Webinar: UBC TALKS about EU Mission: climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030

Good morning everybody and welcome to today's UBC talks on the EU mission climate neutral and smart cities by 2030. So this year 2022 marks the start of the EU missions and also the start of the EU mission for climate neutral and smart cities which is the mission that we have followed actively and we know that is of high interest for many many cities in the EU and in our region.

So we're really happy to organize this webinar for you today and before we start I would like to introduce me and my colleagues. My name is Esther Kreutz-Hassinen and with me is my colleague Maria Andreva and we both work for the union of the Baltic cities. So we are a city network here in the Baltic sea region. We have today around 70 member cities in nine countries around the sea and we work in eight thematic commissions on different topics. We both work for the UBC sustainable cities commission which is hosted by the city of Turku in Finland where we support networking and exchange between our member cities. We manage different kind of projects. We work with regional policy development and yeah work with all topics related to urban sustainability. The UBC talks webinars is a very well established format that we started a few years ago that we are regularly organizing on different sustainability related topics. So you can find also previous UBC talk webinars recordings on our website and if you're interested to join the following up the following sessions then you can follow us on our different communication channels to hear what's coming up in the future.

Before we now come to the agenda of today just a few general remarks as usual in this kind of webinar. So this webinar is recorded so it will be also available on the website afterwards. All attendees are muted by default but you're very welcome to ask questions. You can add questions to this Q&A box and we will take them up in the Q&A sessions. Also you can use the chat to add some questions and so on so we will try to take up as many questions as the agenda and the timetable allows.

Okay but now to today's agenda. We start with an overview about the EU mission 400 climate neutral and smart cities by 2030 and we're really really happy to have Mr Patrick Child, the mission manager and deputy director general for DG environment of the European Commission with us. We will also have the chance to have a short Q&A session with him. So prepare your questions already if you have any. After that we will hear some highlights from UBC cities mission cities from our network from the city of Jävle, Tartu, Ymeå and then we'll also have an intervention from city of Ljupaia and together with those colleagues we will have a panel discussion and go a little bit deeper into the processes in those different cities. Last but not least we are really happy to also have Anna Huttonen from the climate neutral as a climate neutral city advisor from the net zero cities project on board who will give some insight about the available support for cities on the journey to climate neutrality. Then we will have another Q&A session so there's more options more opportunities to ask questions and then we'll end the webinar at 11 o'clock.

Yeah but we will start the program for today and I would like to give the floor then to Mr Pratschek-Child. We're really happy to have you on board. The floor is yours. Well thanks very much Esther and I'm really delighted to be here with you and really grateful to have this possibility to engage with the union and Baltic cities. I'm joining you of course as you've said in my capacity as mission manager for the European Union mission for 100 climate neutral and smart cities and I'm very happy to see such strong representation in the selected missions from the Baltic region. I was just last week in Vilnius at a Baltic cities mission conference organized by the city of Vilnius on the 17th of October where Vilnius together with Riga, Torage and Tallinn gave really valuable inputs and the local Baltic leaders showed their innovative approaches particularly in the context of the present energy crisis and against the background of the tensions created by the Russian invasion in Ukraine. In Vilnius I think there was a general sense that we have an urgent need therefore to focus on energy security, the efficiency of buildings, urban mobility and opening dialogues with citizens to overcome these crises and these are things which are really central to the work that we're doing together in the city's mission. Essentially the mission has two main goals, firstly delivering 100 climate neutral cities by 2030 but secondly and I would say equally important ensuring that these 100 cities act as a sort of experimentation and innovation hub to lead a process where all European cities can follow suit and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. I believe that these goals have become even more important in the light of the Russian invasion in Ukraine and therefore you know the associated need for us urgently to have energy autonomy and break free from our dependence on imported fossil fuels. So the city's mission is composed of 100 cities in all member states of the European Union as well as 12 from associated countries that were selected earlier this year but as I've said we're also keen to involve other cities beyond those who are you know formerly part of the 100 group. We had 377 cities originally applying and so there are many cities around the European Union not in the mission but who similarly have commitments to achieve climate neutrality very very quickly and that's why I think groups such as the union of Baltic cities is so valuable in spreading the word and reaching out to cities that are not directly part of the mission and giving us a sort of platform to work together at national regional levels in order to learn from what everybody is doing and also benefit from the experience that we are gaining together from the process of the mission. So in terms of you know the things that have happened most recently in the city's mission, the mission platform Net Zero Cities has launched a call for pilot cities with a total budget of 30 million, 32 million euros which is to help cities to fund the preparation of their engagement in the in the mission. There is already very very strong interest in this call and comprehensive guidance is available online and the deadline for applications for funding which can be you know between half a million and 1.5 million euros per city. The deadline is the 4th of November.

We are also now rolling out tailored support to the 100 cities through the city advisors who are associated with the mission platform and who will then be able to work with you to compile an individual needs assessment and a series of webinars focused on knowledge exchange and capacity building so that you're in the best possible position to prepare the climate city contracts which are at the heart of the work we're doing with the cities and our speaker a little bit more about that in the moment. But we've also very excitingly in the last few weeks launched a new capacities project which is specifically focused on providing support and input for the development of national networks in all of our member states and we've had a launch meeting for the new mission board which is composed of high-level experts who are supporting and accompanying the work on the mission. So in addressing you today I really just want to talk perhaps about three main things. Firstly the work that we're doing to help you prepare for the climate city contracts and how actually a basis for outreach and cooperation with other cities. Secondly a word on the importance of citizens engagement and what we see emerging in that area and thirdly the importance of national networks and how we want to see those developing and how we can support them as well. So firstly therefore on the climate city contracts as I've said we have now got in place a group of city advisors associated with the Net Zero Cities platform who are intended to provide the expertise and experience that the cities in the mission will need in order to compile the climate city contracts which are at the heart of the engagement of your participation in the mission.

The advisors have already I think in most cases made contact with the cities that they will be working with and are already therefore starting to address some of the challenges around the preparation of the climate city contracts and these are really a core feature of the city's mission. Every mission city will develop a climate city contract with the help of the platform. These will not be legally binding but a very visible political commitment we hope engaging a full range of stakeholders and actors around the climate neutrality objective and the form of the contract will be a sort of an overall commitment with the sort of direction of travel but then a more specific climate neutrality action plan setting out more in detail the different measures and actions that are required to achieve climate neutrality and then an investment plan to show the potential sources of funding which will be obviously needed to deliver the ambitious goals of the action plan. And so we're really hoping that the climate city contracts will be cross-sectoral and concrete they can build on what cities have already done so we're keen to avoid duplicating for example many of you might be in the global covenant of mayors a lot of relevant experience already developed in that context can be I'm sure used in the climate city contracts but I think that the broad cross-cutting nature of the contracts and crucially the investment plans are probably the new dimension for many citizens. I think in preparing the climate city contracts what is important is that we are able to develop devote the necessary resources from the outset that means the necessary resources in your municipal or administrations but also that you reach out from the start to engage with national authorities citizens groups businesses NGOs and other actors in order really to ensure that the climate city contract are a collective co-created process which will then attract a lot of support when they are finalized. And we're working in Brussels at the moment on how we want to validate the contracts when they will be presented our idea is to award a sort of mission label to the contracts that fulfill the conditions that we are setting out and that this mission label will be a sort of vote of confidence expressed at a European level in the plans that you would have developed which should then we believe give clarity certainty and therefore predictability to access to funding programs both at EU level national level but also crucially I hope attract a private investment.

The city's mission is already working with the platform to provide many different interactive and online activities and that you know I really urge you to take full advantage of the net zero cities platform to share information but also to get information about best practice in a user-friendly way and that the repository that the information that the platform is developing is open not only of course to mission cities but also to any other cities who are interested in learning from experience. Cities will also be able to take part in twinning and teaming activities to learn from others that have faced similar challenges and we hope therefore we'll be able to exchange information as we move along and I'm really looking forward to the presentation by Anna Hutton and later today who will be able to say more in her capacity as city advisor on how the platform is organizing itself to support your work on the climate city contract. My second point you know is to underline of course the importance of citizens engagement and I know that many cities have a rich and long experience to draw on of engaging directly with citizens but I mean I think you know given the scale and pace of the societal and economic transformation that we're talking about in moving to climate neutrality we can see that the results we want to achieve will not be possible without full active engagement of citizens and I think that the encouraging news is that citizens are showing that they are strongly united and committed to joining the efforts to overcoming the present crisis and bringing more innovative and sustainable solutions and so I believe that a particularly critical element of the city's mission is our capacity to reach out to local communities to ensure that there is societal uptake of new solutions and approaches to make cities more sustainable because ultimately the transition to climate neutrality is not really just about technological innovation but profound changes in lifestyles and behaviors along with innovative governance models and these sort of transformations cannot be imposed from the top they need to be embraced and shaped by citizens themselves and that's why it's so important that we through the city's mission believe that citizens should be engaged from the very beginning in co-creating the climate city contracts along with all the other relevant stakeholders and businesses.

Finally and just a word on national networks and what we are seeking to do as part of the second objective of the mission to ensure that the leadership that the hundred cities in the mission can show will support a wide mode of mobilization of cities across the European Union to become climate neutral by 2050. We're trying to set up national networks a vital process because what we're doing through the EU level can only really be a start. We need to find ways new ways of allowing cities to engage through national and regional programs to complement what we can do at European level and to ensure that these programs are well aligned and we have seen already a very encouraging progress in a number of different member states. In particular you know given the Baltic focus here I just wanted to congratulate Sweden on the very advanced program that the Swedish authorities developed for national climate city contracts that were very much a source of inspiration for the way we're working in the mission called Viable Cities where I know later this year there will be a big sort of landscape moment when these contracts are being signed at national level and there are many other good examples in Finland and elsewhere in the Baltic states. I would just highlight the potential of the capacities project which was launched just a few weeks ago with dedicated support to the development of national networks. The sort of services that will be provided on exchanging, learning, inspiring, supporting, prototyping and multi-level cross-sector governance structures and also for thematic capacity building for public authorities. There's a consortium in the capacities project representing 15 European countries including Finland and Sweden but they are also reaching out to all the other member states as well. So I urge you as you're seeking to develop national platforms in different member states to use this support and actively engage with it. So ladies and gentlemen again very happy to have this opportunity to participate in this webinar delighted to see such strong support and active engagement in cities across the Baltic states and in conclusion just sort of highlight my main messages today. Firstly devote the necessary resources into the preparation of your climate city contracts for those of you who are in the mission and involve citizens, involve stakeholders from the start. Secondly really focus on new ways of developing citizens engagement so that this is a collective journey. And thirdly give the necessary attention to national networks because only if the efforts are well aligned across cities will we succeed in what we want to achieve together and I believe that the union of Baltic cities is a very natural and positive vector for us to develop these conversations in support of our collective ambitions under the European Green Deal.

So thank you very much. Thank you thank you very much for this really really good start of this webinar and all the all the information that we got and I think it was we got really clear messages from you so thank you thank you very much for this. Before I come perhaps to a few questions that I noted down during your presentation I would just like to ask Maria if there are any questions in have been coming from the audience? Yes not at the moment I think the audience is still stunned and processing the messages and noting them down like I do.

Okay well then we're up to give the audience for a couple of minutes time but I would like to ask something which is of course now I think it's it's very relevant for well for the cities in our region but also for us as the city network in the region when you talk about the national networks I mean we've been following a little bit also those national or certain national networks that have been emerging or have been being built but how do you see how also networks like ours for example can contribute to the mission in a concrete way because I see that the focus is of course on the national networks for many good reasons of course but do you see any good role for for this kind of regional networks as well? Well yes I mean for me the more conversations that we can develop and you know the more levels the better it is and so you know I was talking in the beginning of my remarks about this excellent event that I attended last week in Vilnius where yes we were talking with colleagues from both Lithuania but also Latvia and Estonia and you know if it makes sense to develop a sort of regional framework of collaboration then then much the better I think the Baltic region that is represented by your organization includes with in particular Finland and Sweden countries that are very well advanced and have got a lot of experience which I think is a potential benefit to others too.

What I think is important about the national networks however as I've said is that we find a way one way or another of making sure that the national authorities of the member states are fully reluctant because often what is needed for the cities to achieve their climate goals are a combination of a sort of well-designed public policy and regulation as well as funding and both of those things are heavily influenced by what national governments are doing so what I would say is if you are keen to develop you know your engagement in in this sort of regional dimension which I strongly support that finding ways of also bringing in representatives of relevant ministries from some of your member countries would also be very positive. Yeah and did I understand that correctly so also the aim of the national networks or let's say like all the networks that are now operating on the international or regional level would be also that they have as a task to involve those cities that have not been selected for the mission so that we can that this let's say the leadership that you that you mentioned of the hundred cities that this is kind of spread. Yeah no I mean as well as getting the different layers of government in different member states involved the other thing indeed is to provide a platform to spread the word to enlarge the conversation to include in the first instance the the cities that may have applied for the for the mission but were not successful in our first selection but also other cities that are mainly involved in other EU programs I mean we have many different EU programs in support of greening cities who may have something to bring to the to the conversation so the idea indeed is to is to support the move towards climate neutrality across all cities in the European Union and therefore getting them involved through these national networks is something we're really keen to do.

Yes okay and now before we before we continue and actually see if there are more questions I actually would like to ask you Maria to launch the poll because we wanted to also ask all of you in the audience if you could let us know is your city among the selected 100 cities in the city's mission or not just that we get an overview about how many city mission cities we have and how many that are interested in the process. Yes thank you the poll is now on it's running for the attendees I have a suspicion that panelists might not be able to see it so far so it would be a bit of a secret I see some results you I guess we'll have to wait another maybe 15 seconds if we give our attendees a chance to answer almost there and yes I'm ending the poll now and sharing the results can you see them yes so we have 68 percent the winning part who are actually mission cities in the audience but still some more who are looking into how to join this journey of the expertise and innovation hub.

Okay thank you Maria because that's of course interesting for us to know as well as we are we know that many of our member cities also have applied and were not selected so we of course really interested to also see how we can bring this to the rest of our network even though those that are not so like closely followed so to say or like don't have perhaps the I don't know in this in this selected process but yeah I mean are there any questions Maria in the no questions okay any comments because if not I think I would yeah just reconfirm definitely that we as our city network we are we will continue to follow the EU missions very closely we are very interested in spreading the word and kind of support also the EU commission and all the related the platform etc also on this on this journey to to spread the word and whenever we can be of any support and help we're really happy to be be involved yeah but then otherwise I would like to thank you Mr Child very much one more time for your for your time and well wish you a good day if you now have to leave and we'll continue in the program thank you very much have a great thank you thanks bye bye okay after this very comprehensive input I hope you all are have digested now we come we go further to some more input but perhaps a bit more on the concrete side just a second so this we have done so now we come to hear some highlights from UBC cities that have been selected for the mission and we asked them to prepare like a very short pitch so to say and like a very short presentations about how they are working with the EU mission process and after that we will have a panel discussion and all of you are in the audience so please already think about if there are some some questions that you would like to ask or if you have other questions in general about the whole process to the either the panelists that are coming now and the presenters or also in general so no need to wait for any instructions for for other kind of questions as well but we start the highlights from the UBC cities and we will start with the city of Gävle.

I would ask Elin Frisk to share your screen yes hello everybody wait a second I'll stop this hello yes nice to to talk to you and I will presentate Gävle in action and it was great to hear Patrick talk about net zero cities and Gävle is one of the net zero cities and we are also a viable city in Sweden so we were very very happy when the EU commission actually chose us as one of seven Swedish cities and we are not the biggest city in Sweden that are in this group so we are very happy for for that and we we have a long background of working with environmental goals and we have an environmental program and the last one is actually we we wrote it in 2020 so so we we work on those goals and our politicians actually decided before we had a decision on the whole program they decided that we are going to be climate neutral including including consummation I can't talk today consumption until 2035 so they actually they were sort of before us that were writing the program they were like we are going to be climate neutral at 2035 which we which we were happy about because we also we we had thought about something like that but they they were really quick to decide that so when we include consumption you know that it's a tougher goal to reach and that's why we also include the external and our citizens and companies and organizations in our goals so that's actually what we do right now we work a lot to sort of get out of the municipality and work with all other organizations and citizens and and so on that can sort of help us in this climate action work and I just wanted to show you that we have a long background as I said we we've been networking and we're a part of the Swedish ECO municipalities that is a national organization in Sweden for we've been a part of them for a long time and we've been sort of we always had a lot of other cities that we sort of what do you say exchange experience with and we we had a budget so we've had money with our environmental program and for example we've used it to to have employees that work with environmental issues such as learning for sustainable development in our educations in our schools so we've we have an organization that is really really good with our schools to work with the children's capacity to to work with the climate issues so that's that's something we're really proud of and then of course we have our municipal companies that take the lead and work with hydrogen and they have a renewable energy since many many years to go and yeah so we we are actually very very proud of their work and this is a picture that shows our work right now and as you can see we have the program the environmental program with the climate goal in and then we have all the collaborations that I told you about and we have started a an innovation team we didn't have that organization in Gävle so we were like okay but if we don't have it we'll have to sort of start one and it's not a huge one but it's a couple of persons from different sectors in Gävle with different competence and that's sort of is the innovation team at least a start of it and we have viable cities to thank for that because there was a lot of one thing in the application that we should have so now we have one and we work on the climate contract we're not done yet we haven't released it but we are working on it and we have a climate we have a climate action plan that is political decided so in Gävle so we work with that one and also you see the three packages that we work with it's action for climate neutral municipality which is focused on companies and citizens focused on external outside the municipality to sort of start to measure consumption based emissions from climate carbon dioxide and also to sort of be able to change behavior in people's daily life and for workplaces and such as that and then we have the number two public transport in focus in the sustainable mobility of the future our work package that has to do with sustainable transports and travels and we're going to have a strategy pretty soon for that and then we also work with the climate investment plans and of course we don't have it as a package but that's something that's sort of integrates all the the work we do and we sort of we connected with our action plan for climate work so we are looking at all our investments we have just started with that and we have consultants that help us because that's a new area for us we're not economics like that but now we actually have discussions with our economical economic department and they are involved and we have sort of started a process so that's a really really tough work but we are on it and everyone wants to work with it so that's good and the sustainable planning process are our last package work package three and it's about sustainable construction early stages so then it's very very important to sort of where we are developing new city areas that we sort of work with them and that we make sure that we have the right requirements and demands and so on so that's our packages and yeah we are net zero cities you've already heard about that but we do have a movie that you can feel free to go in and have a look at i can send you this presentation as well and what it's about i mean that's something that Patrick also told us a happy just healthy and climate neutral city and the social sustainable development is very very important as well so we get the whole grip of it which is very very good and this is a net zero cities photo but i think it's pretty good the picture there that shows actually the process that we need to sort of it's a mission driven work that we need to sort of have the citizens and our companies with us otherwise we can't do it by ourselves we need to sort of work find new ways to work and it's not about writing documents it's about testing activities piloted activities yeah we will alien hear a lot about the net zero cities project still also from anna still so if you could come to the end that we hear the other pictures also we can go a little bit deeper into the discussion than also in your issues okay absolutely i think that was my last my last picture so i can we can take the next city now okay thank you very much alien and i think yeah i think there would be so much to talk about and so much to go deep into every city's processes and we will hopefully do that during the panel discussion but before we go there just as a reminder if you have any questions and comments from the audience please add them to the question and answer box and before we go deeper into this we now come to the city of tartu and i welcome kaspar alev to give a short introduction or a short pitch about what tartu is doing in the mission process hi good good morning everybody um yeah quickly what we're doing in the mission is um let's say um still continuing what have what we've been doing for the past five or six or seven years just trying to boost it up as much as possible and and quicken and promote and yes boost all of our actions i just wanted to maybe give you three of the examples of what we're doing that too just um very very quickly uh first of all um maybe i would like to talk about our renovation ambitions at the moment we have set ourselves a goal of renovating at least 50 percent of our apartment buildings in tartu and for this we do need technological innovation we need social innovation and we knew we need new services as well um so um what we're doing is um as for example we're at the moment in a quite a big green deal horizon 2020 project where we are boosting a national incentive of bringing prefabricated renovation element uh technology to the renovation market so national level has been doing for um let's say um average sea level energy um energy efficiency level and buildings up to five stories and in tartu we are at the moment boosting this to a higher efficiency level and also to a much higher buildings to up to nine story high buildings and here's a photo of an example how a building with prefabricated element is being renovated so just elements yes yeah we cannot see any picture why not yeah i'm sorry yeah i forgot to share my screen i'm so sorry sorry so you can see this is basically a three-story building being renovated with prefabricated elements it takes it's much quicker it's much more convenient for the people living inside the building because they don't have to live among the scaffolding and plastic for much too long but it also requires new approach to the apartment owners and apartment building so we're innovating the approach and introduction into renovation for the apartment owners but also developing a new service where we provide active consulting to the apartment buildings and this is what our pilot area looks like and the buildings with light blue are the ones that are at the moment with us in our project to renovate then perhaps i would like to talk about digital solutions for example from this year we have been using our city general master plan only in digital form when so far it used to be let's say that you had to print it on paper or have it in pdf they all the different layers so now we don't finalize it anymore in that way but we use this digital tool that i can i hope you can see now i open the window right so this is basically what it looks like it's all in estonian gives a quick input into all the different fields but there's also a map solution where you can quickly go into whatever is in the basic plot that you might be interested and also switch on or turn off different layers in the in the tool to understand whether there's heating there's land use gas networks or ground heating areas and how much depth is allowed there for vertical ground heating solution so everything and from this year on we have turned into a digital so when what when we share with you the presentations you can also take a look at a youtube video introducing the tool but what we also done is a city accessibility tool and why we've done this is to have a more database planning and take the 50 minute city concept into into action through parking and city planning just quickly like our the progress let's say call it progress in in construction norms is that from from 2000 to 2016 the amount of parking spaces demand in our construction norms have have increased which means our cities are becoming more more surfaced but also a lot less tents because we need more space for storing our cars and what we've done is look at all the services in the city schools kindergartens shops restaurants cafes cinemas everything that's available that's in the city and created a service accessibility map for the whole city so for example and from this how accessible the city is or services are in a certain point of the city we give a a a norm of how much parking spaces should be constructed in a specific plot so let's say somebody wants to build a new building here green says that it's a bit less accessible this city this area of the city than the parking norm should be 77 i'm not going into detail what it means but when we go into city center you can see the parking norm is just 12 of what's needed in the construction standard so we use this tool to to give an input for the for the constructors to build less parking spaces because services in the city are much more available and yes i just introduced the tool to you and i would also like to maybe quickly go into citizen engagements and just just to say that we have piloted our we have piloted climate assembly format in tartu i'm sure many of you have know it already maybe you have tried maybe you already use it this year we used it on on mobility in the city and i would say it's a great tool that we are going to use again in the future the methodology there is is is really good and it helps us to really educate people and also get input into our budgeted activities and activities for next four to five years and and yes when you have an opportunity to to use or try out climate assembly or citizen assembly then i would really strongly support or advise you to try it out i think that's all my three quick pitches thank you yes thank you gospar and yes we will share all the presentations afterwards so there's a lot of a lot of good info i think that we are not able to now go into detail unfortunately but we continue directly with emmy sundin from city of umeo yes thank you my name is emmy sundin i work as a strategic development officer at the business department business department in the city of umeo i'm a kind of a stand-in for my colleague philip who is our mission point of contact in umeo who is he's busy participating the just transition conference in brussels so i'm a stand-in but thank you so much for inviting us um umeo is a medium-sized city located in the northern sweden we are an active member of the ubc since many years and one of the hundred pilot cities of the eun mission of climate neutral cities and hopefully also one of the cities applying now for funding in the net zero cities pilot program closing in november um and of course climate change is critical not least in umeo where northern sweden is predicted to see higher than average warming warming and climate impacts and special transportation and consumption based emissions in umeo have high potential for reduction and are of course important focus areas so we invest in key infrastructure we work with innovation projects as as all the other cities like tartu and jävle i would like to show um this which is kind of the foundation for the climate work in umeo to work with partnerships on all levels and set up goals and action plans and commitments to reach the climate ambition and in the middle right we have for example the the national partnership the swedish climate city contract signed with a number of national government agencies and umeo and jävle is two of the 23 i think swedish cities with such a contract with national level uh we are cities that have the ambition to be front runners in the climate transition um and i would say that this contract is kind of a platform for manifesting this manifesting the commitment to keep us in the right direction to be able to discuss need of better national regulation attract national funding and so on so that's a very great foundation um and to the left locally we are at the moment busy setting up a broad partnership for a local climate contract or a local green deal with actors in private sector in civic sector and with the universities of umeo and this local contract is based on the biggest emissions in umeo in areas like mobility transport energy consumption and so on and each actor or stakeholder will undertake concrete actions to speed up the climate transition in umeo i mean how are they how are their employees travel to work what is the employee restaurants are for lunch how is this workplace heated and so on um so our first local contract will hopefully be signed now in the beginning of december by the municipality and by a number of actors within academia and the private sector mostly um and to the right we also hope to by next year be able to sign this eu climate city contract and get this mission label um to recognize the quality of our commitments under the contract and we are following this process uh very closely um and in then in this context we also hope to kind of be a voice for other cities in in particular northern sweden that has a lot of attention at the moment with huge investments in in battery factories and the production of green steel and green energy and so on besides all these formal partnerships we also work with citizens neighbor group cooperatives and civic networks we have initiated what we call umecom a community working bottom up with citizen engagement engagement and citizen innovation every month we organize open sessions and workshops ish to develop proposals and also plans for realization if that's possible so people attend they pitch their ideas they network and meet other other change makers they meet with civil servants at the municipality of course and it can be ideas about urban farming or better winter cycling and so on so this this local climate city contract and this umecom are two examples of how we are trying to build and strengthen kind of a local ecosystem for for change within the municipality and with other ume stakeholders and citizens because we we believe that these are foundational elements of the transition um and we are looking forward to collaborate in the city's mission to elaborate all this uh and especially learn more and develop our work on a on a systematic on a system level because we we know that we cannot change things in isolated pilot activities we need more of a systemic way of thinking and acting on how to reduce emissions quickly and that is truly one thing to be further developed with the within the city's mission the forthcoming years thank you thank you emi thank you very much um i'll just go back to my slides here um yeah so thank you all three of you for for your input and i see that there is a potential for so many topics that we have to we could discuss further and topics that we could exchange on and it's something that we also see the potential that we could facilitate more exchange on citizens engagement on the internal coordination how you are dealing with this i think this can be very interesting for a lot of cities and it's always a pity that we don't have enough time within one and a half hours to go so much more into depth with this but um i would still like to take the chance to have a very short discussion or at least take up a few few questions and i would like to if it's now technically possible also invite our colleague carlis from the city of liabaya to us if that's possible hi carlis great because i would like to even though mr child already started to talk about the baltic cities or the baltic mission conference um would like to ask you all or talk with all four of you now very shortly about these um the cooperation not only the well the cooperation as much as important it is of course internally but the cooperation between cities the um the cooperation with on these national networks and then also like in the baltic case for example the cooperation even across borders coming to a possibility of cooperating also within the ubc network so i perhaps would start uh with carlis and ask you still to give you some or to to ask you to give us some kind of impression of that baltic cities mission conference that you were attending and like um how do you see that this this exchange can support also your local work then or perhaps to give you short info like what this now was about again yes hello my name is carlis bejkmanis i'm from city liabaya i'm responsible for this mission in our city thank you for being invited to this webinar uh so i see that i have only some minutes so i have also a presentation but not this time okay yes so we are really grateful to be in this mission and and it is important us to take the lead in the green transition and also to color collaborate across different sectors and other cities and so about the city's mission baltic conference yes there was all three baltic states also vilnius taurage riga and liabaya and also a member from uh estonian city italy which is not a member city in this mission but uh which is which is a capital of estonia and this uh this event was uh on political will to participate in this mission and to understand the gravity of situation uh i see the the result was not what particularly to plan to do together but uh that there is a need to cooperate between cities and involve citizens and we have also discussed cooperation with other cities in baltic states uh firstly it is about organizational structure and responsible teams i see yevle is uh in the situation of new team vilnius is also making a new team i don't know about tartu and umeo but uh we liabaya are also thinking how to organize this work and what will be this team and also about the next steps that we should be finding common solutions and common problems and how can we each help help each other and how can be notable player to other european regions also together what we can bring something interesting to other european countries together that's briefly from me yes thank you because i think it's very interesting and very good to see that there is this initiative now between the baltic countries to just like join forces and also to just like cope like have this initial like conference and like kind of show this political will that there is the there is the political will for transition um i think that's really good example and of course um it probably is also because of course baltic countries are a bit smaller than if we now think about sweden for example but i would like to open also there so you have the national network the viable cities network how do you in umeo and and yevla how do you work with them or like what do you get from that cooperation should i go first emme yes i think we get a lot from that cooperation and they have like seminars we get a lot a lot of knowledge and share experiences we've and for example when we went to juleftio up north in the spring we sort of after that we had meetings with juleftio and our municipal parking company and you know so we started to exchange mobility management examples and so quite a lot of activities that you sort of dive into direct activities that you can sort of a copy paste and yeah but sorry no just continue sorry but also concerning the climate investment plans we we have another city bolling in dalarna in sweden where we sort of collaborate to sort of better understand the whole process and so so okay so it's both working concretely on the tasks let's say for the mission as well as like getting inspiration from other activities and so on okay how about umeo yeah i agree on i agree on everything that you said elin we have followed i think alan larsson who was a chairman of the mission board for the for this at the u-level for many years he has been a very important important person to to get the cities to participate in this because we we have of course got financing we have got to participate all these high-level seminars and workshops and very hands-on tips and expertise as you said elin especially when we were only nine cities who had this contract with with bible cities now that we're 23 it's um well there are many cities to to involve and that is noticeable but now we're we are aiming for the european level so so um yeah i think that they have been fantastic during the last years okay because that's really interesting to see also like what happens then on the on the national level and how how this kind of cooperation outside your own city kind of can can can help in these processes so um just as we unfortunately cannot know because we still have a a presentation from the net zero cities project um i just would like to ask you all of four of you still a question like what would you say is right now the biggest challenge you have in this mission process and how do you see that that for example also upc could support you on this journey do you have any ideas so that would be the question to all four of you perhaps we could start with with tartu well um i'd say for us the biggest um biggest challenge is getting the process off the ground and it's taken quite a while uh the the process of of applying for the mission and then opening the results and all the stuff so um yes just getting off the ground working together with the national government but also from with the local universities and some bigger institutions so to to formulate this for um whatever the cooperation will look like between the organizations and but from ubc i think um engaging our national institutions wherever possible to to really promote uh that the cities need the national support as much as possible for for for this mission okay okay and if you now continue to lia paja what would you see is your biggest challenge in this process right now i think also that i said already about going together how we can be interested interesting to other european countries and cities and if we go each city by by cell uh lepah or riga or tartu then we will be like small players but if we go together baltic states or ubc cities then we will look much stronger i think that's the main point okay thanks okay then i'll ask again like well perhaps emmy first what is your biggest challenge and can is there any support that we could that you can see challenges but one thing that i thought of uh that we have already mentioned is this thing about climate investment plans that's um it's difficult but so important to to work with and um we really welcome that climate investments plans are a part of this mission process but we will need support we've participated in a national development project for climate investments plan but we haven't really we have to get forward now and perhaps javle can inspire us um or other cities but climate investments plans that's a big challenge for us okay yes and then elaine yes same for you yeah that's our huge challenge even though the climate contract of course also to have the external participants and stakeholders and and so on to sort of work with that but i mean we we've seen that happen in other cities so um but i think the climate investment process and all the um other i mean they work with other things than environmental issues and we we come here with our sort of climate investment plans and investment apartments and the economics here and they are like what we they have a full-time job and and yeah if you see somehow could sort of i mean they need knowledge concerning this and they they are economics and we need their mind and their way to think but still they need knowledge in how to think about climate emissions and so on so yeah there's this huge gap there yeah i see yes thank you thank you elaine and thank you all of all of you now for for the input i mean as i said before i see a lot of potential for the exchange and what carlis now also says that the this importance to come together and to see that where are where are where are the points when when yeah inspiration like you know also said between jävla and ymeå sometimes it's it's just that you need to talk to a colleague from another city and you perhaps get some ideas about how to concretely implement something in your own city etc so i think this kind of facilitation of exchange it's definitely something that we are really happy to support but now we come to the official support and to the very concrete i think help that you can get and that you can expect and now we come to the presentation from anna hottonen who is the climate neutral city advisor at the net zero cities project and i think anna will um those of you who are mission cities of course you know that already probably but just well he will present us now the very concrete support that the platform is is offering to mission cities and also to other cities anna please the floor is yours yeah uh

good morning everyone uh it's very very nice being here um i will soon share my screen but yeah so my name is anna huttonen and i work as the climate neutral cities advisor at the net zero cities project and actually i can only see the panelists so i cannot see who is uh now join in the webinar but i guess there might be many familiar faces uh because i used to work in the city of lahti as the manager for sustainable mobility and i've been working a lot with with ubc uh during the last years so it's great to be here and now i will will share my screen um patrick um mr child was already um sharing some insights and maybe i can go a little bit more into details about the support that we are offering uh just a second i will try um yeah that's enough about me and um yeah and um as patrick was um presenting the eu mission and the city mission uh what we basically at the net zero cities do uh we are supporting the eu mission on the climate neutral and smart cities and um we are basically managing the implementation of the mission and delivering the platform and the support for the cities that they need along the journey um and what is concrete in the net zero cities um there's first of all the mission platform and the idea there there you can actually see also the front page of the net zero cities app is to organize and make accessible all cities available tools resources expertise and capabilities and the mission portal that's open for all the cities who want to join and who want to learn and who want to use the resources that are available on the portal and then we city advisors are basically the human resource on the platform and we are working directly uh with the mission cities but also then later on with the pilot cities that will be chosen um then there are the climate neutral city contracts i will uh go a little bit deep deeper on them on the next slide um but they are the multi-level government collaboration tool and like was already um said by elin and emmy that it really means that it should be a tool that will help the cities to reach the climate neutrally so it's not just getting the signature but it's really to help the cities to work towards the goal um then there's the climate transition map i will also go uh deeper into that in the next slides and then there's the net zero city pilots call which is interesting not only for the mission cities but for all the cities that are eligible for h2020 funding and what we city advisors do with our mission cities um i think um yeah tartu and um um already had their first uh discussion uh with their city advisor from the panelist and then givley i think is uh soon to be but what we uh do with the mission cities uh we are supporting the cities throughout the program and then we have guidance on on the journey to climate neutrality then of course like what i think it's very important in the whole mission is that we get to know the cities very well and then uh we will be able to connect uh the cities that have different challenges uh have found for instance they can be also small things they can be some kind of governance innovations that actually are not presented on the on the big stages somewhere but it's something that we actually learn when we collaborate with the cities and i guess um that's that's one of the core things that will be very valuable when we work very closely with the cities and of course then um our our job is also to find more expertise to the cities uh when there are our needs for instance technical needs on energy or buildings or mobility and then of course we will advise um the mission cities on on any program elements when they do arise um of course we have been now talking a lot about the national level and also the regional level and i think that's also very important and also the the city advisors i guess our role is also um depending of course on the groups of cities that we we work with but bring the message also to the national level and the regional level and of course cooperate with with uh for instance ubc or or other regional networks and maybe to give an example um how is the like the working structure for us for instance um we we all have around 12 cities that are kind of like the lead cities that we support and then we also have 12 cities that we are supporting um i'm working with a pair and we have together 24 cities and my my lead cities are the six finnish cities then the three norwegian cities then the two cities in slovakia and then one city in austria then i'm supporting the group of the german cities czechian libridge and then elad in israel so we already there in this small group of city advisors we we can share a lot of insights and then we are a team of 12 city advisor all together and for instance tomorrow we are gathering all the city advisors together in brussels to synthesize what we have learned so far and to to plan the next steps with the cities what we are going to do next with the mission cities or what we are offering to the cities it's a super neat assessment process where we identify and map support that the mission cities will need during when they are preparing for the climate city contract or when they are planning for the implementation of the different actions they are going to or what they are going to have to do in order to reach the climate neutrality and then of course based off the the kind of like a row of workshops that we will be doing with the cities we will create a tailored plan for the cities that we can then follow along the years and this will be yeah this will basically start we we have started now with the discover meetings and then end of november we will continue with the next workshops yeah here you can this is also what patrick already touched a little bit on but of course it's a it's a kind of a very big picture of everything that is involved in the net zero cities and the the mission platform so a lot of expertise is feeding into the mission platform and the mission portal and then there is the big tool the climate city contract and i think i also need to go a bit faster so that we can have time for a couple of questions in the end but yeah the climate city contract that's of course sweden has been a great model and the viable city has they have had a great impact on on on the development of the climate city contract model for the mission cities but there are the three parts there is the commitment part there is the action plan part and then there is the investment plan and the whole process is iterative and the idea is that the cities would they will they can start for instance with regards to commitment they can start involving the mayor and maybe some other stakeholder but then they can work during the years more on the commitment and evolve more and more stakeholders to the plan and the same same thing is with the action plan the cities the idea is that the cities can use what they already have as much as possible for instance if there is a climate action plan if there is the ccap already taken in place of course that should be used as a like the crown for the whole action plan but then of course what is what is new in the climate city contract it will require the cities to think more systemic so that they they we will be working with the cities in order to identify the different co-benefits for instance and the different like short-term and long-term impacts what the actions will have and that of course will then feed to the climate investment plan which is for sure for all the cities the most difficult part that was already mentioned in the panel and i think it's a very good good thing that cities are coming together and working also together on the investment and capital plan and of course here one part of the investment plan is also that you will find resources to do the job and that can be also elaborated in the investment plan so like when you kind of creating new teams creating new governance structures of course it has to be resource resource somehow and yeah we we city advisors and all the experts that are part of the consortium we will try our best to help the cities to to get the climate city contracts done and this i just wanted to show this is available the climate transition map is available elin already already also showed this but it's available on the portal and it's a virtual tool where where you can try on the different parts of the we it's a compass basically so you can have more information about how to create a portfolio how to understand the system how to build a mandate etc and what are the things that you need to take into consideration and of course that's that's something that that works for not only for the mission cities but all the other cities that also have the ambition of of becoming carbon neutral 2030 or beyond and then finally there is the net zero cities pilot cities program and maybe now it would be interesting to hear how many of the participants is going to apply for the pilot cities call yes we have now launched the fall to see how many attendees exactly participate and they start voting so let's give them a couple of seconds very exciting very exciting i i understand ana that you can't see the results so it's even more suspense than usual yes and now i'm sharing the results so you ana can also see them so 40 yes uh are already have already applied or are preparing the application to apply before the deadline and 60 percent still haven't at least for this pilot call there is still time to change the mind yeah but yeah so the the net zero cities pilot cities program um it's a two-year grant funded program and it's also financed under horizon 2020 and it's it's open for all horizon 2020 eligible countries and therefore it's of course support that goes beyond the 112 cities and of course the portfolio of the pilot cities because they are invited to create something very innovative something to create solutions that take into account different levers of change and live different sectors of emissions etc that's also something that basically prepares the city for the working on the climate city contract because it has the same logic as the climate city contract when it comes to considering the co-benefits and and the portfolio approach um and um yeah that's also a good good tool to figure out how to work with different stakeholders in the city and maybe create or formalize some uh corporations that already take place in the city and um this was already mentioned by patrick as well but there is the 20 32 million for about 30 grants available and um yeah the the ones who the deadline is fourth of november and um the pilot cities will be announced uh end of february and in the future there will also be the twinning program so that the cities that want to follow and learn from the pilot cities can apply for and that will be then there will be more info coming on that and that that the call will be announced in uh 2023 maybe yes i think that's it from my side because i actually also cannot move the slides anymore for some reason but um i think that's um that's enough from my side and um yeah i guess we still have a little bit time for questions thank you so much yes thank you ana thank you very much so i really encourage every one of you then all of the cities to really find out all this uh available support from the portal and um we will of course also spread the words when these calls are open etc quickly just follow what the net zero cities project is doing but also just uh follow our channels and we will we will work together and spread the word and also yeah try to inform everybody when this when this um these funding opportunities are available um yes let's have a look for some questions if there are any questions for ana please put them in the box there has been one question about um that was i think still a question about for the for the panelists about um the challenges and any problems in implementing the changes in the cities so there has been one if there is if anybody still would like to answer on this like is there some do you do you encounter any problems in implementing your um yeah your plans now i think the question is more aiming towards um um like internal so to say issues like not what are the challenges as such but like are there any any any barriers you you encounter if somebody still wants to or perhaps ana you also know what what are usually these kind of barriers that cities are are encountering for for starting with the process for example yeah of course we have cities that are very in different levels um they of course the cities in general they share the ambition but the starting points might differ so we the cities also need to maybe set the ambition on on different levels because we what i also find very important to notice that all cities still have steps to take and and things to do and basically even though um cities might start the climate city contracts uh like from from different places they are still um all in the same kind of game and everyone can learn from from each other and of course like capabilities and skills um that's basically something that you need to start with you have to have the supporting governance structure to really implement the change and that's that they are the first steps that the cities need to take the transition team stakeholder mapping etc and of course then to figure out um what are the if if not yet there usually the cities of course already know the uh what are the biggest emission sources and uh what are the the biggest uh barriers on the emission sectors yeah and i think then for for these issues especially for those cities that have been selected that's where you are uh helping very concretely um and um yeah so i think with this with these uh words i would like to uh there is still a raised hand from emmy okay sorry i didn't see sorry emmy then please just if we have time a question for anna yes um about the call do you expect many um like single city cities applications or application from a cluster of of cities from the same countries um we've had this differs a bit in different member countries that's a very good question uh but actually i cannot really say anything to that it's uh it's something that the cities and and the possible city groups they they have to uh decide themselves yeah we have very strict rules on the equality of the call so we city advisors are not actually answering any concrete questions on the pilot okay thank you yeah well sorry for that we cannot cannot provide this today um are there any more questions that i overlooked maria or anything else no everything no no everything was covered okay but well then one more time i would like to yeah encourage to get in touch with the net zero cities project if you want to have concrete support like follow what they are doing um you are really also really welcome to get in touch with us if you are interested to um that we could facilitate any kind of more exchange on specific topics etc i am sure we will find uh cities that are happy to provide some input or also if you have if you have yourself like a challenge that you would like to share let's say with other cities in the region um yes so don't hesitate to get in touch with us you find our information on our website and i will also take the chance to already invite you to a next our next webinar our next ubc talks which is now it's not specifically on the on the on the eu missions but it's also in a relevant sustainability related topic it's about the localizing the sustainable development goals and preparing um vr like uh voluntary local review reports so in case it's not you dealing with these issues in your city um please forward this invitation also to your colleagues if somebody is interested in this and we would be happy to see you back here on the 29th of november in this format and as i said everything else um yeah don't hesitate to get in touch we can try to accommodate ideas and wishes and and um yeah everything you would like to share so one more time thank you very much for our panelists thank you anna. And then i wish you all a good day thank you very much bye