QUICK READS

Quick Reads are short overviews of key NetZeroCities concepts providing essential information in a practical and visual way. More comprehensive resources and additional information will be available in the knowledge repository.

CLIMATE CITY CONTRACTS

The Cities Mission Climate City Contract (CCC) is a governance innovation tool to help cities collaboratively address their barriers to reaching climate neutrality by 2030. The CCC works both as an ongoing process and a “living” document. The Climate City Contract process will be different for every city, but should be guided by the Climate Transition Map phases.

The CCC is the documented result of an iterative co-creation process with local, regional, and national stakeholders to reach climate neutrality in the city by 2030. Systemic in nature, this process is led by mission cities and involve multiple stakeholders at various governance levels, as well as the wider ecosystem of private and civic stakeholders. Together, they will identify all the key actions to achieve 2030 climate neutrality, and the ways and means to implement them.

The Climate City Contract is a digital living document and should be revised periodically to add new stakeholders, concrete commitments, actions and/or investments, and to reflect on what is working and not working. The Cities Mission Climate City Contract can be submitted for validation by the European Commission to receive the “Mission Label”, which is a quality assurance certification that is supports in unlocking synergies with other EU funding programmes and other funding and financing resources.

Key ideas to deploy Climate City Contracts

The CCC is one process and document with three interlinked components:

2030 Climate Neutrality Commitments: (CCC Core Contract) capture the outcomes of a co-creation process with local, regional, and national stakeholders to establish new ways of working together to achieve climate neutrality faster. It includes a shared 2030 ambition and a strategy to achieve it, as well as the specific commitment(s) to action from stakeholders in the contract. The document is divided in two parts. Part A covers the 2030 goal, key priorities, principles, and a formal contract signed by all relevant stakeholders. In this first part, the cities identify 3-4 priorities targeting systemic change in high emission sectors. Part B outlines specific commitments from individual.
2030 Climate Neutrality Action Plan: identifies the strengths and gaps of existing strategies, policies, and plans, and uses all levers of change to create a coordinated portfolio of interventions to achieve the 2030 ambition. The Action Plan also encourages collaboration across universities, industries, governments, and the citizens to drive innovation. Building on existing plans, it outlines a strategic path and cross-sector interventions to reach climate neutrality. In order to cities to receive the Mission Label, the final version of the plan must meet guidelines for submission to the European Commission.
2030 Climate Neutrality Investment Plan: supports the cities to develop a long-term financial strategy to achieve climate neutrality by 2030. The Investment Plan strategically mobilises and organises public resources (including EU and national funding) and addresses how to attract private capital for funding and financing cities pathways to climate neutrality. The Investment Plan is closely linked to the Action Plan, aligning financial strategy with transformative actions. Here, as well, the plan must meet guidelines for submission to the European Commission for the Mission Label.

Cities mission Climate City Contract

The Climate City Contract framework is flexible allowing cities to work with a format that best suits their needs. When feasible, Mission Cities and other cities with mission-level ambition (so-called "Peer Cities”) will collaborate with the Mission Platform and other Mission support groups. These groups aim to build regional/national commitment with key stakeholders, helping to close gaps between national or sub-national policies and regulations, and to better align funding and financing opportunities. The resulting commitments will be included in each city’s Climate City Contract and updated on the iteration cycle.

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Inspiration

Klimatkontrakt

Climate City Contracts are a novel tool, but national versions have already been pioneered in Sweden and Spain. Klimatkontrakt 2030 (Climate City Contract 2030) is a concentrated effort from Swedish cities and the national level to speed up the work to enable the transition towards climate-neutral cities 2030. As of December 2021, 23 Swedish cities and five government agencies are signatories to the Klimatkontrakt 2030 process. It is an agreement between cities, government agencies, and Viable Cities in a facilitating capacity, in which all parties commit to make concrete contributions. The contract is a long-term commitment and process that ensures cooperation between cities and the national level. The Klimatkontrakt 2030 includes a clear ambition to achieve net zero emissions by 2030. However, each city starts with its own politically adopted objective, and commits to raise their ambition step-by-step in the annual updating process.

citiES 2030

Similarly in Spain, citiES 2030 has initiated a process to transform Spanish cities that will articulate political commitment to decarbonisation and accelerate the development of roadmaps towards climate neutrality. The initiative has initiated this process with eight Spanish cities: Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Soria, Valencia, Valladolid, Vitoria, and Zaragoza, in three phases: (i) securing political backing from the cities’ city councils; (ii) defining the cities’ commitment, which includes adhering to a transformation process and the design and approval of a roadmap toward decarbonisation; (iii) incorporating national and regional stakeholders to sign the contract. As multi-level governance is essential to the success of the mission, the contract must be signed by the city council and by relevant national or regional authorities. In the case of the eight cities, they were signed by the Mayors and the Spanish Vice-President.

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CLIMATE CITY CONTRACTS

Key ideas to deploy Climate City Contracts

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Klimatkontrakt

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