The European Commission is setting up a new Climate City Capital Hub, an international finance resource to further support cities joining the EU mission on climate neutrality and smart cities.
Thanks to the new hub, cities that already have the EU City Mission Label will be able to:
Access financial advice in partnership with the European Investment Bank (EIB) Advisory Service. Structure your financial needs to understand different ways to fund your project, including project pooling. Introduce your project to a range of capital providers, including public and private sector lenders and investors (including charity and corporate capital, as well as innovative forms of financing such as crowdfunding and sustainability-linked bonds), and support you through the process to closing.
Complementing the EIB’s services, the Climate Urban Capital Hub will be set up with the support of both the EU Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission and the EU Climate Change Adaptation Mission, with a particular focus on partnering with private capital. For cities that have signed the Climate Adaptation Mission Charter and obtained the EU Cities Mission Label, the services will cover both mitigation and adaptation projects and adopt a holistic approach to climate change.
The hub will be managed by the Commission’s Urban Mission Implementation Platform, currently managed by the NetZeroCities project. The Commission announced its creation at the 2024 Urban Mission conference, held in Valencia on 25 and 26 June.
In addition, the EIB has allocated a €2 billion lending facility to cities that have received the City Mission Label to support their investment plans in energy, efficient buildings, district heating systems, renewable energies, sustainable mobility, urban redevelopment and regeneration, and water and social infrastructure, strengthening the EIB’s support to cities that have received the label and adding a dedicated lending facility to its advisory services.
Next steps
So far, 33 cities have been awarded the EU Climate Neutral and Smart City Mission label, of which 10 will be awarded in October 2023 and 23 in March 2024. The label is an important milestone in the cities’ efforts. It recognizes the successful development of a Climate City Contract, which outlines the city’s overall vision on climate neutrality and includes an action plan and an investment plan. Cities co-develop the Climate City Contract with local stakeholders such as the private sector and citizens. From the 33 investment plans submitted so far, around €114.1 billion has been budgeted for climate action, an average of €3.6 billion per city. The European Commission is currently reviewing a further 23 Climate City Contracts.
At the same time, the EU Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission is also collecting more than 200 solutions to help cities on their journey to climate neutrality. The solutions range from A – “Advanced Retrofit Support” to Z – “Zero Emission Buses” and can be found in the Knowledge Repository.
background
Cities are responsible for more than 70% of global carbon dioxide emissions and consume more than 65% of the world’s energy. Urban activities are essential for climate mitigation and can make a significant contribution to accelerating efforts towards achieving the legally binding commitment to achieve climate neutrality across the EU by 2050. They can also contribute to the realization of the EU’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, and more generally the European Green Deal. The EU Cities Mission aims to see European cities become climate neutral, providing their citizens with cleaner air, safer transport options, and less congestion and noise.
In April 2022, 100 cities from the EU and 12 from countries linked to Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation program, were selected to participate in the mission. The cities are testing innovative cross-sectoral approaches, including citizen participation, stakeholder management and internal governance, to accelerate the path to climate neutrality. This will make them hubs of experimentation and innovation to be followed by all European cities by 2050.
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