What is the Climate City Contract?
The Climate City Contract (CCC) is a governance innovation tool designed to help cities collaboratively overcome barriers to achieving climate neutrality by 2030. It is part of the European Union's Cities Mission, which aims to support 100 cities in their transition to climate neutrality.
The EU mission "100 Climate Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030" has been launched under Horizon Europe. Cities receive world-class expert support through the NetZeroCities Project, which acts as a service-oriented platform for cities. It helps European cities by providing them with the support and solutions they need to achieve climate neutrality in a socially inclusive way.
The CCC is the result of an iterative co-creation process involving multiple stakeholders, including local, regional, and national governments, as well as private and civic sectors. The contract is structured around three main components
- Commitments: This includes a shared 2030 ambition and a strategy to achieve it, along with specific commitments from stakeholders.
- Actions: This component identifies the strengths and gaps in existing strategies and policies, creating a coordinated portfolio of interventions to achieve the 2030 goals.
- Investments: This involves developing a long-term economic and financial strategy to mobilize public resources and attract private capital for funding the pathways to climate neutrality.
The CCC is a living document, meaning it is periodically revised to include new stakeholders, commitments, actions, and investments.
The inspiration for this tool came from pilot initiatives in Swedish and Spanish cities. The Klimaat Kontrakt 2030 (Climate Cities Contract 2030) represents the efforts of 23 Swedish cities, the national level represented by government institutions and Viable Cities organisation, working together from 2021 to accelerate work to enable the transition to climate neutral cities by 2030.
Similarly, Spain's citiES 2030 initiative has initiated a process of transformation of Spanish cities that reaffirms its political commitment to decarbonisation. which will express the political commitment to decarbonisation and accelerate the development of plans towards climate neutrality.
On this platform, we will present experiences, tips and inspiration on preparation, ecosystem creation and implementation of the CCC from cities that have already embarked or are preparing to embark on a transition path to climate neutrality.