02.03.2023
City of Turku has been selected to embark upon unprecedented climate action, through the NetZeroCities Pilot Cities Programme, a two-year EU-funded programme as part of the European Union Cities Mission.
Together with 52 fellow Pilot Cities, Turku will implement innovative actions to accelerate climate action and rapidly decarbonize. Together with the University of Turku, city of Turku will implement a wide range of actions, including creating an online platform where regions climate work can be followed, doing research and pilots on how climate-nudging and behavioral science can be used to accelerate sustainable lifestyles and businesses, supporting climate work of the regional companies and creating citizen participation in climate action through climate ambassador network.
With this Pilot Cities Programme, City of Turku will test and experiment new approaches to transforming the way we live and work, improving transport, digital solutions, circular economy and more.
City of Turku will be building on multiple levers of change including technology, governance and policy, business models and participation. The Pilot Cities Programme will be the opportunity to share learnings with other cities, building on each other’s experiences, replicating and scaling solutions that work in similar contexts. This will ultimately lead to an accelerated transition towards climate neutrality across Europe.
About the Pilot Cities Programme
The NetZeroCities Pilot Cities Programme supports European cities to test and implement innovative approaches to rapid decarbonisation over a two-year pilot programme, working across thematic areas to support of systemic transformation.
The Pilot Cities Programme helps cities address all urban systems contributing to climate-neutrality, including mobility, energy systems and the built environment, material and resource flows, natural areas, cultural/social/financial/institutional systems, and accessible public spaces. Selected Pilot Cities will receive funding and hands-on support from City Advisors and the NetZeroCities Consortium partners.
The Pilot Cities will test and implement innovative solutions, or groups of solutions, at city or district level. Innovative solutions form Pilot Cities will have the potential to scaled or replicated. Learning activities will be organised for Pilot Cities to exchange, build capabilities, replicate successful innovations, and deepen relationships A twinning programme will link each Pilot City with two or three twin cities to share learnings with others.
About NetZeroCities
NetZeroCities is a consortium consisting of 33 partners from 27 European countries, managing the EU Cities Mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030” platform. NetZeroCities supports the 112 European cities known as the Mission Cities in drastically reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to achieve climate neutrality. The EU Cities supports the European Green Deal in building a low-carbon, climate-resilient future through research and innovation.
NetZeroCities works as a service-oriented platform supported by world-class practitioners to help cities overcome the current structural, institutional and cultural barriers they face in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2030. NetZeroCities aims to enable European cities and citizens to show the way forward towards an inclusive, thriving, climate resilient and sustainable future. To do so, it tailors advanced capabilities related to systemic change, citizen engagement and democratic governance, capital and financial structuring, and social innovation, to ensure cities have access to the best expertise available anywhere in the world.
About the EU Cities Mission
EU Missions are a new way to bring concrete solutions to some of our greatest challenges. They have ambitious goals and will deliver tangible results by 2030, by putting research and innovation into a new role, combined with new forms of governance and collaboration, as well as by engaging citizens. EU Missions are a novelty of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme for the years 2021-2027.
Since climate mitigation is heavily dependent on urban action, we need to support cities in accelerating their green and digital transformation. The EU Cities Mission involves local authorities, citizens, businesses, investors as well as regional and national authorities to deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030, and ensure that these cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050.