Inspiring cities to test new governance compasses

Empowering local players, making wise use of our resources and living within our planet’s boundaries requires sound, democratic decision-making processes.  

We, at Energy Cities, are driven by a desire to strengthen the role and skills of local governments to ensure local communities’ well-being and to accelerate the transition to climate neutrality. The Energy Cities Hubs are the community spaces dedicated to our members that:   

• Activate local leaders to deliver living spaces that are accessible to everyone  
• Empower local communities to decide on their own future  
• Inspire a learning community of cities engaged in future-proofing their economies  

Our 5 Hubs, launching in April, will be a new way of structuring the activities of our network. In the coming weeks, we will be introducing each of them, starting with the Future-proof local governance Hub. 

What challenges will the Future-proof local governance Hub tackle?

To achieve ambitious climate neutrality goals locally, municipalities are important stakeholders but not the only decision-makers. An increasing number of municipalities have become facilitators more than regulators. In spite of the technology developed, cities still lack an integrated innovative approach to promote dialogue between different multi-level ecosystems: interdepartmental communication, citizens’ engagement and participation, as well as public-private partnerships. In this respect, future-proof local governance mechanisms will help localise the climate targets and promote a sharing of responsibilities among all local stakeholders by giving them a permanent voice in decision-making processes and by supporting emerging initiatives on the ground.  

Are you wondering how adapted your municipal governance is to delivering climate neutrality? What are the key enablers that contribute to advancing systemic changes in governance? How can your city take budget decisions considering the climate and resources-use impact of different actions? How to set-up and maintain structures and processes to deliver your city’s climate strategy? 

Within the Future-proof local governance Hub, we will help you find answers to these questions. We want to inspire cities to test new governance compasses by setting up long-term local partnerships to transform their local ecosystems. Building on the knowledge developed within relevant European initiatives, such as the peer-to-peer learning programme of the Covenant of Mayors, or Scalable Cities’ City Coordinators Group, we will promote knowledge sharing and replication of innovative practices.  

Concretely, what does it mean? 

Through a series of activities that we will provide within this Hub, we will: 

• Make sure that our members are up to date and informed about the latest EU policy developments through policy briefs for local policy makers with key updates on major EU policy files linked with the Hub. 
• Organise discussions between local political leaders and key EU policy makers on concrete proposals in support of cities’ climate transition  
• Help our members build their capacities in order to facilitate their transition journey. We will achieve this with trainings, coaching, tools and peer-to-peer exchanges 

• Facilitate our members’ access to EU funding with info sessions, matchmaking events and project ideas labs. We will also run competitive calls for funding on specific topics. 

Ready to join the Future-proof local governance Hub? 

As our member, you can join and benefit free-of-charge from our Hubs, aligned with our intervention systems and impact targets. By joining our Hubs, you become part of our learning community of practitioners with different backgrounds, including technical expertise, municipal administration and political representatives, all sharing the same vision: reaching climate neutrality by 2050. Interested in the Future-proof local governance Hub? You can already pre-register here. 

We will launch our Hubs during our Annual Forum in April and we will keep you posted in the coming weeks.