Sofia

Sofia is an old European city rich in history and cultural heritage, with historical artefacts, green parks, and beautiful natural surroundings with diverse flora and fauna that make up the city's rich biodiversity, as well as modern buildings. A significant part of the territory is occupied by post-socialist residential areas, characterized by massive residential blocks.

It’s a challenge and a mission of the local government to transform the city into a modern, innovative, resilient and sustainable one.

Based on Sofia's consistent policy of becoming a cleaner, greener, and more livable city, the Mayor of Sofia decided in 2022 to participate in the European Commission's invitation to become one of the 100 European cities committed to achieving climate neutrality and becoming smart cities by 2030. This decision is the result of continuous work in various sectors in collaboration with academic institutions, private companies, and local stakeholders.

Our motivation for participating in the EU Mission "100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030" is based on our ambition to improve the urban environment and achieve our goal of climate neutrality for the sustainable well-being of our community. Our participation in the Cities Mission also provides broad access to good practices and innovations in dealing with the adverse effects of climate change and better adaptation to its impact. This is an ambition we deserve.

The municipality's commitment to climate neutrality is not a new development. As early as 2011, the mayor signed the Covenant of Mayors (CoM), setting a target to reduce emissions by 22% by 2020, in line with EU policies at the time. In 2015, a letter of commitment was also signed with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM).

In 2022, the final GHG inventory for year 2020 reported according to the requirements of the CoM following the SEAP 2012-2020 of Sofia, showed that Sofia had even exceeded the set target and achieved a 24.7% reduction in GHG compared to the levels of the base year 2007. This was the reason for setting a new ambitious target for reducing emissions by at least 40% up to 2030 and committing to climate neutrality by 2050.