European Mission 100 Net Zero cities
The European missions 2030 are a novelty of the Horizon Europe research and innovation program for the years 2021-2027. The European Commission conceives them as a coordinated effort to pool the necessary resources (financing, regulation, knowledge, etc.) to face some of the great challenges of the continent.
In April 2022, Barcelona was chosen by the European Commission, among nearly 400 candidate cities, to be part of the European Mission 100 Smart and Climate-Neutral Cities by 2030. This implies explicit recognition of Barcelona's commitment to the fight against climate change.
100 climate-neutral cities by 2030
The fight for decarbonisation is strongly linked to the SDGs. The 2030 Agenda Commissioner coordinated the candidature and is now promoting an interdepartmental working group -with key roles from the Energy Agency and the Office of Climate Change and Sustainability- to draw up the called the "City Climate Agreement", which will establish Barcelona's commitments to climate neutrality, and outline the actions and investments necessary to achieve it, based on the Climate Emergency Action Plan for 2030.
The European Commission has followed a rigorous procedure to evaluate the proposals and select the cities. The result is a very strong and diverse list, which includes cities from all member States of the European Union. These 100 pioneering cities, which aspire to be emissions neutral by 2030, will become centres of experimentation and innovation that will pave the way for all European cities to be emissions neutral by 2050. The Mission promotes an approach based on horizontal and multilevel collaboration - also counting on the private sector-, open innovation and citizen participation.
To help them achieve the Mission, the European Commission will provide the selected cities with:
- Funding opportunities for cities to be part of large innovation actions, pilot projects and demonstrations
- Advice and support, also through a coordination network created at State level, together with six other Spanish cities involved in the Mission
- Opportunities for networking, learning and exchange of experiences between cities
- Support for citizen involvement in decision-making