CapaCITIES and NetZeroCities 1st networking event on national platforms for climate neutral cities

The 1st in person exchange and networking event for national platforms for climate neutral cities took place on 14th of March at EITHouse in Brussels. Co-organised by CapaCITIES and NetZeroCitiesEU, the meeting was held under the format of a Transnational Cities Mission Alliance, linked to the conference of mayors (15th of March).

Representatives of 19 countries: Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Turkey joined this exchange, finding out the challenges of the MissionCities national platforms that are already established, of those emerging to those that are now starting the work on the Cities Mission at their country level.

Nina M. Mostegl from the national platform in Austria, Lena Holmberg from Viable Cities in Sweden, Julio Lumbreras from CitiES 2030 in Spain, Ovidiu CIMPEAN from M100 – Mirror Mission Cities Hub in Romania, Katarzyna Rędzińska from the national platform in Poland opened the floor by sharing insights on their set-up process, governance, stakeholders, activities and challenges, complemented by examples from Dragomir Tzanev – Bulgaria and Miljenko Sedlar – Croatia.
The dialogue continued in a workshop format with all the countries on how to deal with concrete challenges such as:

  • engaging the national government in supporting the Cities Mission
  • bridging the gaps in collaboration between ministries and state agencies responsible for climate action and urban policy
  • Developing and enhancing collaboration between Mission Cities and regional governments
  • Translating multi-level and multi-stakeholder collaboration for climate neutral cities into concrete support measures for cities, like enabling regulatory and financing frameworks
  • Resourcing facilitation of national platforms, adequate skills and capacity to lead the work.

 

For more detail, please have a look at the PPT presentation used during the event.

 

Coming up next:
➾10-12 April in Brussels – Driving Urban Transitions Partnership conference
➾29-30 May in Umeå – 1st Swedish Cities Mission Forum
➾25-26 June in Valencia – Annual conference Cities Mission