The Swedish Climate City Contract 2030 will inspire the design of the EU Climate City Contract, after Viable Cities became one of the partners in the EU's Net Zero Cities initiative.
- "Viable Cities has an important role in Net Zero Cities - connecting and sharing the lessons from the national climate contract process also in the European work," says Anders Wijkman, Vice Chairman Viable Cities.
The EU aims to make the continent climate neutral by 2050 and is launching a number of major initiatives in the coming years to achieve this goal. Within the Net Zero Cities initiative, a European Climate City Contract will be developed - an instrument that will help speed up the transition to climate-neutral and sustainable cities in Europe. And Viable Cities is one of the participating parties.
- "It is incredibly exciting that we now have the opportunity to contribute to the climate transition throughout Europe. This is proof that we in Sweden are seen as pioneers," says Olga Kordas, Program Manager Viable Cities.
Viable Cities and the nine cities in the Climate Neutral Cities 2030 initiative jointly developed the first version of the Swedish Climate City Contract 2030 last year. It was signed on December 8, 2020, by the political leadership of the nine cities as well as by directors general from four government agencies and Viable Cities.
The idea from the beginning was that the contract could be used at different levels of society, from local to international. The city of Malmö was one of the first cities to sign.
- A European Climate City Contract will be an important tool to enable cities to take the lead in global climate action. It goes hand in hand with the City of Malmö's launch of Climate City Contract Malmö, which is a local initiative to harness the knowledge, ideas and initiatives of the business community and the people of Malmö on how we can accelerate the climate transition," says Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh (S), Member of the City Council Chairman in Malmö.
The Swedish Climate City Contract 2030 is a living document that will be sharpened, revised and signed every year until 2030. It describes what the cities commit to do and how the authorities will support their work.
Net Zero Cities wants to pave the way for 30 European cities to sign a Climate City Contract as a first step in the EU's 100 Climate Neutral Cities initiative. The ambition is to open up opportunities for financing larger initiatives that contribute concretely to the ability of many more cities to become climate neutral by 2030.
About Net Zero Cities
Net Zero Cities starts now and will last until 2025. 33 organizations from 12 countries will drive the work forward. Viable Cities will mainly contribute in terms of the development of the Climate City Contract, Climate City Contract for cities at EU level. The EIT Climate KIC, where Viable Cities vice Chairman Anders Wijkman is Chairman, will lead the work. EIT Climate-KIC is a European Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC), working to accelerate the transition to a climate neutral and resilient society. netzerocities.eu
Net Zero Cities partners
Associations & Networks: Climate Alliance, The Democratic Society, EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Urban Mobility, Energy Cities, ERRIN - European Regions Research and Innovation Network, Eurocities, ICLEI, Open & Agile Smart Cities, REGEA, Resilient Cities Network, Union Internationale des Transports Publics, Viable Cities
Research organizations: Cartif, Cerema, Demos Research Institute, Fraunhofer Institute, RISE, Tecnalia, TNO, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
Universities : Austrian Institute of Technology, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Politecnico di Milano, TalTech - Tallin University of Technology, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Think-tanks: Institute for European Environmental Policy
Companies and consultancies: Bankers Without Boundaries, Dark Matter Labs, LGI, Material Economics, Metabolic Institute, Rupprecht Consult.
Asset managers: South Pole Carbon Asset Management
About Viable Cities
Viable Cities is a strategic innovation program focused on climate neutral and sustainable cities. Through the Climate Neutral Cities 2030 initiative - and the Climate City Contract 2030 tool - the program works with 23 cities and four government agencies to accelerate the climate transition. The programme has over 100 member organizations from business, academia, civil society and the public sector. Viable Cities is one of 17 strategic innovation programs supported in a joint initiative by Vinnova, the Swedish Energy Agency and Formas. The purpose of the initiative is to contribute to Sweden's international competitiveness and to sustainable solutions to global societal challenges. Viable Cities, which is coordinated by KTH, runs until 2030.
