25 newly chosen pilot cities participating in the EU Cities Mission

These cities set to receive further EU support for innovative climate projects

25 cities committed to become climate neutral as part of the EU Cities Mission are on course to receive further EU support for ambitious climate-related projects, aimed at accelerating progress towards their 2030 goal.

Through Horizon Europe, the EU’s key research and innovation programme, the cities from across the EU and in associated countries of Horizon Europe will benefit from over 14 million Euros in total to become ‘Pilot Cities’, acting as innovation hubs as they test solutions for rapid decarbonisation.

The grants, awarded in packages of 500,000-600,000, 1 Million, or 1.5 Million Euros, will support Pilot Cities’ exploratory activities across 21 projects (with some cities having submitted joint proposals) and a broad range of themes, from emissions sources like transport, mobility, and industry, and the means of change, such as governance, social innovation, and data and digitalisation.

The selected cities, who will go through a formal Grant Agreement Process (GAP) to satisfy due diligence standards and receive expert support for improving the proposal, include: Helsinki, Tampere (Finland); Munich, Dortmund, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Dresden (Germany); Brussels, Antwerp (Belgium); Gabrovo (Bulgaria); Reykjavik (Iceland); Sønderborg (Denmark); Angers Loire Métropole, Bordeaux Métropole, Communauté Urbaine de Dunkerque, City of Paris (France); Dublin, Cork (Ireland); Athens, Trikala, Kalamata, Thessaloniki (Greece), Elbasan (Albania), Izmir (Turkey), and Gothenburg (Sweden).

Pilot Cities will also receive direct support from city experts and have opportunities to learn from other cities over the course of the two-year programme delivered by NetZeroCities, the consortium set up to support cities in the EU Cities Mission.

Great Dunkirk, which is one of Europe’s 112 climate-neutral cities in 2030, has been strongly committed since 2014 to meeting the climate challenge, reconciling transition with economic and social development and improving the living conditions and quality of life of its residents. We are delighted to now be among the Pilot Cities with an ambitious and innovative project that will enable us to accelerate our actions for the ecological transformation of our industrial port territory.’
Patrice Vergriete, President of Communauté urbaine de Dunkerque

Read the full press release here

Net Zero Cities’ City Needs assessment

NetZeroCity invite you to fill in this survey to better understand the needs and challenges faced by your city on its path to climate neutrality, and to better design our support services. Whether you have set a climate neutrality target or not, whether you are a frontrunner or just starting with climate action, your feedback is important!

Don’t miss the opportunity to embark for the EU mission toward climate neutrality

The Twinning Learning Programme is designed to support replication and learning across cities by pairing Twin Cities with cities participating in the Pilot Cities Programme. Through this programme, Twin Cities will benefit from the experience of Pilot Cities currently testing systemic approaches to decarbonising one or more emissions domains.

The call is open until 31 May!
All the information is available here on the website, and here is a communication toolkit with all elements you need to easily communicate this opportunity to cities, including a sample email and sample social media posts.