NetZeroCities: New cities join the Pilot Cities Programme to accelerate climate transition

26 European cities have been selected for the second cohort of the Pilot Cities Programme, which aims to accelerate their pathway towards climate neutrality by 2030. The Programme now provides a total of 79 ambitious cities with substantial and financial support from the EU Missions to expedite their journey to sustainability. A call for a third cohort is currently open for current Mission Cities that are not yet Pilot Cities. 

The Pilot Cities Programme (PCP) is part of NetZeroCities – the platform that supports 112 ‘Mission Cities’ committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2030 as part of the EU Cities Mission. The main objective of the programme is to support them to develop concrete solutions to their climate challenges, previously defined in their Climate City Contracts, which often serve as their climate strategies.

In 2022, the first cohort of Pilot Cities embarked on a two-year journey towards climate neutrality, implementing innovative approaches, solutions and services to reduce carbon emissions and initiate transformational change. The second cohort has now joined the programme and will benefit from a total of almost 15 million euros to become ‘Pilot Cities’ that act as innovation hubs as they test solutions for rapid decarbonisation.

“Cities are at the forefront of climate action and key to their success is the opportunity for exploration and experimentation, sharing knowledge, and scaling up what works. The Pilot Cities Programme offers cities concrete support to do exactly that, and I wish them great success with their efforts.” – said Thomas Osdoba, NetZeroCities Programme Director

The grants, awarded in packages of 500,000-600,000, 1 million, or 1.5 million euros, will support Pilot Cities’ exploratory activities across a broad range of themes, from the electrification of construction and energy transition options to new methods of citizen participation in climate action and better systems of governance. Pilot Cities will also receive direct support from city experts and have opportunities to learn from other cities over the course of the two-year programme.

Cities selected in the second cohort are: Aarhus, Bratislava, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Eilat, Espoo, Gävle, Gozo, Helsingborg, Ioannina, Klagenfurt, Kosice, Lappeenranta, Lisbon, Lund, Lyon, Marseille, Oslo, Pecs, Miskolc, Porto, Riga, Stockholm, Trondheim, Vilnius and Zagreb. “Oslo is delighted to be selected as part of the Net Zero Cities Pilot Cities Programme. In our project, we will look at how to balance energy demand, supply and grid capacity when construction, transportation and machinery are electrified. This is key for our work in designing an optimised and resilient energy system, ready to power an electrified city. Oslo looks forward to moving this work forward in dialogue and collaboration with other forward-thinking cities across Europe.” said Marit Vea, Vice Mayor for Environment and Transport, City of Oslo.

The results and learning from Pilot Cities’ work will be shared in turn with non-Pilot Cities selected to participate in the Twinning Programme – multiplying the impact of the programme on European cities’ efforts to become climate neutral.

The programme will also welcome new Pilot Cities in September 2024 as part of a third and final cohort. A call for applications from Mission Cities (who are not yet part of the Pilot Cities Programme) to join that cohort has been announced and is open until 18 March. The chosen cities will be announced in May.

Read more about the open call