Policy Labs - Info Session (24th Jan) Accompanying Presentation Slides, here.

Policy is an important lever in the systemic, mission-driven approach to climate neutrality, and the need for policy alignment and collaboration across all levels of government, including non-state actors, is critical for cities to reach their NetZero goals. The purpose of this info-session is to provide an overview of our mission-oriented policy approach and outline the opportunities to co-create policy innovation forums in response to specific challenges at a local, national and European level. In particular, a series of Policy Labs, targeting EU decision-makers, scheduled over the next year will be presented, and input will be requested from participants on specific policy challenges identified by Mission Cities. European policy development is framed within a multilevel governance system that demands a swift coordination across all levels (local, regional, national and EU level). During the NZC Policy Labs at EU level, Mission Cities will present and discuss policy-related challenges that represent a barrier in their climate neutrality efforts and which could be tackled by EU decision-makers. The subsequent outcome of each discussion will lead to the drafting of policy recommendations targeting relevant EU decision-makers. Each Policy Lab session will convene Mission City representatives, set up in a diverse type of engagement either as challenge owner/s or as challenge solver/s: • Challenge owner/s: city/ies that lead and present real-case city challenge/s under the headline of the NZC Policy Lab theme (e.g. Circular Economy), with the purpose of enabling further interactions with the Challenge solvers, aimed at moving forward with the policy recommendations to EU decision-makers. Each Policy Lab session may accommodate between 1 - 4 Challenge owners. • Challenge solver/s: city/ies that are actively engaged in the participatory process of the discussion, upon gaining an in-depth understanding of the real-case city challenge/s, presented by the challenge owner/s.