GOVERNANCE & INTERGRATION
The Cities Mission
MISSION... POSSIBLE
The Cities Mission will involve local authorities, citizens, businesses and investors, as well as regional and national authorities, in delivering 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 to pioneer new European urban scenarios. Ivo Cré and Pedro Homem de Gouveia interview Matthew Baldwin to better understand the Mission, its relation to mobility, the profile of cities that should apply and more
© Sergio Souza, Pexels
1. What is a Mission?
Matthew Baldwin (MB): The EU Missions are a novelty of the Horizon Europe programme. With some inspiration from the Apollo programme that succeeded in putting a man on the moon within 10 years, the Missions are a commitment to find solutions to some of the major societal challenges by 2030. So, on 29 September 2021, we launched five Missions aiming to deliver concrete solutions in the areas of cancer, adaptation to climate change, healthy oceans and waters, soil health and, last but not least, climate-neutral and smart cities. EU Missions aim to mobilise and activate both public and private actors, such as Member States, regional and local authorities, research institutes, civil society organisations, entrepreneurs, and investors, to create real and lasting impact. Most of all, they will also engage with citizens to shape the necessarily local approaches to these fundamental issues. Cities, as POLIS well knows, are natural “cross-roads” where policies meet people – and the perfect test bed for finding solutions to some of the tough issues involved in becoming climate neutral, including mobility.
Matthew Baldwin is Deputy Director-General at Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) and Mission manager for the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities mission © Matthew Baldwin
2. What is the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission?
MB: Many European cities are working towards climate neutrality, but only a handful have adopted a target of climate neutrality by 2030. The Mission is an opportunity for cities to contribute substantially to the Green Deal target of reducing emissions by 55% by 2030 and, in the process, to offer cleaner air, safer transport and less congestion and noise for their citizens. The goal of the Cities Mission is two-fold: (1) to deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 and (2) to ensure that these cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050. This is a chance for cities to lead in both climate and digital innovation, to showcase their attractiveness as a magnet for investment, and to learn from and inspire other cities in Europe and beyond.
© EU Science & Innovation
With the help of the Mission Platform run by the Net Zero Cities consortium, each participating city will draw up, sign, and implement a Climate City Contract that sets out how they plan to achieve climate neutrality by 2030 and crucially also includes an investment plan. While not legally binding, these contracts will constitute a clear and highly visible political commitment, most of all to their citizens. Hence the centrality of what we call the process of “co-creation” with local stakeholders and citizens, the need for the plans to reflect the actual challenges the city faces, such as in mobility, energy generation or refurbishment of buildings, etc.
3. What type of cities would you expect to sign up to the Mission’s objectives and activities?
The Mission must embrace, right from the start, a number of cities from across Europe that aim to deliver climate neutrality © Ricardo Esquivel, Pexels
MB: Diversity and inclusiveness will be vital. The Cities Mission wants to bring in cities of different sizes and backgrounds and from all corners of Europe. This is an important point because the Mission’s second main target is to prepare the way for all cities to be climate-neutral by 2050, so we are looking for at least one city from each Member State. Most of all, we want to bring on board cities with very different starting points in terms of climate neutrality, different levels of preparedness and different decarbonisation pathways. The EU will not meet its European Green Deal objectives if they are addressed only by those cities who are already prepared to make the necessary commitments. This Mission must embrace, right from the start, a number of cities from across Europe that have a lot of work ahead of them to deliver climate neutrality – but who are fully ready to embrace the challenge.
4. What are the expectations with regards to urban transport and mobility in the Mission?
MB: Greenhouse gas emissions from the EU’s transport sector are not following the EU’s general decreasing emissions trend. Instead, they increased in 2018 and 2019, including for road transport that remains the highest contributor to transport emissions. These trends suggest that the transport sector is unlikely to contribute to the emission reductions needed to achieve the EU’s new targets for 2030 or to achieving climate neutrality by 2050 without a step change in our mobility policy, including of course our urban mobility strategy, as set out in the European Commission’s Smart and Sustainable Mobility Strategy of 2020. Cities from networks like POLIS have already taken bold and innovative steps to reduce their urban transport footprint on the environment – such as limiting the use of cars in urban areas, digitalising transport operations or developing public transport connections. Joining the Mission will keep the selected cities right at the forefront of the transition towards greater sustainable mobility. Removing greenhouse gas emissions from urban mobility will be a major challenge for many of the cities in the Mission.
In particular, the Cities Mission will pave the way for more systemic interventions. It will help cities to work across departments, industries, and other stakeholders e.g., in ensuring that the energy fuelling its public transport system runs on renewable sources. But the real measure of success will be the people, the citizens in the city: how they travel in the city, the levels of pollution and congestion they experience, how safe they feel to cycle or walk, and how many are using public transport and are satisfied with it. The Mission strongly encourages cities to use existing planning and monitoring frameworks such as the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) and related indicators, and to build the full engagement of citizens into their plans.
The real measure of success of the Mission will be the people, the citizens in the city © Katie E
5. What are concrete next steps cities and regions need to look out for?
MB: The setup of the Mission is advancing fast. On 1 October we launched the NetZeroCities project that will establish the Mission Platform. On 26 October we published an Info Kit for Cities meant as a guide to the concrete requirements and benefits under the mission as well as a manual for applicant cities. Interested cities now have the option to pre-register as an applicant. The next milestone will be the opening of the Call for Expression of Interest (EoI) in late November. It will allow cities to state their interest in becoming climate-neutral by 2030 as part of the Mission and to submit information about their current situation, ongoing work and future plans as regards climate neutrality. I encourage all cities to consider joining us. It will be a challenging but exciting journey to travel together. All of us are looking forward to working with you!
Additional Information
- European Missions - Info Kit for Cities: Download
- Foresight report for Mission Area Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities: Download
- EU Mission Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities factsheet: Download
- EU Mission Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Implementation Plan: Download
- Climate neutral and smart cities mission - Questions and answers: Download
Matthew Baldwin is Deputy Director-General at Directorate-General for Mobility & Transport (DG MOVE) and Mission manager for the Climate-Neutral & Smart Cities Mission
Ivo Cré and Pedro Homem de Gouveia are, respectively, Director Policy & Projects - Coordinator Access & Senior Policy & Project Manager - Coordinator Governance & Integration - Coordinator Safety & Security at POLIS Network
You can contact them, respectively, at: matthew.baldwin@ec.europa.eu, icre@polisnetwork.eu and pgouveia@polisnetwork.eu