Twinning for climate neutrality An EU-backed peer exchange programme offers cities across Europe the chance to step up their decarbonisation efforts by pairing up with other cities facing similar challenges. Transport and Mobility Climate Change and Environment © Nuttapong punna/stock.adobe.com The EU-funded NetZeroCities project is once again offering ambitious cities across Europe a helping hand along their journey towards climate neutrality. Cities committed to becoming climate neutral are invited to share in an experience of knowledge transfer and good practices by applying to join the EU Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission’s twinning learning programme. The 20-month peer exchange programme is facilitated by NetZeroCities, which is currently managing the Cities Mission Platform providing cities with hands-on technical, regulatory and financial assistance. As part of the programme, applicants will be paired with the second cohort of Pilot Cities (2023) on the Mission. As reported in a NetZeroCities press release, twinning will be based on common circumstances and challenges, which will enable cities to learn from each other. Gained knowledge and experiences will then be made available to other cities across the Mission network to speed up their decarbonisation efforts. Successful applicants will have access to world-class services and expertise tailored to their needs to facilitate learning, as well as financial support for reciprocal visits with their twin city. Cities that are not already part of the Cities Mission or its ongoing pilot and twinning programmes are welcome to apply until 31 May 2024. Kristina Kebeck, a research associate at the Climate Protection and Coordination Office of the City of Cologne, remarks on her experience in the programme’s first Twin Cities cohort in 2023: “Our programme was a successful mix of professional exchange and networking. We experienced the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz during a bicycle excursion early in the morning on Day 1 (with slightly over zero degrees…) and a walk-around the medieval city centre in the evening. In workshop-blocks our project partners form [sic] Vitoria-Gasteiz, Barcelona and Valencia, as well as the twin city, Soria, presented their projects and lessons learned. We had a great time exchanging and learning from each other, e.g. on the issue on how to get citizens involved in the rehabilitation of buildings. In interactive workshop sessions, we commonly drafted an action plan for Soria and us, Cologne, to implement proximity offices according to our needs. What a blast!” A boot camp to boot In the meantime, on 20 and 21 March, the second cohort of Pilot Cities that will be paired with applicants to the twinning learning programme began their 2-year run as pilot cities at a NetZeroCities Bootcamp held in Milan, Italy. The boot camp is what a project news item describes as “an essential first step in the Pilot Cities Programme,” offering cities the opportunity to learn from subject experts and from each other. During the 2-day event, cities shared their achievements, discussed challenges they face, took part in small group discussions on mobility, citizen engagement and other relevant themes, scheduled one-on-one discussions and attended subject expert sessions. In further efforts towards decarbonisation, NetZeroCities project coordinator EIT Climate-KIC, the Netherlands, and FedEx Express Europe are running a programme called the Sustainable Cities Mobility Challenge for European cities. The aim is to identify projects that speed up the transition to cleaner, greener and more inclusive mobility. In the challenge’s second edition, the organisers have selected five cities to fund in the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. Four of the winning projects come from municipalities engaged in NetZeroCities (Accelerating cities’ transition to net zero emissions by 2030). For more information, please see: NetZeroCities project website Keywords NetZeroCities, city, twinning, climate, climate neutrality, decarbonisation, mobility, emissions
