This report examines how city-driven monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) is being developed and used as a governance mechanism in six Mission-labelled cities: Stockholm, Zaragoza, Cork, Münster, Bergamo and Turin. The cases show that MEL is no longer functioning only as a technical reporting requirement or an accountability tool for external institutions. Instead, it is increasingly being used by cities to steer climate-neutrality transitions, connect emissions trajectories to implementation portfolios, inform investment and budgeting decisions, and support learning across municipal departments, stakeholders and partners. Together, the six cases show that city-driven MEL is emerging as an essential component of mission-oriented urban climate governance. Its value lies not only in measuring progress towards climate neutrality, but in helping cities organise learning, coordinate actors, prioritise actions, mobilise investment and adapt implementation pathways.

For the wider Cities Mission, this points to the need for continued support to strengthen MEL capacities, improve access to high-quality and disaggregated data, develop proportionate methods for co-benefit and distributional indicators, and align local MEL systems with national and European governance frameworks. As cities move further into implementation, MEL will be increasingly important for understanding not only whether progress is being made, but how climate-neutrality transitions can be governed, adjusted and accelerated in practice.