering the conditions and different starting points. The model originates from the SPARCS project in which ideas and co-creation practices, its potential and constraints were initially tested in the City of ...

Turku's Climate Team is a network aimed at companies and communities in the Turku region. It aims to make the fight against climate change visible, effective and communal. The Climate Team started as campaign-based activity in 2018 and got more formalised network structure in few years. It shares information about climate work and organizes ...

This Playbook draws together the methodologies co-designed and developed by NetZeroCities Climate Neutral Cities Advisors, with wider support from specialists under NetZeroCities Platform to help cities navigate their journey towards climate neutrality. By using the Playbook, cities will be able to better: Align city teams towards a common ...

Core objective: The Horizon Mapping exercise is a way to gather a bird’s eye view of everything that is going on in a city in the immediate, near-term and longer-term that has the potential to impact upon the city’s climate journey – and to quickly identify the shared opportunities and barriers, as well as the most salient gaps ...

Core objective: To enable city teams to consider the skills, capabilities and resources required in order to deliver the transition to climate neutrality, and how these might be sourced/shaped in the context of a range of different governance models. The workshop will explore governance options to identify which reflect local ...

Core objective: This workshop will explore the key strategic risks and uncertainties to the city in its journey to climate neutrality and what approaches and levers are available to meet these. The workshop will focus on the known uncertainties and risks. What the workshop will deliver A clear understanding of the strategic uncertainties ...

Core objective: To help city participants determine which stakeholders have the potential to have the greatest impact on GHG reductions, and which stakeholders have the potential to have the most influence on others in relation to GHG reductions. This workshop will deliver A clear understanding of the top ten stakeholders across the ...

Core objective: This workshop helps the city team to explore thinking around financing the transition, including known sources of finance and potential next steps for financing and partnerships.   This workshop will deliver An exploration of the potential municipal sources of funding for decarbonisation An overview of existing mechanisms ...

On this page you can find the list of all NZC resources on citizen and urban stakeholder participation: 1) Quick-read, 2) Video, 3) An Introduction to the Need for a Participative Transition: Why It Matters and How It Can Be Done 4) Services & Tools, 5) Case Studies & Methods, 6) NZC Deliverables on citizen and urban stakeholder ...

On this page you can find the list of all NZC resources on systemic innovation for climate neutrality in cities. QUICK READ LEADING COLLABORATIVE SYSTEMS CHANGE FOR CLIMATE-NEUTRALITY Quick Reads are short overviews of key NetZeroCities concepts providing essential information in a practical and visual way. More comprehensive resources and ...

The CCC Highlights provide thematic information extracted from labelled Climate City Contracts. These CCC Highlights delve into the climate commitments and the barriers to achieving the climate neutrality goals of the first cohort of labelled cities.

This page provides an overview of NZC documents, tools and resources on the topic of Policy, Networks and Partnerships for climate neutrality The EU Climate Projects Navigator Relationships map (Kumu)   Policy Briefs Policy brief on Finance and Investment Policy brief on Circular Economy   Projects maps Interactive tables of ...

The policy framework provides an overview of the EU level policies that are most relevant to achieving climate neutrality in cities by 2030.   The policy framework provides an overview of both regulatory and policy/strategy documents issued at EU level. It includes regulations which are currently in effect, as well as those which have ...

Launched in 2012 by the Municipality of Turin, Torino Social Innovation fosters social innovation and entrepreneurship by bringing together over 40 public and private organisations to support sustainable business projects addressing societal needs in education, sustainability, employment, mobility, health, and inclusion. TSI is the first attempt ...

NEUTRALPATH has produced a series of case studies to showcase the ambitious goals set by cities to achieve climate neutrality and provide a more sustainable future for their citizens. At the local level, Positive and Clean Energy Districts (PCEDs) are playing a key role in the energy transition and contributing to the achievement of the zero ...

NEUTRALPATH has produced a series of case studies to showcase the ambitious goals set by cities to achieve climate neutrality and provide a more sustainable future for their citizens. At the local level, Positive and Clean Energy Districts (PCEDs) are playing a key role in the energy transition and contributing to the achievement of the zero ...

NEUTRALPATH has produced a series of case studies to showcase the ambitious goals set by cities to achieve climate neutrality and provide a more sustainable future for their citizens. At the local level, Positive and Clean Energy Districts (PCEDs) are playing a key role in the energy transition and contributing to the achievement of the zero ...

NEUTRALPATH has produced a series of case studies to showcase the ambitious goals set by cities to achieve climate neutrality and provide a more sustainable future for their citizens. At the local level, Positive and Clean Energy Districts (PCEDs) are playing a key role in the energy transition and contributing to the achievement of the zero ...

NEUTRALPATH has produced a series of case studies to showcase the ambitious goals set by cities to achieve climate neutrality and provide a more sustainable future for their citizens. At the local level, Positive and Clean Energy Districts (PCEDs) are playing a key role in the energy transition and contributing to the achievement of the zero ...

This Factsheet provides an overview of the Autonomous Network and Traffic Management Engine (ANTME) Platform and its main components developed in the EU-funded FRONTIER project.

The video presents the ANTME Platform developed in the EU-funded FRONTIER project and the results of its demonstrations in three European pilot sites: - TEN-T CORRIDOR – Oxfordshire, UK, - ATTIKI ODOS MOTORWAY – Athens, Greece and - ANTWERP PORT – Antwerp, Belgium. Known as the Autonomous Network and Traffic Management Engine (ANTME), ...

Sveta Nedelja, Croatia, launched an online transparency platform to enhance citizen engagement and accountability. It centralizes municipal information, promoting transparency and participatory governance, and includes data on environmental efforts. Despite digital literacy challenges, it sets a model for modern governance through technology and ...

Energy Renaissance kicked off in 2021. The city established a team of energy specialists providing free, impartial advice to housing companies, promoting energy-efficient renovations.

Launched in 2021, Renolution is a comprehensive approach to decarbonising the region’s buildings while improving living standards and promoting a circular economy in renovations. The strategy includes a combination of regulatory measures, financial incentives, and broad-based stakeholder engagement. It also merges previously separate city ...

Launched in 2021, Renolution is a comprehensive approach to decarbonising the region’s buildings while improving living standards and promoting a circular economy in renovations. The strategy includes a combination of regulatory measures, financial incentives, and broad-based stakeholder engagement. It also merges previously separate city ...

Launched in 2021, Renolution is a comprehensive approach to decarbonising the region’s buildings while improving living standards and promoting a circular economy in renovations. The strategy includes a combination of regulatory measures, financial incentives, and broad-based stakeholder engagement. It also merges previously separate city ...

Launched in 2021, Renolution is a comprehensive approach to decarbonising the region’s buildings while improving living standards and promoting a circular economy in renovations. The strategy includes a combination of regulatory measures, financial incentives, and broad-based stakeholder engagement. It also merges previously separate city ...

Launched in 2021, Renolution is a comprehensive approach to decarbonising the region’s buildings while improving living standards and promoting a circular economy in renovations. The strategy includes a combination of regulatory measures, financial incentives, and broad-based stakeholder engagement. It also merges previously separate city ...

Launched in 2021, Renolution is a comprehensive approach to decarbonising the region’s buildings while improving living standards and promoting a circular economy in renovations. The strategy includes a combination of regulatory measures, financial incentives, and broad-based stakeholder engagement. It also merges previously separate city ...

Launched in 2021, Renolution is a comprehensive approach to decarbonising the region’s buildings while improving living standards and promoting a circular economy in renovations. The strategy includes a combination of regulatory measures, financial incentives, and broad-based stakeholder engagement. It also merges previously separate city ...

These are seven services and resources you can use to more effectively engage and involve citizens and stakeholders in your climate transition. These services are developed by experts in the fields of citizen participation and stakeholder engagement. They can be used on your own, with your transition team, or with support from an expert ...

Social innovation case study of positive energy districts in Norway

This Climate City Contract and Action Plan were submitted in 2023 by Madrid and endorsed by the European Commission resulting in the city being awarded the Mission Label.

This Climate City Contract and Action Plan were submitted in 2023 by Mannheim and endorsed by the European Commission resulting in the city being awarded the Mission Label.

This Climate City Contract and Action Plan were submitted in 2023 by Cluj Napuca and endorsed by the European Commission resulting in the city being awarded the Mission Label.

This Climate City Contract and Action Plan were submitted in 2023 by Klagenfurt and endorsed by the European Commission resulting in the city being awarded the Mission Label.

This Climate City Contract and Action Plan were submitted in 2023 by Sonderborg and endorsed by the European Commission resulting in the city being awarded the Mission Label.

This Climate City Contract and Action Plan were submitted in 2023 by Valencia and endorsed by the European Commission resulting in the city being awarded the Mission Label.

This Climate City Contract and Action Plan were submitted in 2023 by Valladolid and endorsed by the European Commission resulting in the city being awarded the Mission Label.

This Climate City Contract and Action Plan were submitted in 2023 by Vitoria Gasteiz and endorsed by the European Commission resulting in the city being awarded the Mission Label.

This Climate City Contract and Action Plan was submitted in 2023 by Zaragoza and was endorsed by the European Commission resulting in the city being awarded the Mission Label.

The Green Living Room is a nature-based solution that can be applied to various urban situations. It offers multiple benefits for the urban environment in terms of climate action, public space improvement and nature awareness. In Ludwigsburg it was applied as a multifunctional structure that contributes to addressing urban. environmental and ...

Stuttgart, Germany lies in a natural depression. Like other big cities with manufacturing industries, a high volume of traffic and a population density, Stuttgart had to find ways of coping with the heat island effect and poor air quality. To overcome these challenges, it is implementing a natural green belt strategy to create pathways for winds ...

The Green Roof Strategy of Hamburg, Germany was initiated in 2014, making Hamburg the first major German city to launch a comprehensive green roof strategy. Its goal is to green at least 70 per cent of both new buildings and suitable flat or gently pitched roofs undergoing renovation. The Ministry for Environment, Climate, Energy, and Agriculture ...

The green noise barrier by the Municipality of Sachsenheim Germany, in collaboration with the company Helix PflanzenSysteme, was initiated in 2014 with the aim of delivering a certified instant green noise barrier. The idea was to create a noise barrier that improved noise mitigation while offering other benefits such as managing rainwater ...

This NetworkNature design brief series presents simple design suggestions for renaturing in built environments to restore or provide habitat for nature. It is not meant to replace professional ecological or landscape guidance, but rather to encourage designers to intentionally consider how they can adopt an interdisciplinary approach to make ...

The Handbook provides practitioners with a comprehensive NbS impact assessment framework, and a robust set of indicators and methodologies to assess the impacts of NBS across 12 societal challenges. In the appendix of methods, there are factsheets for all indicators on how to assess and monitor them.

CO-IMPACT is a decision-support tool allowing city officers and cities to create impact assessment plans for the nature-based solutions projects. The tool aims to make the process of building a baseline and impact assessment plan straightforward and simple for anyone who wishes to do so, with the final report providing advice around suitable ...

Urban Greening Plans articulate, formalise and showcase a city’s commitment to promoting biodiversity and urban greening. This guidance document sets out the background, rationale and key elements needed to produce and successfully implement an Urban Greening Plan. It is accompanied by a toolkit that goes into more detail on each step and gives ...

This deliverable D2.5 presents a concise view of what cities require for reporting GHG emissions towards their climate neutrality goals within NetZeroCities. The report outlines the definition of climate neutrality under the mission, what information falls under each category and how cities can move towards a comprehensive GHG inventory accounting ...

Short informational flyer regarding the EU Sparks for Climate Hackathon Championship and correlated dates. Find more information here: https://eusparks.eu/

The 'Mobility as a Right' concept is one of the pillars of the project, and this first online Workshop was planned specifically for the UPPER Consortium. The workshop's aim, organized by ICLEI and Eurocities, was to dive deeply into the concept and discuss the application in practice with all our cities and horizontal partners. A great ...

Compilation of short policy briefs fostering Nature-based Solutions for equitable, green and healthy urban transitions produced by EU-funded project REGREEN (Horizon 2020)

This open access book presents a catalogue of over one thousand indicators which can be used by cities' public administrators to monitor and evaluate social innovation action plans to support people-centred, collaborative or co-designed solutions to lower carbon emissions. Indicators are clustered according to a framework of social innovation ...

This scientific study, published on the journal "Climate" provides bottom-up evidence of NZC Pilot cities’ (cohort 1 and 2) selection of non-GHG indicators through different levers of change, including participatory governance and social innovation, for assessing progress and the co-benefits of actions toward climate neutrality taken at the ...

The city of Pécs, located in the South-Western part of Hungary, has been firmly committed to a climate policy, driven by a clear sense of purpose. In Pécs, which has almost 140 000 inhabitants and is the fifth largest city in the country, the two largest emitting sectors are buildings and transport, including private transport.

The city of Lund, in southern Sweden,has adopted critical measures in its heating system, as part of their efforts to achieve climate neutrality.

Climate change is a global challenge, and the Brazilian Amazon Forest is a particular concern due to the possibility of reaching a tipping point that could amplify environmental crises. Despite many studies on the Amazon Forest, this research was conducted in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, to address five gaps, including the lack of local ...

NZC SOLUTION OUTLINER / Identify and prioritize decarbonization solutions for your city The NZC SOLUTIONS OUTLINER is a tool developed to support the Mission Cities in getting the most ALIGNED SET OF SOLUTIONS that could contribute to their transition towards neutrality. The service uses contextual parameters such as ambition, barriers, enablers, ...

NZC SOLUTION OUTLINER / Identify and prioritize decarbonization solutions for your city The NZC SOLUTIONS OUTLINER is a tool developed to support the Mission Cities in getting the most ALIGNED SET OF SOLUTIONS that could contribute to their transition towards neutrality. The service uses contextual parameters such as ambition, barriers, enablers, ...

The Indicator Framework describes a set of indicators for monitoring the impact of Climate City Contracts (CCC) in terms of: 1) Required Indicators: Direct Benefits – Impact on GHG emissions. and 2) Recommended Indicators: Co Benefits/ Co Risks – Indirect impact. Required Indicators represent an integral part of the CCC process. In ...

This is a PDF version of the Ecosystem Activation Tools. You can find the digital version here: Engagement Strategy Tools   What are the Ecosystem Activation Tools? The Ecosystem Activation Tools are a set of resources which can be used to identify where to start when it comes to engaging the citizens and urban stakeholders in your city. ...

One-page, plain-English summaries on aspects of transport planning from robust peer-reviewed studies, released fortnightly by Prof Adrian Davis of Edinburgh Napier University’s Transport Research Institute. We aim to improve public policymaking and practice by making robust academic evidence freely accessible to local government transport ...

The Indicator Framework describes a set of indicators for monitoring the impact of Climate City Contracts (CCC) in terms of: 1) Required Indicators: Direct Benefits – Impact on GHG emissions. and 2) Recommended Indicators: Co Benefits/ Co Risks – Indirect impact. Required Indicators represent an integral part of the CCC process. In ...

Crowdfunding is a type of crowd investing that collects funding from a “crowd” of retail investors, usually via an online platform. Unlike crowd-donation, crowdfunding or -investing collects funds from retail investors who can expect a return on their investment. Hence, it is a type of loan product, where interest needs to be paid. ...

Partnerships between a government body and a private sector party whereby the private sector provides infrastructure or services that have traditionally been delivered by the public sector are termed as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). PPPs come in different forms. A few of them are mentioned below. The level of ownership, financial ...

This report is part of EPEC’s work on monitoring developments in the public-private partnership (PPP) market and is intended to provide an overview of the role played by the EIB in financing PPP projects inside and outside of Europe since 1990. It covers a wide range of PPP transactions (e.g. design-build-finance-operate. ...

Presentation on what is social innovation, examples and benefits for climate neutrality, as presented at the 2023 summer schools

Map of social innovation actions with related indicators and links to case studies

This factsheet explores how implementing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in cities can be a more financially viable alternative to conventional approaches. By outlining inspiring NbS case studies, this factsheet lists possible options for municipalities to fund NbS.

Method Description for Challenge Mapping

Challenge mapping helps to understand the barriers to innovation within a certain thematic area / challenge / societal mission and to indicate the most promising routes towards overcoming the barriers. The challenge map is a tool to engage with a certain community of experts to build this understanding and discuss the routes towards solutions. A ...

The customer journey map is a representation describing each step of the interaction that a user or customer has with a service, product, organization or system taking the perspective of the user. It is stated what the actions, the touchpoints with the service, product or system and the emotional state of the user for each of the steps. It can ...

En route to achieving climate neutrality, you will need to engage with citizens and urban stakeholders across your city. The Engagement Building Blocks offer a visual, collaborative, and playful way to learn and implement frameworks for designing such an engagement process. It can be used to explore alternative ways forward, assess needs, and ...

This documents (PDF) includes all the cards necessary to use the Engagement Building Blocks. Use the physical cards by printing and cutting them out. They are laid out to make the print and cut process simple and quick, so you can quickly start to use them.

Terms and meanings to help clarify and support your use of the Engagement Building Blocks.

This tool offers a visual, collaborative, and playful way to gain understanding of frameworks for designing citizen and urban stakeholder engagement processes. The tool helps to consider and evaluate the different elements that affect how best to build this process and takes you step by step through different choices that need to be made. The ...

The case outlines a new theoretical–methodological approach for the mapping and analysis of the social innovation ecosystems (SIE) in the city of Florianópolis, Brazil. The study was put into practice through the creation and implementation of a collaborative digital platform.

Industry is the second-largest global resource of energy sector CO2 emissions. In Europe the total final energy demand in the industry accounted for 2950 TWh/yr in 2020, 66% of which came from process heating. The main fuel source for fulfilling this demand is gas (36%), followed by coal (20%) and oil (8%). In Europe, EU paper production plants ...

There are plenty of rational arguments for implementing heat networks, as Heat Networks offer numerous advantages and opportunities. They are an efficient, reliable, and proven solution for increasing energy security while reducing the carbon footprint of heat. They are convenient and affordable for customers, yet profitable for owners. They ...

Method Description for Ethnographic Interviewing

The Healthy Cities Generator is a freely available digital tool that makes it easy for urban planners, health professionals and policy makers to incorporate health factors into urban planning and urban factors into health policy. Want to explore the healthiest options for your city? If you want to improve your urban plan, devise a health ...

The problems we face today, such as climate change, inequality and ageing populations cannot be fixed by one department alone. They require a systems approach. This is a game for policymakers to explore how taking a systemic approach can unlock intractable issues in their policy areas. Playing “Systemic” will enable you to: ...

Start learning about Positive Energy Distrcits via a short e-learning module In the Smart City Lighthouse project ATELIER (H2020, Grant Agreement No. 864374), a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was developed to provide an engaging e-learning opportunity for everyone who wants to learn about Positive Energy Districts (PEDs). It is hosted on a ...

In just one hour, you’ll learn about carbon management, how to identify measures and actions and how to implement them. More importantly: Serge (CEO of Futureproofed and one of Al Gore’s two first European Climate Ambassadors) will share his experiences on transforming cities into climate-neutral cities. Your host, Serge de Gheldere, ...

The CCRI Methodology provides decision-makers with actionable guidance to help accelerate the transition towards the circular economy at local or regional level. The CCRI Methodology takes stock and draws on past and current efforts and initiatives aimed at deploying the circular economy at local level. Developed in the framework of the Circular ...

The main goal of the project was to implement a complete solution for a smart and sustainable urban environment, which would inspire residents to make environmentally conscious decisions and would later be implemented in various European regions.

The purpose of Nappi Naapur is to increase real encounters between people who live close to each other. It is intended for neighborly help, getting to know each other, gig work and promoting the sharing economy. Everyone is welcome to become a user!

Viable Cities is a Swedish strategic innovation programme focusing on the transition to climate-neutral and sustainable cities. Viable Cities aims to create transformative system change based on the mission Climate Neutral Cities 2030 with a good life for everyone within the planetary boundaries. The mission means that cities' climate transition ...

Outcome harvesting is a method to identify, formulate then analyse and interpret the outcomes (positive and negative, intended or not) of an initiative. The process is stakeholder-centered and includes 6 steps that are helpful to collect evidence of what has changed for project stakeholders or beneficiaries and work backwards to evaluate whether ...

By utilizing an experimental design, such as A/B testing, users (i.e., citizens) are randomly exposed to different options, then results are compared. The aim is testing which solution is best. For example, when utilizing a service, half of the users are provided one version of the service (intervention A), while the other half of the participants ...

TACSI strives to enhance social and economic well-being through their approach to accelerate social innovations. The organization has conducted experiments in the field of human-centered innovation, driven by the belief that individuals are the best experts on their own lives. By collaborating with those affected by the challenges they aim to ...

In this article by Moore, Riddell and Vocisano, it is argued that the process of scaling social innovations to achieve systemic impacts involves three different types of scaling—scaling out, scaling up, and scaling deep—and large systems change (LSC) is likely to require a combination of these types. The findings focus on the ...

Social Innovation Canada is a network that aims to fortify the innovation ecosystem by providing an operational model that offers information, tools, skills, and a network for developing social innovations. By utilizing this model, practitioners can collaborate effectively, build stronger connections, align their efforts, enhance their capacity, ...

Levers of a Sustainable City is a scaling model to accelerate the adoption of good sustainable practices in municipalities. It aims at turning means that have proven to work well into concrete action. The model consists of several interconnected methods and of a typology of scaling activities. The model emphasises the importance of learning from ...

The framework describes four stages in developing a scaling strategy: clarifying aims and goals for scaling, establishing what to scale up, choosing a route to scale, gearing up to deliver a scaling strategy. The writers identify four common routes for scaling-up: influence and advise; build a delivery network; form strategic partnerships and grow ...

Academic studies show that the journey from social to institutional entrepreneurship takes different configurations, depending on the initial conditions of the innovative initiatives and obstacles encountered during implementation. Therefore, five different pathways for scaling up social innovation initiatives were developed, consisting of ...

In the face of pressing environmental challenges, cities around the world are seeking innovative solutions to create a sustainable and livable future. From energy efficiency to waste management, transportation to urban planning, a multitude of strategies are being implemented to reduce our carbon footprint and promote a greener urban environment. ...

Futures Table is a method in a scenario process that offers a structured approach to analyse how different variables of a trend, development or change signal may develop in the future.

Method Description for Motivation Matrix

Civic Design Lab facilitates dialogues and co-creates solutions in collaboration with government agencies, local businesses and communities for improved public services by applying a racial equity lens, human-centred design and systems thinking approach. It helps local government decision making by designing current and future policies with the ...

Conclusions from Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President, European Commission

Closing Plenary, moderated by Patrick Child, Deputy Director-General DGEnvironment | Cities Mission Manager, with the participation of Natalia Chueca, Mayor of Zaragoza, and Dovydas Kaminskas, Mayor of Tauragė.

Pilot Cities: In the Spotlight gives each of the selected Mission and non-Mission Pilot Cities the opportunity to present their pilot activities in a short, sharp, and pithy ‘pitch’. This session also introduces the Pilot Cities Programme’s learning and sense-making activities and launches the next Call for Pilot Cities under NetZeroCities.

This panel focused on the local and wider impacts of the Mission. Panellists discussed how cities, citizens, and businesses can get the most benefit out of the Mission and how to best address both challenges and co benefits.

One year after the selection of cities for the Cities Mission, local authorities and their partners are working hard on their Climate City Contracts, while facing new challenges including an acute energy crisis. This panel is a political exchange on how the Cities Mission has already impacted Mission cities and how its high ambition can hold up in ...

Day 2 of the Mission in Progress: Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Conference 2023: - Cities as Frontrunners of the Climate Transition with Barbara Trachte, State Secretary for the Economic Transition and Scientific Research, Brussels Capital Government and Kim Jørgensen, Director General and Permanent Representative Office of the EIB to the EU ...

Day 2 of the Mission in Progress: Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Conference 2023: - Keynote speech delivered by Marc Lemaître Director-General DGResearch and Innovation, European Commission

This session aims to focus on the urban climate action initiatives that require collective policy action. Mission Cities Copenhagen, Lisbon, Helsinki , Oslo, Paris, and Stockholm share local climate action initiatives that, to be effective, need policy coordination at the European level. Through a world café format, participants discuss policy ...

Day 1 of the Mission in Progress: Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Conference 2023: - Peer-to-Peer City Exchanges, presented by Climate-Neutral City Advisor Jane McLaughlin provides participants with a space for sharing approaches, tools, and methodologies with fellow Mission Cities to overcome barriers you may be facing in the climate neutrality ...

Day 1 of the Mission in Progress: Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Conference 2023: - Keynote Speech delivered by André Sobczak, Secretary General, Eurocities. - NetZeroCities Updates by Thomas Osdoba, Programme Director, EIT Climate-KIC as well as reflections on the Climate City Contract process and its evolution, and upcoming City Support for ...

This document includes a detailed review of the NZC Economic Model calculations and how they work to create an economic case analysis for cities. It also includes examples of how the model was used effectively in the EU Healthy Clean Cities initiative to help cities analyze costs and benefits as a foundation for the development of an effective ...

In order to accelerate their transition to climate neutrality, cities need to cooperate with their full local ecosystem of actors - including citizens, civic groups and stakeholders from the private and public sector – who need to be positively engaged in the challenge as a broad coalition of actors joining their forces. Together, they will need ...

Photovoltaic (PV) energy policies can vary from one country to another and can change over time. In general, policies are designed to encourage the development and deployment of a technology by providing financial incentives, setting performance standards, and creating frameworks for the integration of systems into existing grids. In Spain, ...

Solar thermal collectors are devices that convert solar energy into thermal energy available in a working fluid, which can be used to cover the heating loads or can be converted into electricity. Nowadays, there are many typologies of solar thermal collectors, which can be classified in many different ways. Nevertheless, solar thermal collectors ...

A concept is a principle or an idea, which supports climate neutrality city targets, that can combine several solutions together. Below several concepts that can help in decarbonizing cities are presented by the Net Zero Cities experts:  By accounting for all three scopes of GHG emissions in a city's inventory, policymakers and ...

The systemic design toolkit is for change-makers willing to trigger a process of systemic transformation. The tools are meant to be used during collaborative co-creation sessions. This booklet will guide you through a selection of eight techniques from the toolkit. These are categorised according to different phases of the design process, but that ...

This UNDP guidebook presents an approach to help a broad range of development practitioners prepare for, engage in, and manage systems transformation using a portfolio approach in complex development spaces. We developed this guidebook as a way to formalize our process and learnings to date, and leverage these to support others as they initially ...

This Systems Innovation Toolkit is designed as an open-source set of modules that can be used for enabling a systems change initiative in the context of addressing climate change adaptation and transformation. The toolkit is designed for a lab team, hub, or initiate aimed at create an ecosystem for systemic change around climate change. The ...

This is shared from the PROSPECT+ collection of replicable projects. PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement effective and efficient sustainable energy plans, including their proper monitoring and verification Link: https://www.h2020prospect.eu  

According to the Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GESI) [1], digitalization can improve: Healthcare and wellbeing, by mean of telemedicine (like in Norway), to support the healthcare system via phones, through the real-time air quality monitoring (like in the City of Cork), to warn people when the air quality is not good for sports, ...

Stationary energy is related to energy use and supply in buildings. Buildings account for 40% of energy consumption in cities. Hence, a significant switch to renewable energy in all buildings and facilities is vital. Implement energy-efficient measures to reduce energy demand and improve energy efficiency. For 75% of the EU's existing building ...

Residents go through several steps towards a natural gas-free home. We call this the customer journey to gas-free living. In the study 'Natural gas free living: the resident determines' an analysis was made of the drivers and barriers experienced by homeowners in the various steps towards a natural gas free home. Residents are at different ...

The Lithuanian Energy Efficiency Fund (ENEF) was established in 2015 by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Energy, and the Public Investment Development Agency (VIPA) of Lithuania. The ENEF channels ESIF finances into the renovation of central government buildings and modernisation of street lighting. For street lighting projects, it ...

One of the political priorities of the region Centre in France for the years 2010-2014 was to make out of the region the ‘eco-region for all’. After adoption of the Agenda 21, the region started to define its long- term vision and developed a Territorial Climate Plan with an objective to reduce the greenhouse gases emissions on the territory ...

Financing investments in Germany & Europe Direct link: https://www.oecd.org/env/cc/CCXG%20March%202013%20Katrin%20Enting.pdf

Acquisition and refurbishment of rolling stock (trams and electric buses) and further development of infrastructure for soft modes of mobility (bicycling and walking) in the City of Graz. Direct link: https://www.eib.org/en/registers/all/138491970

Sydney Water has been a major participant in the multi-award winning NSW Sustainability Bond Programme (SBP) since its launch by the NSW Treasury Corporation (TCorp) in 2018. Eligible ‘green’ projects that Sydney Water has showcased through this programme include those that focus on renewable energy; energy efficiency; pollution prevention and ...

As part of its funding programme, KfW has been issuing "Green Bonds – Made by KfW" since 2014. The proceeds out of the green bonds contribute to KfW's overall funding and are used for KfW's general promotional activities accordingly. KfW allocates funds equal to the net proceeds of its green bonds to drawdowns under the specific loan programmes ...

In 2013, the City of Gothenburg became the first city in the world to issue green bonds, which enable it to borrow money for investments that benefit the environment. More than 75% of proceeds from green bonds issued between 2013 and 2015 are used by the city to fund climate change projects that promote the transition to low-carbon and ...

This report is structured in three chapters. The first chapter examines the channels through which institutional investors can access green infrastructure, assesses the extent to which this is currently happening, and identifies the barriers to scaling up these investment flows. The second chapter presents four case studies: on utility-scale solar ...

Public-private partnerships can help make clean technologies for turning waste into energy accessible to cities. Direct link: https://development.asia/case-study/mobilizing-private-capital-and-know-how-turn-waste-energy

Private businesses, including energy service companies (ESCO) and municipalities will benefit from wider access to finance thanks to a €15 million loan that the EBRD is providing to Banca Intesa, the largest bank in Serbia. The loan will be on-lent for energy efficiency ...

Port of Cork: There is a gain share agreement between the customer and the ESCO, whereby if the actual savings are 4%-6% of the overall energy use, the ESCO will be paid their fees in full. If, however, savings are below 4% of overall energy use, the customer may claw back a percentage of the fees paid to the ESCO. If savings exceed 6% of overall ...

The consultant and the main contractor each guaranteed separately to the client that the project would achieve a 15% energy - efficiency improvements in fossil fuel use. If this guarantee was not achieved, each would lose 7.5% of their respective contract values. Direct link: ...

The city of Barcelona is at the heart of a densely populated metropolitan area between mountains and sea. With 1.6 million inhabitants, it is the core of the largest metropolitan area of the Mediterranean coast of five million inhabitants. It is also a key economic area in Spain. Barcelona is committed to climate change action: the city has set ...

Subsidy model and revenue economics • Provide $4.28 million in grant-based subsidies to five Nepalese municipalities—no repayment required, but municipalities assume the performance risk • The grant payments are contingent upon verified improvements in the service provision and collection of service fees, and are complemented with technical ...

This case study presents how a property development programme has been used to finance Hong Kong’s public transport system and discusses whether this model is replicable in other countries. Source: https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/Case%204_Land%20Value_Hong-Kong%20MTR.pdf

Tax increment financing (TIF) is a popular economic development tool by which local governments use incremental property tax revenue to fund the public costs of economic revitalization and growth. For many years, municipalities have been looking for innovative ways to fund economic development projects. A wide array of policies, programs, and ...

Stuttgart has successfully implemented an instrument to improve the energy performance of its municipal building stock, and significantly reduce its CO2 emissions: internal contracting, or “Intracting”. Internal contracting allows the city to fund energy-saving and efficiency projects for buildings owned by the city, and is part of ...

The biggest challenge in Udine was raising the initial fund, due to the very tight budgetary situation of the municipality. Finally, it was possible to create the fund with income from the EEC’s investment on the National Energy Market. Source:https://energy-cities.eu/best-practice/udine-fund-internal-contracting/

“Energiefonds Den Haag” (ED) Fund is a city fund set up in 2013 in The Hague, under the Holding Fund “Holdingfonds Economische Investeringen Den Haag” (HEID). The aim of the ED Fund is to co-finance energy projects integrated in sustainable urban development plans with loans, guarantees and equity investments. Financed from ...

In 2017, Limburgs Energie Fonds (LEF) was the first Dutch energy fund to receive an investment from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The EIB has now invested an additional €54 million in the LEF, enabling the fund to provide the financial stimulus for even more projects in energy saving, sustainable energy generation, the circular economy and ...

Most buildings in Estonia are energy inefficient. The average annual heating energy used in the buildings today is about 200 kWh/m2 compared to the industrial nations with a similar climate which is about 150- 230 kWh/m2. Energy refurbishment loans for citizens, in particular multi-family apartment buildings, are available in Estonia since 2002. ...

The Municipal Energy Saving Fund (ESF) was formed in 2014 as a revolving fund to reinvest money from energy savings into new energy-saving initiatives, doubling savings impacts throughout the city and region. The fund targets energy-efficiency measures in Litomerice’s municipal buildings. Source: ...

To self-finance using own capital, or equity, is one of the most conventional ways of financing any activity. Municipal Budget Spending is a type of funding in which a city can finance its projects using resources from its own budget.  To finance a municipal activity with this type of funding source, a city facilitates a needs assessment ...

Heidelberg is a small to medium-sized city in Southwest Germany. Between 2012 and 2017, the city’s population grew from 138,000 to 150,000 people. In order to accommodate the population growth, in 2008 the city of Heidelberg began to convert land once occupied by a railroad terminal into a modern green district. The area, known as Bahnstadt ...

Edison Facility Solutions SpA, offered over € 11 million of investment, of which € 7 million for municipal buildings and just over € 4 million reserved for provincial school buildings. The ESCo guarantees 52% of overall energy savings, of which 5%, just under 90,000 €. At the end of the contracts, in 15 years, 100% of the ...

The PM4PM Project (Preparation and Mobilisation of Financing for Sustainable Energy Investments in Primorska Region Municipalities) financed sustainable projects in 5 sectors within 33 municipilaties, through the ELENA Grant from 2016 to 2019. PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement ...

Aradippou’s solution was an initiative from the city council including the technoeconomic support of the EU Affairs Advisor of the Municipality. Under the scheme envisaged by the municipality, citizens will be rewarded for their solar PV investments by receiving payments on a municipality coordinated credit card called the “Oxygen ...

The OesteLED streetlighting ESCO project was implemented in 12 municipalities that constitute an Intermunicipal Community, a NUT III region in Portugal, with a population of approximately 365,000 inhabitants. PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement effective and efficient sustainable ...

The project "STREETLIGHT-EPC" had the goal of creating demand and supply for EPC projects in 9 regions by setting up regional EPC facilitation services. They provided comprehensive support to municipalities and to SMEs as potential ESCOs.   PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional and local authorities in order to finance ...

The city of Lisbon launched The Lisbon Climate Citizen Commitment, a local government-led initiative that put together climate projects into its Participatory Budget via a “Green Seal”. The Green Seal was a platform that made Lisbon’s Commitment for Resilience to Climate Change material and attracted new private funding ...

To provide effective electric vehicles and charging stations for cities, the BABLE project created their Investment package for Smart Cities (ISC) tool, which offers cities an innovative financing instrument that simplifies the process in looking to implement sustainable and smart urban solutions. PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional ...

The H2020 funded REMOURBAN project had the ambition to accelerate the deployment of innovative technologies, organizational and economic solutions to increase energy efficiency, improve the sustainability of urban transport and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas. It selected 3 lighthouse cities to implement these goals in : Valladolid ...

SCORE is funded by the European Union under its HORIZON 2020 programme, facilitating consumers to become (co-)owners of renewable energies in 3 EU countries. PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement effective and efficient sustainable energy plans, including their proper monitoring ...

ORFEE (Office for Renovations and Financing for Energy Efficiency) is a European H2020-funded project that developed the first four French third-party financing companies. PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement effective and efficient sustainable energy plans, including their proper ...

The LEMON project was developed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight energy poverty through the energy conversion of existing social housing. It focuses on increasing the energy efficiency of buildings while looking to improve housing quality. PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional and local authorities in order to finance and ...

PRODESA aims to assist 7 municipalities in Athens Metropolitan Area to begin energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, using innovative financial tools and attracting private investments. PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement effective and efficient sustainable energy plans, ...

In 2018, Green Energy Cooperative (ZEZ) launched the first crowd-investing initiative in Croatia, supported by Križevci local authorities. A solar PV system was installed on the rooftop of Križevci’s Development Center and Technology Park’s administrative building. PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional and local ...

The MARTE project (Marche Region Technical assistance for healthcare buildings Energy retrofit) took place in the Marche Region (Italy) and operated an innovative financing model for energy efficiency in 5 healthcare building. PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement effective and ...

BAPAURA is a three-year project focusing on facilitating the refurbishment of public buildings in small and midsize municipalities in Auvergne Rhone-Alpes region. Small and medium sized regions often overlook the energy efficiency portion of their works due to high costs of setting-up such projects. PROSPECT+ fosters capacity building in regional ...

Uppsala has a cross-sectoral network, the Uppsala Climate Protocol, whose member organisations work together to inspire each other and others to find local solutions to the climate challenge.

Tallinn established its Energy Agency in 2013 to coordinate the formulation of energy and climate policies by municipal agencies. It is responsible for fulfilling and accounting for the objectives of the Covenant of Mayors and for promoting the need for climate action by residents and energy-efficient renovation of private buildings.

To support its goal of being fossil free by 2040, Stockholm aims to reduce GHG emissions from energy for heating/cooling buildings, electricity and gas use and transport to 2.2 tonnes CO2e per capita by 2020.

At the heart of Prague's transport policy is a more integrated, energy efficient and environmentally effective public transport system. Improvements are being made both to the system’s backbone, the electric rail network and to its intermodal hubs.

Porto is tackling transport emissions with new vehicles and behaviours. Transport accounts for 39% of total emissions in Porto and the city is focusing significant efforts on the sector - its municipal fleet and public transport in particular.

Oslo was one of the first cities in the world to introduce a climate budget (CB) as an integral component of the municipal budget process. Since 2016 its annual CB has proposed a maximum emission ceiling just like the maximum economic expenditure of the fiscal budget, whose structure it shares.

Central to London's Healthy Streets Approach is the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) launched in 2019. Operating 24-hours a day, seven days a week, the ULEZ addresses the need to reduce pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, half of which come from transport.

Ljubljana has initiated a PPP through energy performance contracting, within which the majority of building stock, owned by the city is being deeply energy retrofitted and, where possible, renewable energy sources are being introduced to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Ghent has identified companies as an important target group for CO2 reduction and set up a customised coaching scheme to encourage investment in energy efficiency measures when existing simple energy audits failed to lead to action.

To achieve its goals of 100% renewables and CO2 reduction of 95% by 2050, Frankfurt has implemented a citizen campaign to draw attention to climate protection and motivate people to take action.

Barcelona has co-created a holistic climate plan with citizens which covers mitigation, adaptation and resilience, climate justice and promoting action by the general public. 

To achieve its ambitious CO2 reduction targets and phase out natural gas, the city has set up the Amsterdam Climate Neutral 2050 programme, a roadmap for reducing dependence on coal, oil and gas. 

Sponsorships to financially support public projects in return for promotion, advertisement or awareness raising can be a source of revenue for a municipality project, particularly if the project offers high visibility. Sponsors may be interested to support green and climate friendly projects as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ...

Philanthropic foundations are entities that aim at making a positive social contribution to society using donated assets of individuals or organisations. Endowments, charitable trusts, community foundations and corporate foundations are examples of philanthropic organizations. The European Philanthropy Coalition for Climate promotes the ...

Desktop walkthrough is a well-known service design technique: a miniature environment is developed to simulate the experience on a small scale, for example with toy figurines, cardboard or Lego bricks. The purpose is to have a mock-up simulation of the user experience for co-designing and testing a service and different scenarios. The relevant ...

How can social innovations make a bigger impact on climate neutrality and wellbeing? The scale up framework developed by the World Health Organization provides the foundation for the development of a scaling up plan, and it helps strucuring a scale-up strategy. The framework is an actionalble tool for cities to consider main issues central to ...

Asset Based Community Development or ABCD is a method which puts at the forefront, the development of a community’s assets and potentials in a sustainable manner while simultaneously acheiving broader transition goals in the process. It involves building capacity and empowering individuals, associations and informal networks to come together ...

The Cloughjordan Ecovillage started as a plan to create a community of dedicated environmentalists; to buy a site on which they could build their lives. The very first residents of Ireland's first ecovillage moved into their homes in 2009. Today, with 55 low-carbon homes, a carbon-neutral district heating system, a community farm, a green ...

The programme of comprehensive renewal of the historical centre of Zagreb is a pilot project that combines 12 studies on an area of Zagreb called "Blok 19" in order to present the pathway to comprehensive renewal for all of Zagreb’s 168 areas. The idea for the Programme came after the devastating earthquake that hit the City of ...

ZKlaster – the Zgorzelec Cluster for the Development of Renewable Energy Sources and Energy Efficiency – is widely regarded as one of the most successful cases of social innovation in energy in Poland. It aims at setting up a regional Renewable Energy System (RES), to replace the brown coal mining in the region. Representatives of ...

Scenarios are plausible stories about possible future developments. Backcasting is a method to develop scenarios and explore their feasibility and implications starting from the future towards the present.

Author: City of Adelaide Category: City Finance Policy - Case study from an Australian City Published/Created by: City of Adelaide Link: https://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/about-council/grants-sponsorship-incentives/sustainability-incentives-scheme/ The City of Adelaide’s Sustainability Incentive Scheme ...

Author: Energy Cities, Jana Cicmanova; Thomas Garabetian Category: European Investment Bank Finance Programme Published/Created by: EIB Elena This report is a review of ELENA-EIB projects implemented by five member cities by the Energy Cities. The ELENA programme set up by the European Commission and managed by the ...

Author: HSBC Centre of Sustainable Finance, Greg Clark CBE; Zoe Knight Published/Created by: HSBC Centre of Sustainable Finance This report provides signposting for the types of activities that can be put in place by local authorities and business to deliver an emission reduction pathway. It showcases success stories that ...

Author: City of Helsinki Category: City Net Zero Policy Published/Created by: City of Helsinki In September 2017, Helsinki reset the city’s target year for carbon neutrality to 2035, speeding up the goal by 15 years from the earlier target year 2050. An interim goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% from 1990 to ...

Author: City of Preston, Council Category: City Investment Plan Published/Created by: Preston City Council Link: https://www.preston.gov.uk/article/2801/Preston-s-City-Investment-Plan https://www.investprestoncity.com/article/3204/City-Vision-and-Strategic-Priorities Preston's City Investment Plan is a 15 ...

Author: Leuven 2030 Category: City Net Zero Policy Published/Created by: Leuven 2030 Link: https://en.leuven2030.be/about-leuven-2030 https://roadmap-en.leuven2030.be/pdf/Leuven_2030_Roadmap_Summary_version2019.pdf  In 2013, Leuven set up Leuven2030, a municipal authority group involving NGOs, businesses and many ...

Author: Climate Chance - The Observatory Category: City Finance Case Studies Published/Created by: Climate Chance - The Observatory Link: https://www.climate-chance.org/en/comprehend/case-studies/ https://www.climate-chance.org/en/comprehend/global-synthesis-report-climate-action-sector/  The recovery from the shock ...

Author: European Environment Agency; Yann Francoise; Marie Gantois Category: Municipal Bond Published/Created by: Paris/Climate-ADAPT Link: https://energy-cities.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Paris_como-adaptation_climate-bond-financing-adaptation_2016_en.pdf When, in 2015, the City of Paris hosted the COP21, the ...

Author: UK Cities, George Beechener; Emre Eren; Rufus Grantham; Philip Griffith; Charlie Leaman; Alex Massie; Laura Stone Category: City level capacity assessment Published/Created by: UK Cities Climate Investment ...

Author: Centre for Sustainable Energy Simon Roberts, CSE; Joshua Thumim (CSE); Tom Nokes and Nikki Webb (Ricardo); Ann Ballinger and Amy Nicholass (Eunomia) Category: City Net Zero Policy Published/Created by: Centre for Sustainable Energy with Ricardo and ...

System maps (also referred to as stakeholder maps) are schematic representations of the main "actors" of a given (service) system, from the point of view of the main service-providing organization. The actors are made up of those surrounding and those internal to the organization, including users, staff, departments, and external providers. ...

Author: The World Bank  Category: Finance Facility Published/Created by: The World Bank and others Link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/brief/city-climate-finance-gap-fund The City Climate Finance Gap Fund supports cities with early-stage technical assistance for low carbon and climate resilient ...

Public-Commons Partnerships (PCPs) are collective associations of state, community and private interests that manage and develop assets and investments in a local community, with that community’s interests and voice driving economic development.

A climate action strategy to reduce Toronto’s greenhouse gas emission by 80% by 2050 with the collaboration of experts.

Living Labs are a cycle of activities such as co-design, exploration, experimentation and evaluation that are repeated throughout the stages of an innovative process. They are in real-life environments based on user co-creation, placing citizens at the centre of innovation. They act as intermediaries among citizens, companies and government ...

People’s Policy is a method of citizen-led policy development, designed to generate long-term solutions to complex problems in a non-partisan, collaborative way.

Futures Thinking is a broad umbrella of approaches that support people to think about, cope with, and imagine what is likely to happen, and what could happen, in the future.

Advisory Assemblies (CAA) bring together communities affected by an issue, such as energy poverty, to receive ongoing support from activists and others affected by the same issue. It is a horizontal approach to participation, meaning that its focused is engaging affected communities engaging with each other.

The use of Community Forests (CFs) to address social equity in forest management, namely in the distribution of benefits from the forest resources, good governance in decision making processes and the inclusion of marginalised groups. 

An economic development model that transform local economies based on communities having ownership and control of their assets. It aims to restructure the economy to make it more democratic.

A citizens’ assembly is a participatory process where a randomly selected group of citizens learn about and deliberate upon a specific issue or policy, and collectively come up with recommendations for decision makers.

Online/face-to-face collaborative workshops to understand the implications of climate change and make action.

The Oasis Game is a community challenge for the realization of collective dreams. A group of players and a community make a dream come true by only using materials, resources and skills that are available in the community itself. It is a fast-paced and intense game that raises energy level and empowerment in the community. It was developed in ...

A citizens’ jury are tasked to address a topic/issue through deliberation and present their recommendations or decisions regarding the topic. Jurors are citizens selected through random stratified selection, to ensure representation of the affected community. Citizens’ juries are advisory in nature, and work on a policy issue.

Systems Practice helps make sense and bring about clarity of complex environments to make substantial social impact on a community or global scale. A method to push beyond the immediate problems to see the underlying patterns and how to learn and adapt the system to change.

An environmental monitoring committee based in Panama that works on water resources. The committee is made up of volunteers who help oversee the evaluation of water. They committee has helped the mining company take responsibility and change practices to reduce pollution of the water.

Landforce is an organisation based in Pittsburgh, USA, that provides underserved community members training and employment in environmental work. It combines workforce development training with environmental stewardship employment. 

Citizen science (CS) engages people in research and monitoring and helps expand peoples' knowledge of the subject. Citizen science is often used in studies of biodiversity and the environment, in which people voluntarily collect environmental data, monitor the samples and interpret the data.

Method Description for Empathy Mapping Tool in Service Design

Tactical urbanism is an approach to community engagement and place-making. Tactical urbanism projects are physical urban interventions that are often interim and pop-up in nature, to catalyze long-term change for more liveable streets and spaces. The temporary solutions are means to show that there are well-functioning alternatives and that major ...

The metaphorical visual template can be utilized to facilitate meetings with the goal of extracting learning from experiences. The template helps participants structure experiences according to 2 dimensions: (1) phases of the project (plan, execution and end), and (2) activities (actions, outcomes and learnings). The resulting structure is a ...

The first stage in developing an effective and efficient response is defining the problem, as what may initially seem to be the problem may be a symptom of an underlying, and potentially larger, issue. The Problem Definition tool enables groups to comprehend what these potential underlying causes are and contextualise the problem to reframe it in ...

A PESTEL analysis is a strategic tool coming from marketing used to identify external forces in the environment that faces an organization. By completing the tool, the team analyses the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal forces that make up the external environment. The exercise provides a situational analysis that ...

The People & Connections Map is a visualization tool used to identify stakeholders you are trying to reach and how. It is a tool for mapping actors that surround you that could potentially become your partner, user or supporter. These might include people, communities, funders, networks etc. All of them can represent a resource to your ...

KJ Ideation is a brainstorming technique, or ‘idea-generating’ method developed by Japanese anthropologist Jiro Kawakita (from which its name derives) to collect, sort and find meaning in qualitative data. As such, it facilitates abductive reasoning that provides rigor to the process of sorting out chaotic ideas and insights to form a ...

The Idea Card is a tool coming from Service Design that presents your idea in just one page. The synthetic nature helps you focus on its essential structure: the challenge and needs you are addressing, the solution, what it might achieve and how you will accomplish this. It is an excellent tool to use when presenting your initial idea to ...

“How might we” questions are a quick way to shift teams to think outside the box. They use strategic and generative wording to translate problems into questions that enable individuals and teams to ask more precise, provocative, and open-ended, questions. These questions transform problems into opportunities and opportunities into ...

The Frameboard tool is a canvas/template developed by Guido Stompff in 2018 with the aim of enabling both the visualisation and communication resulting from the exploration of a frame. A frame is intended in this case as a certain temporary perspective on a problem or challenge being explored.

Method Description for Experiment Canvas preparation for Service Design

The Service Blueprint is an operational tool that provides a holistic viewpoint of an organization’s operational processes, e.g. key activities, products, services and points of interaction with the intended audience, stakeholders and beneficiaries. As such, it is a strategic tool useful for planning or improving a service as it demonstrates ...

Ethnographic fieldnotes are a tool to organize different observations, types of analysis, emerging questions and reflections, as well as ideas for future action (POLIMI, 2020)

Designing a challenge is a first step in putting together an innovation competition. In order for the innovation competition to be successful and attract enough audience, a team of organizers should define the main challenge of the competition, how to select winners, judges, what is the selection process along with other details. Intentionally ...

Observation of context is a qualitative research tool to help understand context and to show what people do. This tool involves collecting data using one’s senses. It is about getting a perspective or opinion on what is happening, what’s going on, who you’d like to spend more time with.  

Visualizing the business model of your idea in a canvas is an effective step towards advancing the concept. It provides the big picture on the processes that ensure that value is created, delivered and captured. The tool is a precursor to drawing up a complete business plan and is useful for formulating in a more rapid and cost-efficient manner ...

Method Description for Context Map Canvas

This paper describes conventional measurement tools and their limitations for evaluating social impact, and proposes that developmental evaluation is more suited to evaluating social innovation.

Experience Prototyping is a method of “research through design.” (Wikström, 2015). It is the act of developing “any kind of representation, in any medium, that is designed to understand, explore or communicate what it might be like to engage with the product, space or system [you] are designing.” (Buchenau, 2000). This might include ...

Cultural probes are a design research method, which are particularly well suited to conduct research with participants on sensitive topics and in personal contexts. They are intended to encourage participants to look beyond relatively well understood needs, into the fuzzier realm of their beliefs, desires and cultural preferences. Unlike direct ...

The 5W technique is an analysis tool consisting of a series of questions that probe the core qualities and characteristics of a given situation. The 5Ws are who, what, where, when, and why (a sixth component, how, can be sometimes added to the list).

The Participatory Budget is a tool for the City of Antwerp to give citizens autonomy to spend 10% of the city’s budget annually on projects that could enrich their lives. The main feature of their approach is the focus on deliberative practices based on face-to-face debate, consensus decision-making and reaching marginalized and ...

Groups of friends and neighbours meet every few weeks with a practical workbook to make easy changes in how they use energy, water, food, packaging and transport.

In 2021 Democratic Society (Demsoc) were design partners in the Amsterdam EIT Climate-KIC Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration (EIT Climate-KIC & Democratic Society, 2021). The project focused on what is needed to achieve a decarbonised future in Amsterdam based on key principles of deeper and wider civic engagement for climate action, ...

A 2°C economy must be circular and cities will play a central role in the transition as motors of the global economy. In the coming decades, cities will be increasingly important due to the expected greater urbanisation rates and the significant infrastructure investments and developments needed. Cities are aggregators of materials and ...

The Energy Generation area aims to replace carbon-intensive electricity, heating, and cooling with low-carbon energy production. How can cities tackle this issue? by a range of sustainable energy systems, which enable low-carbon energy production, the development of renewable energy solutions, and the efficient use of electricity is necessary ...

As shown in the Net‐Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario [1] of the IEA, to reach climate neutrality by 2050 part of the emissions will need to be offset with carbon dioxide removal (CDR). In fact, in the Info Kit for Cities is mentioned that “If cities have GHG emissions which cannot be fully mitigated by 2030 due to technological or financial ...

The Mobility and Transport thematic area aims to phase out all fossil fuel-based modes of transport within the boundaries of the city, or ideally, the Functional Urban Area, and, simultaneously, facilitate the use of alternative, cleaner and more sustainable transport modes. To do so, the goal is on the one hand to prioritise walking, cycling, ...

In Rotterdam, the Resilient Bospolder-Tussendijken 2028 initiative has been working with the local community since 2019 to leverage the energy transition as a means to build social cohesion and community capacity. The initiative applies the Asset Based Community Development approach and is working with local residents, informal social networks and ...

The concept of “Superblocks” is an urban innovation that aims at low-carbon mobility following a participatory approach at the city and neighbourhood level. The idea is that the city, at the neighbourhood level, is reorganised into car-free areas that maximise public space for new social uses and keep road traffic outside the ...

In line with the city’s overall climate policy, the city of Mannheim developed and implemented a city lab ("living lab" approach) as part of the EU Horizon project SONNET. The city lab aimed at mobilising citizens for the development of the neighbourhood Neckarstadt-West, a neighbourhood with many residents with migration ...