Energy efficient building
(BRUSSELS) – The EU awarded its ‘EU Mission Label’ to 23 cities Thursday, recognising their plans to achieve climate-neutrality by 2030 and aiming to facilitate access to private and public funding to that end.
The EU Mission Label was awarded by EU Research Commissioner Iliana Ivanova during a ceremony with mayors and city representatives at the EU Research & Innovation Days, the biggest forum in Europe to discuss the future of science and innovation and to co-create solutions with citizens and stakeholders.
Cities account for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions and consume over 65% of the world’s energy. Urban action is crucial for climate mitigation and can contribute significantly to accelerating the efforts to achieve the legally binding commitment to achieve climate-neutrality in the EU as a whole by 2050, as well as to the EU’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and more generally delivering the European Green Deal. The EU Cities Mission aims to help European cities become climate-neutral, offering cleaner air, safer transport and less congestion and noise to their citizens.
The 23 cities that received the label are: Ioannina, Kalamata, Kozani, Thessaloniki (Greece), Heidelberg (Germany), Leuven (Belgium), Espoo, Lahti, Lappeenranta, Tampere, Turku (Finland), Barcelona, Seville (Spain), Pecs (Hungary), Malmö (Sweden), Guimaraes, Lisbon (Portugal), Florence, Parma (Italy), Marseille, Lyon (France), Limassol (Cyprus) and Izmir (Türkiye).
The EU Mission Label is an important milestone in the cities’ work, says the Commission. It acknowledges successful development of Climate City Contracts, which outline the cities’ overall vision for climate neutrality and contain an action plan as well as an investment strategy. Cities co-create their Climate City Contracts with local stakeholders including the private sector and citizens.
The Mission’s central feature are “Climate City Contracts” (CCCs) which each participating city is developing and implementing. CCCs contain (1) a core commitments part, (2) a Climate Neutrality Action Plan and (3) a Climate Neutrality Investment Plan. They are co-created with citizens and stakeholders, with the help of a Mission Platform (run by the NetZeroCities project).
