To succeed in the climate transition, Viable Cities is actively working with several international and EU partners. You can find the latest EU news here.
Today, 20 more cities were awarded the EU Mission Label - a confirmation from the EU's 100 climate-neutral cities by 2030 (Cities Mission) that the city's plans for the local transition journey are ambitious and on the right track - including three Swedish ones: Gävle, Gothenburg and Umeå.
The fourteen Swedish and Spanish cities among 112 European Cities Mission cities have created a joint declaration for the EU Cities Mission - Development Declaration for the Cities Mission: Upscaling the EU Cities Mission - European cities and platforms joining hands. The aim is to strengthen and develop the work of the Mission, accelerate the pace of the transition and support cities in their important work towards climate neutrality by 2030.
Already ten years ago, the journey towards the strategic innovation program Viable Cities began. To further accelerate the transition and strengthen Viable Cities' presence across Sweden, Viable Cities' new office and meeting place in Umeå was inaugurated this week.
The EU Cities Mission to deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 include seven Swedish cities; Gothenburg, Gävle, Helsingborg, Lund, Malmö, Stockholm and Umeå. The seven Swedish Mission Cities have formed a joint Development Statement, which solidifies the Swedish cities' support of the visions of the Spanish Mission Cities, as well as stresses the need for a common strategy on "scaling as the new normal" when working towards climate neutral and sustainable cities. The statement was presented at the 1st Swedish Cities Mission Forum in Umeå, Sweden, on May 29th 2024.
The mobilization around the Mission on Climate Neutral Cities is a movement across Europe. This week, Viable Cities has participated in talks and workshops in connection with the Nordic Edge Expo in Stavanger and contributed with perspectives on Multilevel Governance and co-benifits in the transition, exemplified by ROI calculations on the climate transition.
Viable Cities is on site in Brussels for the Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) partnership policy conference as well as the kickoff for the first 48 projects covering the transition pathways 15-minute Cities (15mC), Positive Energy Districts (PED) and Circular Urban Economies (CUE).
Viable Cities was the first in the EU as a national node for the urban climate transition. For some time now, we have had cousins in Spain, CitiES2030, and in Ukraine, UniCities. Now Romania is joining forces with the M100 node, initially with three cities, which will quickly become 13.
The municipality of Linköping yesterday won the EU's iCapital Awards. This is the first time a Swedish city has won the award. The award is given to EU cities that solve societal and sustainability challenges through innovation in an exemplary way.
To really speed up the climate transition, many people need to understand, be engaged and be able to contribute. Lund University, in collaboration with Viable Cities, has now launched a Massive Online Open Course, MOOC: Cities, Climate and Change: Pathways and Opportunities.
Today, the City of Stockholm was one of ten European cities awarded the EU Mission Label for its efforts to accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral and sustainable city.
The European partnership Driving urban transitions, DUT, provides support for research and innovation projects that help cities in the transition to sustainable economies and societies. The results of the first call show great interest among European stakeholders - and for Sweden, participation is a success.
We are organizing 2 sessions, and partnering for a day at the Sustainability Arena at Teaterskeppet. We look forward to the sessions that have broad representation from political leaders in cities, key actors from national government agencies, the European Commission and our sister program in Spain CitiES2030. Together we accelerate the transition to Climate Neutral Cities 2030!
A new EU initiative - UniCities, led by KTH - aims to support stakeholders in Ukraine in building skills to rebuild cities, while making them climate neutral and sustainable for the future.
Vinnova notes, in its business environment analysis, that cities are of decisive importance for the world's climate-impacting emissions and that purposeful investments are required to achieve major effects on the climate transition.
The Twinning program will guide twin cities in their learning and replication efforts from pilot cities, with a practical focus on replicating the systemic transformation methods and innovative approaches demonstrated by the pilot activities, on the path towards climate neutrality.
In mid-March, the Government Offices of Sweden hosted an expert meeting on the 2030 Agenda under the Swedish Presidency. 2023 marks the halfway point in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and it is clear that the work needs to be stepped up if the global goals are to be met on time.
As part of Sweden's EU Presidency program, on April 12, the Swedish Research and Innovation Office in Brussels (SWERI) hosted a seminar on EU Missions, focusing on how the missions are translated from policy to implementation. Viable Cities Internationalization Strategist Albert Edman, who is also Senior Project Manager at RISE and focus area leader for Cities and Communities in Change, participated in the seminar in a panel discussion.
Many of Ukraine's cities are destroyed and bombed out. A new EU initiative - UniCities - led by KTH, and initiated and coordinated by Viable Cities program manager Olga Kordas, will support actors in Ukraine to build skills to rebuild the cities so that they can become climate neutral and sustainable for the future.
Among the first group of 53 cities from twenty-one countries selected to initiate climate action through the NetZeroCities Pilot Cities Programme are three of the Viable Cities Climate Neutral Cities 2030. Working individually and together, these cities will implement systemic and locally tailored innovative actions spanning multiple areas. The 53 cities have been selected from a wide range of over 100 applications.
Last week, Lund was also visited by Patrick Child from the European Commission! Patrick Child is responsible for Mission Cities, an initiative where a hundred cities in Europe will become climate neutral by 2030. In the interview, Patrick says that the most interesting thing from the visit to the city is Lund's mobilization around the climate neutrality agenda, where the authority works together with citizens and companies and explores different governance models for the mission climate neutral cities 2030.
Patrick Child, mission manager for climate neutral and smart cities and deputy director general of DG ENV, is visiting Sweden in the context of the Swedish presidency in the European Union. Today, Viable Cities hosted a meeting where the acceleration of the mission was discussed with participants from multiple levels; European, national, local. Prominent participants from the European Commission, Swedish government agencies, the City of Stockholm, and stakeholders from different parts of society.
In 2023, three calls will be opened within Horizon Europe under the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission-100 climate-neutral cities by 2030. The aim is to support European cities in their journey towards climate neutrality and is part of the European Green Deal, that the whole Union will be climate neutral by 2050.
Gävle, Gothenburg, Helsingborg, Lund, Malmö, Stockholm and Umeå. It is now clear which Swedish municipalities will now be part of the EU's mission for climate-neutral cities in 2030 - Cities Mission. A total of 100 cities across Europe have been selected. But what does this mean for the cities that joined? And how can it contribute to the climate transition in all Swedish cities?
Gävle, Gothenburg, Helsingborg, Lund, Malmö, Stockholm and Umeå. These are the Swedish municipalities that are now part of the EU's mission for climate-neutral cities in 2030 - Cities Mission. A total of 100 cities have been selected out of 377 applicants. And seven of them are Swedish cities.
The European DUT partnership, of which Viable Cities is a member, is now looking for participants from Swedish cities for three thematic city panels: one will be on energy positive districts (PED), another on circular economy and the third on 15-minute cities. The deadline for cities to register their interest is April 25.
Swedish researchers and organizations will receive SEK 30.9 million in funding for eight projects in sustainable urban development, through the European research program ENUTC.
Viable Cities is growing and now welcomes Maria Tengvard, Lars Johansson and Karin Linnea Petrusson to the program office. They bring more muscle to our joint work towards the mission of climate-neutral and sustainable cities by 2030.
The European Commission has now published the list of all European cities that want to participate in the mission 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030. From Sweden, 13 cities have applied, all of which are part of the Viable Cities initiative Climate Neutral Cities 2030.
On Wednesday, a milestone event for the European climate transition in cities took place. For the first time, representatives from Swedish and Spanish cities met to exchange experiences on how to speed up the transition to climate neutral and sustainable cities through Climate City Contract.
Yesterday, the call for expressions of interest to become one of the 100 cities in Horizon Europe's Mission 100 Climate Neutral Cities closed. In total, 377 cities have submitted an application, representing 18% of the EU population. However, the countries from which the applications come are not specified.
The Net Zero Cities website is now launched. Here you can find more information about the EU initiative for climate-neutral cities, which Viable Cities is part of. Among other things, we will contribute to the development of a European Climate City Contract, Climate City Contract. You can find the website here: netzerocities.eu
Climate City Contract 2030 is revised every year, evolving and sharpening every year to accelerate the transition to climate-neutral, sustainable cities. The first version was signed in December 2020 by nine cities, four government agencies and the Viable Cities program. On 8 December...
23 cities and five government agencies are now working with Climate City Contract 2030 as a tool to achieve the mission - climate neutral and sustainable cities by 2030. During the European Viable Cities Day 2021, the work was manifested with a signing ceremony. European guests and representatives from all 23 cities and five government agencies shared how we can accelerate the climate transition together.
The European Commission has now opened registration for cities interested in participating in the 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 mission. The formal call for applications will open later in November. However, a lot of material is already available in preparation.
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 has now launched fivemissions for a new and innovative way of working together and improving people's lives in Europe and beyond. The five missions address major societal challenges such as health, climate and the environment and set ambitious and time-bound targets to be achieved by 2030. One of them is 100 climate-neutral and smart cities - with and for citizens.
The transition to a circular economy is an important piece of the puzzle in the work for climate-neutral and sustainable cities. Umeå municipality was the only Swedish municipality to participate in the OECD circular economy program and has signed the European Circular Cities Declaration. On the blog, Liv Öberg, project manager for the circular economy in Umeå, shares her thoughts on her work.
New ways of collaborating, thinking and investing were widely discussed during the Viable Cities Transition Lab Forum 5 on March 24. The theme of the conference - investment plans for climate-neutral cities - was explored from different perspectives with representatives from finance, academia, government agencies and, of course, from the host cities of Lund and Malmö.
The world's cities are facing major challenges. We need to act quickly, forcefully and together to contribute to more sustainable urban development. You can now apply for support within ENUTC to explore how research and innovation in urban transition processes can contribute to sustainable urban development. The Swedish Energy Agency, Formas and Viable Cities together announce approximately SEK 28 million to Swedish actors in 7-9 projects.
It is now clear which projects have been granted funds in the call for Energy Positive Neighbourhoods, a collaboration between Viable Cities and JPI Urban Europe. Cities4PEDs, Interact, PED-ID and Trans-PED, all with Swedish partners, are now tasked with facilitating learning between cities and countries to create energy positive neighbourhoods in Europe.
Today, December 11, 2020, is a big day for the climate transition in cities. The first climate contracts in Europe have now been signed by the political leadership of nine Swedish cities as well as by the Directors-General of four government agencies and Viable Cities. "Swedish cities are now taking the lead in Europe," says Allan Larsson, Chairman of the Board of Viable Cities.
"It always seems impossible until it is done." Maria Vassilakou, EU mission board on climate neutral cities, quoted Nelson Mandela when she attended Transition Lab Forum 3, September 16-17.
She was one of many speakers who, over two days, gave strength and inspiration to continue working on the mission: Climate Neutral Cities 2030.
In this article, Kes McCormick, program coordinator for the Sharing Cities Sweden initiative, briefly present the mission's approach with a focus on climate-neutral cities, which raises both exciting opportunities and vexing questions.
The city of Helsingborg is one of 12 finalists in the European Capital of Innovation 2020. The winning city, announced during the European Research and Innovation Days (September 22-24), will receive one million Euros. We keep our fingers crossed.
Through the strategic innovation program Viable Cities, Sweden has become internationally visible as a country at the forefront of climate and sustainability in cities. This is shown by an evaluation three years after the start of the program.
Nordic Innovation has granted NOK 3 million to the project "Nordic Transition partnership", which aims to accelerate the transition to climate neutrality by 2030 in small and medium-sized municipalities. In the project, Viable Cities collaborates with Tampere in Finland, Reykjavik in Iceland and Smart Innovation Norway in Norway.
On 11 December 2019, Viable Cities and the European Commission organized the European Viable Cities Day for the second year in a row. This is the same day that the European Commission's Chairman Ursula von der Leyen presented The European Green Deal.
The European Commission has appointed Allan Larsson, Chairman in the Swedish innovation program Viable Cities, as vice Chairman in the steering group that will lead the work within the EU on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities. - That the European Commission appoints our Chairman to such an important role...
In cooperation with the European Commission's Representation in Sweden, Viable Cities organized the European Viable Cities Day on 11 December in connection with Nobel Day. The theme was Research and innovation for Carbon Neutral Cities and a round table discussion was held with Jean-Eric Pacquet, Director General of the European Commission...
Viable Cities and the European Commission are proud to invite you to our first European Viable Cities Day December 11th 2018 in connection to the Nobel Day. Our focus is on research and innovation for carbon neutral cities in Europe....
