The Student Council for Climate Action, self-driving buses, and a sustainable construction sector are just some of the topics we’ll be discussing with a range of key stakeholders during Almedals Week 2026. We invite you to join us!
Today, on European Viable Cities Day, we celebrate that 48 Swedish municipalities are mobilizing for climate-neutral cities by 2030, with a good life for everyone within the planet's limits. At the same time, Climate City Contract is celebrating its fifth anniversary.
Cities are increasingly at the center of global climate action. Following Sweden's engagement in CHAMP, a delegation of Swedish representatives participated in COP30-related events in November 2025. In this article we gather key insights.
"The city of Malmö aims to be climate neutral by 2030 and is one of the European Commission's selected pilot cities to lead the way in the transition. By 2030, Malmö's municipal organization will also achieve net zero emissions, and Malmö residents will have collectively halved their consumption-based emissions." This is according to process manager Linnea Folkesson in the city's status report.
Sweden is raising its climate ambitions internationally and joining CHAMP, a global platform to accelerate climate action in cities. Viable Cities will coordinate Sweden's participation in the initiative.
The Vilnius conference confirmed that the pace is accelerating - more and more cities are mobilizing the power of local climate leadership to reach climate neutrality by 2030.
In Malmö, emissions from citizens' consumption are to be halved by 2030. To achieve this, more people need to reduce their everyday emissions. To get the message across, the city is investing in a fun communication campaign with concrete tips for a climate-smart everyday life.
Resilient and sustainable food systems are an important part of achieving climate-neutral and climate-adapted cities and communities. How can we move from research to transition? How do we collaborate to build knowledge and understanding of the system together, and create a common vision? And how can cities contribute to food production?
48 Swedish municipalities, representing more than half of Sweden's population, are now joining forces for the climate transition from local to global level. During the European Viable Cities Day, the highest political leadership from the municipalities, directors general from government agencies and other Swedish and international key actors gather to strengthen the mobilization for the climate across national borders.
48 of Sweden's 290 municipalities are joining forces to tackle the climate crisis. It is now clear which cities, together with Viable Cities and six government agencies , will join forces in the next phase for climate-neutral and sustainable cities. This is also part of a growing global mobilization for climate transition in cities, where the EU is taking the lead and Swedish cities are pioneers.
Resilient and sustainable food systems are an important part of achieving climate-neutral and climate-adapted cities and communities. How can we move from research to transition? How do we collaborate to build knowledge and understanding of the system together, and create a common vision? And how can cities contribute to food production?
Anders Wijkman, Club of Rome, will be the new Chairman for Viable Cities, it was announced at the program's annual general meeting today. Annika Jacobson, Climate General of the City of Stockholm, has been appointed Vice Chairman.
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 purpose of Current Sustainability's ranking is to show how far municipalities have come with the climate transition and highlight the challenges that exist. 14 of 16 cities that placed in the top are 2030 cities and mobilize for the mission of Climate Neutral Cities 2030 within Viable Cities.
Malmö says it will become climate neutral by 2030 and is one of the European Commission's selected pioneer cities to lead the transition. At the heart of Malmö's approach is a new horizontal approach - Climate Transition Malmö - focusing on joint roadmaps in seven priority areas, where strong action can have a big impact for Malmö and the planet. Local work for a global mission!
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.
In the midst of a burning climate crisis, the Swedish government is presenting a climate action plan that falls far short of what is needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees - the target agreed by world leaders in Paris in 2015. The Swedish government should do more to support the climate transition in the country's municipalities and support leading Swedish cities and municipalities.
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.
Many higher education institutions are already actively contributing to climate transition of cities, but an acceleration is needed! This applies not least to working with students as agents of change as part of both education and research. Here the cities can contribute with relevant questions, recommendations and test environments. How is your institution doing? Use the checklist!
The City of Malmö aims to be climate neutral by 2030 and here we identified opportunities to create large biogenic carbon sinks to compensate for the emissions that cannot be avoided. The biggest impact would be a shift to renewable building materials when meeting the need for new construction. The second largest area for rapid and highly persistent carbon sinks is the large-scale use of biochar in the municipality's agriculture.
With seven years left to achieve the mission of climate-neutral cities by 2030, radical implementation is required. In 23 Swedish pioneering cities, many efforts are currently underway to contribute to the transition in various ways. The European Viable Cities Day on 8 December celebrated successes to date and sharpened future climate action.
Citizen engagement, climate investments and regional collaboration have a big impact on reducing emissions, but it needs to be faster. Now 15 initiatives across Sweden are receiving funding to explore how this can be done in a shorter timeframe.
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.
Negative emissions, i.e. the capture of carbon dioxide, have been highlighted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as necessary to meet climate targets. A natural carbon sink - such as vegetation or water bodies - is a feature where carbon dioxide is taken out of the air through a natural process and then stored for a period of time, from a decade to thousands of years. Knowledge about carbon storage in forests and soils has great potential to help municipalities reduce their climate impact, thus contributing to achieving the mission of climate-neutral cities by 2030.
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!
Today, the list of Sweden's 100 most powerful sustainability leaders was released and we at Viable Cities are proud that both our program manager Olga Kordas and vice Chairman Anders Wijkman once again take place on the list, this time place 38 and place 18. Several with connections to Viable Cities are on the list, click on the title to read more.
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.
All Climate Neutral Cities 2030 actions involve businesses together with academia, public organisations and civil society. The municipal sphere has only partial control over the measures that need to be implemented, so business efforts and investments are crucial.
Sustainable, innovative solutions for buildings, outdoor environment and mobility that have been implemented in various pilot projects, projects and initiatives need to be captured and become standard solutions for both new construction and upgrading of urban areas. Then large-scale sustainable urban development can be achieved.
The development of so-called system demonstrators is a way to enable system innovation with great power and mobilization to meet complex societal challenges. With system demonstrators, Vinnova and Viable Cities want to test and demonstrate the transformation of a system in a real environment, where space is created for experiments and where areas with great potential can be scaled up. Six projects have been granted funding for a design phase.
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.
Climate and sustainability pioneers Umeå, Malmö and Stockholm are three of four nominees for the Swedish Architects' Award for the best plan of the year - the Plan Prize. The winner will be announced in April.
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.
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.
23 Swedish cities - representing 40% of Sweden's population - are now working together to accelerate the transition to climate-neutral and sustainable cities. Today, the top political leadership of all cities gathered for the launch of Phase 2 of the Climate Neutral Cities 2030 initiative.
Climate investment plans will mobilize transition capital, both from municipalities and other stakeholders, to make cities climate neutral by 2030. Viable Cities has initiated four development projects that will contribute to the development of Climate City Contract 2030 and the climate transition in cities. One of them is climate investment plans.
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.
We were looking for cities that want to take the lead on climate change. And many do. 30 cities from all over the country have applied to become part of the Climate Neutral Cities 2030 initiative. "We are so pleased with the great interest, and very curious about which cities we will work with in the coming years," says Olga Kordas, Program Manager Viable Cities.
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.
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.
Several Swedish cities are working on the transition to climate-neutral cities in 2030 within the framework of Viable Cities. During Climate Breakfast 2, Umeå, Uppsala and Malmö shared their experiences from the work of visualizing the climate transition based on some development projects where different tools have been used.
Within the framework of Viable Cities, eight cities are now inspiring and inspiring other cities, in Sweden and around the world, so that as many as possible reach climate neutrality by 2030.
On Thursday, April 23, eight Swedish cities will take a big step forward to accelerate the climate transition - Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Lund, Växjö, Uppsala, Umeå and Enköping. They want to lead, test and experiment to become climate neutral by 2030.
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 climate challenge is a critical issue where cities have a key role to play. From Lund in the south to Umeå in the north, nine cities are now receiving funding for projects that can accelerate the climate transition. The aim is to become climate neutral by 2030. The funding...
Viable Cities is a strategic innovation program with the mission of achieving climate-neutral cities by 2030, ensuring a good quality of life for all within the planet’s limits. The program is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency, Vinnova and Formas and coordinated by KTH.
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