Towards Climate Neutralality in European Cities

Approximately three-quarters of the European population is urban. Cities are also responsible for a similar percentage of European global greenhouse gas emissions. The European Union recognized this with its numerous programs created to encourage cities to take the lead in climate mitigation initiatives.

Over one hundred cities have joined either the European Union's 2030 climate neutral, smart city program and/or ICLEI's climate neutral cities mission.  Munich, Zurich, and Paris are three of these cities. They aim to be climate leaders, developing policies and programs to sharply cut emissions while improving the quality of urban life and enhancing resilience against the effects of a changing climate.

Becoming carbon neutral is a complex task that requires an understanding of the wide variety of emission sources found in a city, the development of effective counter-measures, the establishment of priority areas for action, and the steps being taken to encourage public participation and acceptance. It also requires significant data regarding the main sources of pollution and the impacts policies are having on emission levels.

Munich, Zurich, and Paris are among Europe’s richest cities with excellent scientific and technological capacities. Climate change has been high on their policy agendas and they have attracted considerable international attention for their initiatives. How are these cities doing in their efforts to lower their carbon emissions and green their environments? All three have set ambitious carbon neutrality targets but are following different strategies with different priorities. How were decisions made about which projects to prioritize and where to invest limited budgets? Are the cities achieving not only emissions reductions but also doing so with climate justice considerations? Do they have sufficient emissions data and monitoring capacity?

This presentation will examine the goals, targets, policies and programs of these cities, with particular attention to how emissions observations and monitoring are feeding into the policy process and how universities and publics are engaged in bringing about change. This presentation draws on observations from the ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System) PAUL (Pilot Applications in Urban Landscapes) Horizon 2020 project and the interviews and fieldwork that was conducted in these and several other European cities. It will consider what can be learned from the project's findings for moving European cities forward in evidence-based, participatory  climate decision-making and show case some of the exciting projects being developed in these cities.