The door will soon open for more Swedish cities to mobilize for the mission of climate neutral cities by 2030. This spring, Viable Cities will open a new call to further accelerate the local transition journey and scale up the transition.
There is currently a strong mobilization in Sweden and in Europe to transition to climate-neutral and sustainable cities by 2030. This is part of the mission-driven work that Viable Cities has initiated and run for several years. Central to this work is an established collaboration between currently 23 pioneer cities in Sweden and six national government agencies, as well as a mobilization in Europe with over 100 cities as pioneers.
In the spring of 2024, a call will open to allow more cities - municipalities and their partners - to join the mobilization. The plan is that the call will open in March with a deadline in June, and by the end of the year we will be able to present a substantial increase in the Viable Cities mobilization. The purpose of the call is simply to ensure that many more actors, cities, regions and areas of society can be involved in driving the transition.
Information sessions in spring
To support applicants, a number of information sessions on different themes will be held in the spring. More detailed information on the call will not be disseminated before the call opens, which is planned for sometime in March 2024.
The Viable Cities flagship initiative Climate Neutral Cities 2030 was launched in 2019. Today, the initiative brings together 23 cities - representing 40% of the population - and six government agencies, which are committed to finding new ways of working to accelerate the climate transition. This call opens up for more cities and means an increased focus on scaling up beyond the city's own transition efforts.
Continuous learning
Within the initiative, the municipalities take it upon themselves - together with a wide range of actors from business, academia and civil society - to test new ways of working and solutions to accelerate the transition, even beyond their own geographical area. Central to this is working towards the mission: to create cities that work well for the people who live and work in them, that are good for citizens, businesses and society's economy - and - that meet the climate challenge at the required pace and scope. To succeed, cities need to continuously share their experiences and learn from each other.
The upcoming call for proposals will help to boost climate and sustainability work in cities with high ambitions in their climate transition work, and give many more cities the ability to accelerate the transition for greater effect within a shorter time frame. This will be done in interaction with actors at several levels: local, regional, national and international.
