SUN4Ukraine

Sustainable Urban Net Zero Network for Ukraine (SUN4Ukraine) is a four-year project whose overarching objective is to associate Ukrainian cities with cities that are part of the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities (EU Cities Mission). With Ukraine’s commitment to climate action demonstrated by the signing of its Environmental Security and Climate Change Adaptation Strategy in 2022, alongside its aspirations for EU membership and a strong resolve to integrate reconstruction efforts with reforms aimed at its EU integration, SUN4Ukraine emerges as the platform to advance the climate neutrality ambitions of Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine’s ongoing efforts to advance towards climate neutrality by 2060 have been disrupted by Russia’s war of aggression in 2022. The goals for Ukraine’s post-war recovery include the alignment of reconstruction efforts with climate goals. With an estimated recovery cost of €452.8 billion, the country needs a comprehensive strategy centered on cities as leaders of transformative change.

This is precisely what SUN4Ukraine is answering to.  The project has selected 12 Flagship Municipalities committed to climate-neutral urban planning and reconstruction, and is supporting them with designing ambitious Climate Neutrality Plans, providing technical support and a tailored capacity building programme to realise these plans along the way. As part of its capacity building activities, the project also pairs the 12 Flagship Municipalities with Mission Cities for hands on mentorship and knowledge exchange.

SUN4Ukraine’s mission does not stop with the 12 Flagship Municipalities. The project is committed to scale successful strategies, practises and lessons learnt with other Ukrainian cities and forge a Ukrainian Cities Climate Hub comprising of cities working towards similar climate action ambitions and objectives.

Energy Cities leads the robust, tailor-made and comprehensive capacity building programme of the project. Through the capacity building programme, Energy Cities works with the other project partners to empower Ukrainian municipalities to plan their climate transition even in the challenging context of war and reconstruction. It supports Ukrainian cities on the path to climate neutrality with the developments of targets, climate-neutral plans (CNPs), funding/financing and multi-level structured policy-dialogue.

Co-created with Ukrainian cities and SUN4Ukraine consortium partners, the programme responds directly to the realities faced by municipalities across the country. It supports cities in addressing key challenges such as data gaps, ageing infrastructure, limited access to finance, governance barriers, citizen engagement, and integrating climate action into reconstruction efforts.

Running from October 2025 to September 2027, the programme offers a structured learning journey tailored to the needs of Ukrainian local governments. It combines a blended learning approach that includes:

• bi-weekly online training sessions with interactive workshops and peer exchanges
• periodic in-person learning events to strengthen collaboration and city-to-city learning
• tailored expert support
• a dedicated learning platform hosted on the NetZeroCities portal

Sessions are delivered primarily in Ukrainian, ensuring accessibility and enabling municipal teams to easily share knowledge across departments.

---

Tender news!

Calling audiovisual storytellers and production teams! Energy Cities is looking for a service provider to help deliver 12 engaging micro-learning videos and one promotional teaser for SUN4Ukraine’s Capacity Building Programme. We are looking for creative expertise that can turn technical climate-neutrality content into clear, compelling stories for Ukrainian municipal practitioners, combining expert and city interviews, on-location filming, B-roll, graphics and strong visual storytelling. Experience and ability to film in Warsaw and Ukraine, English and Ukrainian-language capacity, or collaboration with Ukrainian filmmakers and production crews is particularly welcome. 

Interested? Please read the Terms of Reference carefully and send your proposal to abigail.mizzi@energy-cities.eu by Thursday, 17 September 2026.

­