Peter Ardell at KTH has interviewed program manager Olga Kordas about Viable Cities. He writes as follows:The strategic innovation program Viable Cities is now starting - the largest investment to date in Sweden in research and innovation on smart and sustainable cities. SEK 960 million distributed over twelve years will be invested in the program, which is led by KTH and brings together about 50 actors from several different research fields as well as business, state, municipalities and civil society.
Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Umeå and several other Swedish municipalities are joining forces in the largest Swedish investment in research and innovation on sustainable cities. Viable Cities is the most long-term program ever, with twelve planned years of operation, and will contribute to a range of innovations to be deployed over the next two decades.The initiative is needed because there is a consensus among climate scientists both in Sweden and abroad that it will be very difficult to achieve the climate goals signed by 175 nations in the form of the Paris Agreement. These include the commitment that the global temperature increase must be kept below 1.5° Celsius.