Participative governance
An increasing number of municipalities have become facilitators more than regulators. They value their local stakeholders by giving them a permanent seat and by supporting emerging initiatives on the ground. What is needed to turn citizens and businesses into an institutional partner who co-decides a city's energy and climate policy? We defend governance that places local stakeholders at the heart of political decisions.
news View all news
Transforming an Economic Commercial Area into a Sustainable Commercial Area
Developing sufficiency within companies
Climate district Waldsee
A pilot district-approach to climate protection in Freiburg
The infinite energy …of people
Policy op-ed by Claire Roumet
Events View all events
inspiring minds View all portraits
“Smart, yes, but there is a huge challenge related to data quality.”
Interview with Etienne Vignali, SPL Lyon Confluence
What once was a logistics and industrial site with a rather bad reputation has become one of Europe’s biggest urban renewal projects. Create thriving places without overshooting the ecological ceiling: how far is Confluence today from meeting this objective?
“Urban renewal is a very cooperative process, which has to be done together with the people.”
Interview with Stephan Hartmann, City of Vienna
Stephan takes us behind the scenes of an ambitious demonstration project in Vienna’s low-income district of Simmering. How is smartness being used to give more weight to the voices and interests of a city’s residents?
“It’s about understanding what’s important to citizens in Dublin.”
Interview with Donna Gartland, CEO of CODEMA
In this episode Donna Gartland explains what changes can be expected in the city and describes how she and her team trigger conversations with citizens around very abstract topics such as district heating using waste heat from data centres.
Best Practices View all Best Practices
Sustainable Building Facilitator
A powerful tool for the Region's 2050 Renovation Strategy
Publications View all Publications
Local PACTs
How municipalities create their own COP21
Local green deals vs local COPs: this could be a teaser for this publication… However, it would be too narrow in comparison to the overview […]
Vision Workshop Toolbox
for Inspired Collaboration on Climate Neutrality
The ambition of the European Union (EU) to be climate neutral by 2050 is an important element of the EU’s climate policy and contribution to […]
The Final National Energy and Climate Plans
EU countries still largely fail to acknowledge local authorities' key role
This report has verified to which extent the key role of local authorities was better reflected in the final National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), compared to the draft NECPs in 2019. We also provide recommendations on how EU countries should improve the acknowledgment of local authorities’ key role in their NECPs, in particular when updating their plans in 2023/24.
Projects View all Projects
Renewable energy partnerships
Renewable community energy engagement
At present, many local governments in Europe are eager to support their citizens in getting renewable energy projects off the ground or in taking a […]
Zero Carbon Cities
New climate change targets in line with the Paris Agreement
The URBACT Zero Carbon Cities project, is led by Manchester. Seven European cities are involved in this project : Bistrita (RO) Frankfurt am Main (DE) […]
