EU Missions & cross-cutting activities: 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030 Mission
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good afternoon everyone ladies and
gentlemen I would like to welcome you to
this info session on the climate neutral
and smart cities Mission work program
2024 my name is Philip RAR I’m working
for the European Commission in IND D
research Innovation and I will be
moderating this session today but
together with me I have a number of
colleagues that will be presenting the
different topics that we have in the
cities Mission work program and I will
start by introducing to you Patrick
Mercier on the side who is working in DJ
research innovation in the same
directorate as me in the clean Planet
directorate bonjour Patrick and Merc
pleas the next speaker will be uh
Michael klingenberg from DG environment
will be presenting to you today the uh
topic on zero zero pollution cities
thank you Michael for being here with us
today the next speaker will be p p from
DG move and P will present to you the
topic on behavioral change in Mobility
thank you for coming P thank you for you
to be here and last but not least I
would like to introduce Octavia stepan
from C agency will be presenting today
the topic on per urban areas so these
are the speakers that will be
participating in this session today and
we’ll be presenting the different topics
that we have in the work program for the
city’s Mission I should also mention
that we have a number of colleagues that
are connecting remotely and that will be
available for the session on question
and answers that we will have at the end
of this uh info session and I
particularly I would like to to welcome
oo ELO from DG n that will be there for
the questions that you may have on
topics that have of interest for for for
him and that he will be happy to answer
so as as I said this is an session that
means that we will present to you the
topics of the work program but the
success of an info day is also very much
linked to the participants that are
connecting to the info session and that
will ask questions so don’t be shy ask
questions there will be opportunities at
the end of this session for a long
session of question and answers you can
see already from the screen that there
is the QR code for you to connect the
hashtag is also presented on the on the
screen and you can already now put your
questions on slido and we will collect
them and we will answer them at the end
of the session but now I’d like to move
to the agenda of this session uh so the
welcome address I did then I will
present the update on the implementation
of the Cities mission to give you an
overview of what we do in the cities
Mission then we will go through the
different topics that I mentioned
already uh for for for this session that
will be presented on Urban spaces and
zero potion cities on management plans
and behavior change on per urban areas
and uh also I will come back after my
colleagues to present the specific topic
on supporting for supporting the
national regional and local authorities
to prepare the transition towards
climate
neutrality and uh I will also mention a
number of other actions that we have in
the work program for sake of
completeness these actions are not
subject for to call for proposals but I
think it is important also to mention
and present them to you in this info
session and
last but not least we will have the Q&A
session on slido plenty of time as you
can see from the
agenda but without much further Ado I
would like to move to the presentation
on the update of the implementation of
the Cities Mission and if I can have the
next
slide so the cities mission is one of
the five mission that were launched in
rizon Europe and they were officially
launched in
2021 and uh the objective of the Cities
mission is twofold first is to support
identify and support 100 cities in
Europe
which will become climate neutral by The
Horizon of 2030 that’s the first
objective of the Cities Mission and the
second objective of the mission is to
use these cities these pioneering cities
as experimental and Innovation hubs to
uh help the remaining cities in Europe
to become climate neutral by The Horizon
of 2050 thereby fulfilling our objective
of the green deal to have Europe as a
climate neutral continent by 2050 so
what we are asking the cities to do is
very simple we ask them actually to
prepare what we call The Climate City
contract which is a document that has
three components a commitment part where
the city authorities but also the
national authorities the regional
authorities public and private
stakeholders indicate their commitments
to reach climate neutrality by 2050
20130 sorry the action plan where
released by the different through in the
different sectors the level of ambition
for the reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions and then the last part which
is the investment strategy where you
list where the cities will list the
different projects that they have in
mind in order to implement their action
plan for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions in order to help cities
develop their climate City contract we
have put in place a mission platform
which is presently run by uh the NetZero
cities Consortium which provide
technical assistance and support to the
cities for developing their climate City
contracts but in addition to this
technical assistance the mission
platform are also the responsibility of
managing pilot projects and twinning
programs which uh allow a larger group
of cities larger number of cities to
benefit from the support that is
provided by the mission platform I
should say that the mission platform is
supported by Orizon Europe and initially
was launched through an horizon 2020
ground but in addition to the type of
support that we are providing to the
mission platform we have also a whole
portfolio of research Innovation
projects which are the result of calls
for proposals and topics that we have
launched in the previous work programs
and which will also be the projects that
will be supported as a result of the
calls that we will be presenting to you
once the cities develop their climate
City contracts they are sent to the
commission for review and when the
review is positive then we will award to
the cities what we call the mission
label and if I can have the next
slide so far where we
are we and it will come to you in the
next slide
hopefully is a lot of very happy people
as you can see from this slide uh we had
a number of sessions for awarding the
mission labels since since October last
year we have a first wave of 10 cities
that were awarded the mission labels I’m
not going to read out the name of those
cities you have them on the slide and
the second wave of cities that were
selected for the mission label were uh
number 23 and the the ceremony was
actually during the r days on the 21st
of March so the situation is that we
have 33 cities out of the 100 cities
that are in the European Union that have
already been awarded with the mission
label that have completed their climate
City contracts and we are in the process
of reviewing an additional wave of
climate City contracts but I will come
back to that later if I can have the
next slide please so what are we doing
now as I said we have a third wave and a
fourth wave of climate City contracts
that will coming up that will be coming
up for review presently we are in the
middle of evaluating the third wave of
climate City contracts about 20 cities
have submitted their climacity contracts
and we are in the process of going
through the different components of the
Climate City contract but what you can
see is that at the end of the year very
likely all the cities or most of the
cities that are participating in the
mission the 112 City because we have 12
cities that are also coming uh that are
part of the mission that are located in
countries Associated to the framework
program we have submitted the their
climate City contracts for review by the
commission so now we are moving into a
situation where while in the past we
were providing support and technical
assistance to the cities to develop
their climate City contract into into a
situation where we will now support the
cities in implementing their climate
City contracts and particularly the
investment plan and for that purpose we
will put into place and we have put
already into place in some uh ways a
number of specific support that are
related to the investment plan and the
implementation of the investment plan
particularly Net Zero cities has now
created a group of City Finance
Specialists which will help cities
develop their uh investment plan we will
launch also a number of additional
Financial advisory services that will be
managed by the European Investment Bank
to support the cities in developing the
maturity of the projects that we have in
the investment plans and also in June we
will uh launch what we call the cities
Mission Capital Hub which will provide
dedicated technical assistance in the
financial SE for the for financial
advisory services to the cities in order
to again increase maturity of the
projects that they have identified in
their climate City contract if I can
have the next slide please just to
illustrate a little bit what the capital
Hub will be doing it’s really there to
provide support to the cities in helping
the maturity of the projects that they
have identified in their investment plan
to identify the best investment
Solutions and identify the PO the
potential investors that will be able to
provide the necessary resources for the
deployment of the solutions that the
cities have identified in their climate
City
contract next slide
please so as I said uh previously the
mission platform has a number of
activities beside the technical
assistance that they are providing to
the cities namely a pilot City program
you can see from this slide that a
number of calls for Pilots actions were
already launched in the past we have the
last call that was launched earlier on
this year that will be closing or at
least the results will be announced in
May 2024 and you can see that most of
the cities that are participating in the
city’s Mission have actually benefited
directly or indirectly from this pilot
program in addition to the pilot City
program we have a twinning program where
we invite uh cities that are not among
the 100 cities to participate and
benefit from the experience and the the
work that is being done in the cities of
the mission so that they can in turn uh
develop their strategy for climate
neutrality so there will be a number of
calls that will be for twinning
activities one of them is already open
and will close at the end of May which
is the second cour call and the third
one will be open at the end of
2024 next slide
please yeah I think I se I should
mention of also other activities that
are implemented by the the mission
platform I mentioned here on this Slide
the summer in Winter schools there was a
spring schools that was also organized a
couple of days ago in Stockholm these
schools are an opportunity for cities
practitioners
and uh local authorities to benefit from
the experience that other cities have
developed in the number of domain and
benefit from the technical assistance
that is provided by the mission platform
I should also mention the the portal of
the mission platform which provides a
lot of information to cities on uh the
the solutions that can be deployed on
the ground in their cities to help them
improve or reduce their emission of
greenhouse gas emission and in
particular there are more than 200
solution fact sheets that are available
to everyone in this participant portal
so I really invite you to have a look
and register in the portal next slide
please which I believe is my last slide
indeed for this introductory uh
presentation I should mention that in
Valencia on the 25th and the 26th of
June we will have the annual conference
of the Cities Mission the registration
is open so I invite you to go to the
website and register you will see that
these two days in Valencia will be an
opportunity for the mission the city
that are participating in the mission
the the the commission and the mission
platform to explain and present to you
the the the the magnitude of support
that is provided and is available for
cities and I think that’s all I wanted
to say as a way of introduction to
present to you where we are as regard
the implementation of the Cities Mission
and now I would like to move to the
description of the presentation of the
different topics that we have in the
work program 2024 and I will start with
the presentation from Patrick on Urban
spaces Patrick the floor is yours thank
you very much Philip and a good
afternoon to you all so I will present
in this first topic on reinking Urban
spaces towards climate neutrality and to
start with I would like to give you a
first background of this topic way it
has been written as you know European
cities are overly populated and dense on
the scarcity of urban public spaces
require smart Urban Design planning
management but also different activities
related to the other sectors and service
as you know as well European cities
account for over 70% of global CO2
emissions most of which come from
motorized transport system and also
energy and eting systems in addition
cities are encountering important health
impact in cities due to bad air quality
in one side and also
noise so as we have seen during the
covid-19 crisis there is a clear need
for relocation of the urban space in
cities to more sustainable mobility and
energy generation on use the aim of this
topic is really to go for pilot
demonstration in new cities tackling
these different
challenging with regard to the type of
action in fact we are looking for
Innovation action so this means that we
would like to have demonstration pilot
in the different cities to implement
this topic the total budget from the
commission side is 45 million euro in
total and the idea is to have three
project in the order of magnitude of1 15
million euro the opening of the call
will be 7 20th of September this year
and we close on the 16th of January 25
and as a specific condition the idea is
to have a collaboration with the TT
Mission platform that was mentioned by
Philip through a memorandum of
understanding next slide
please without the expected outcomes so
the first expected outcome is to develop
an implementation of solutions for a
smart uran public space design
revitalization physical infrastructure
planning also management across
different areas related to transport and
energy system so this topic is
recovering both energy and
transport then to have a mobility and
energy solutions that respond to
people’s and cities needs co-designed
tested and implemented in cities to
achieve climate neutrality by
2030 then to improve uh Public Health
with better local air quality and
increase
liability uh then to improve Urban
public space connectivity and the
accessibility of urban District neor
roots in the rural districts to have
more efficient and fair use of urban
space through Dynamic curbside
management to have a better use of
vehicles proing M but also reduce
parking needs on integration of of
Street space use also to have a smart
energy and or Transport Services
Management in City thanks to new ideas
on digitization on consumer awareness
related to Smart charging on energy
demand response to improve the planning
of green infrastructure or green zones
and finally or better preparedness of
citizens and urban planners to shift
toward renewable energy to allow
electrifying
Mobility next slide
please so with regard to the scope the
idea is really to have a pilot
demonstration in at least three cities
what we call lead cities on at least
three replication cities uh uh which on
including at least one city from the 112
cities which are from the cities Mission
and the idea that we have one of each
cities mission for both the lead cities
and the follower cities so proposal
should address two area of intervention
that I will describe now the first one
is on relocation of space and redesign
of
infrastructure on there we have two
parts one related to Mobility .1 to4 and
another part related to energy area 5
to8 stting bar Mobility
the first aim is to develop integrated
transport on urban planning tools and
methods forain Mobility Services and
design of future public Realms which are
linked to the so-called sustainable
Urban mity plan
SS with regard to electromobility the
idea is to Foster research result from
Pilot project on reallocation of use of
Transport infrastructure or use of
single infrastructure to diverse type of
vehicles amenities and vehicles and also
to have research solution for the
exploitation of of Legacy infrastructure
scaling up of sustainable Mobility
Services followed by project and
demonstration activities and finally uh
it is very important to have the
involvement of service providers and
infrastructure managers in the urban
space ecosystem to design or to go for
this pilot activities next slide please
so I moved to to the energy sector so
there the idea is to support pilot
project for Road space allocation on
Smart distributed energy generation on
Green City zones on green INF structures
also to develop research opportunities
for exploiting current infrastructures
complemented by additional elements to
facilitate locally jgy communities
virtual power plants and energy sharing
and this should also include thermal and
electricity grids and
storage also to have integrated approach
for Designing and decarbonizing eating
and cooling networks in cities and urban
areas and finally to explore the ways of
using optimizing and green and blue
infrastructures to city and
scale Now we move to the second thematic
area which is related to Dynamic
curbside Management on use so the idea
there is to develop tools and guidelines
reling from test and pileup for curbside
management or flexible allocation of
curbside functions for example pickup
and drop up zones for passenger on Fret
transport or dedicated public transport
Lanes they also to develop new models of
fee calculation on financial model for
the use of public space in cities in
view of reaching public policy goals
including climate
neutrality thank
you thank you very much Patrick for the
presentation on this topic and I would
like to give the floor to Michael who
will be presenting the topic on zero
pollution cities Michael the floor is
yours thank you um yes so on zero
pollution cities uh what we’re looking
at actually is a research and Innovation
action um with um an indicative budget
of about 20 million and an expected EU
contribution per project then of about 5
million so four projects roundabout um
on the timeline we’re similar to what we
have just heard so um the opening would
be mid-september and the deadline mid
January um what you might want to keep
in mind on these specific conditions is
that proposals are required to address
at least two areas listed um in the
scope so with that we can dive into the
content on the next slides um so on the
expected outcomes uh what we would like
to see there are first of all methods
for more precisely assessing the
exposure to air water soil and or noise
pollution Health impacts and public
information at Regional and or local
level but also methods for be better
assessing specifically exposure of
vulnerable groups and these can include
uh those groups groups of people who are
vulnerable to pollution more due to the
socioeconomic context in which um they
live but not only of course um and this
again um to the different types of
pollution I’ve cited before and again at
Regional and or local level enabling
then more precise evidence to inform
health impact
assessments what we would also like to
see is uh more improved and a more
comparable um assess assment of
mortality and morbidity impacts um so
morbidity of course um referring to
illnesses um caused by pollution of air
water soil and or noise pollution again
at Regional and or local level um and
here the little footnote that you see
and that might look a little bit small
um is I think important because this
should take account of non exposure
concentration response functions meaning
um the science that is already there and
um the knowledge that is already
are there to assess these impacts in
terms of these um exposure concentration
response functions so not to reinvent
the wheel
basically another um expected outcome um
that we have is an improved
understanding of the role of Behavioral
economics of psychology and of
organizational behavior to design
measures oriented to lower pollution in
urban environments so specifically um
the role of these um well these
approaches as opposed to uh yeah
strictly technical
approaches and also um an improved
understanding of the correlation between
improving the Environmental Quality of
urban spaces of and urban uh on human
health and
well-being and uh then also in terms of
methods uh we would like to see methods
for uh determining the sources of air
pollutants at the urban level so that
local authorities stakeholders and
citizens then actually know uh better
the proportion of the pollutant
emissions attributable to Urban
transport to Heating and um also to
other sources so there’s an etcetra
there so it can also be other relevant
sources depending on the context of
course and then finally um in terms of
expected outcomes a comparative analysis
of selected successful pollution
reduction and abatement strategies at
local level identifying key factors
underlying such successes and their
replication potential in other places so
those are the um expected outcomes and
uh we can then look at the scope um and
I’ve mentioned it before um here the
importance is to cover at least two um
of uh the following that I will uh talk
about um and the first one of them is um
improved health impact assessments uh to
highlight and attempt to monetize
actually the co- benefits um and
benefits um and socio economic impact
effects of zero pollution measures in
combination with climate neutrality
policies and contributing to better ex
an um cost benefit analysis and
increasing public acceptance of
measures secondly uh we’re looking at
measurement and modeling methods for
more precisely assessing exposure and
risk-based health impacts at again
Regional and or local level and this
should actually also deliver results
that can be communicated to The Wider
public um thirdly we have um in the
scope more precise evidence on exposure
notably of vulnerable population groups
and making health impact assessments um
easily comparable and then finally um on
the first four exploration of the
effectiveness of dynamic abatement
strategies by monitoring changes in
pollution levels complemented by citizen
science and
observations and then on top of that we
have mandatory for all projects um that
would see um development of methods and
tools for Swift deployment and use by
cities which once implemented should
help policy makers prioritize their
actions and address social aspects as
well and secondly mandatory for all
projects is supporting implementation of
zero pollution policies by overcoming
barriers to behavioral change so that
would mean um also exploring new
approaches to support zero pollution
policies in terms of Behavioral
communication and organizational
aspects yeah and that would be it from
my side thank you thank you very much
Michael uh before I give the floor to P
I would like to remind you that you have
the opportunity to ask your questions on
slido we are receiving a number of
questions already that’s very good uh if
you have any questions related to the uh
topics that were presented to you or to
my introduction do not hesit please post
your slido your questions on slido I
should say that there is always a little
bit of competition between missions so I
would like that at the end of this info
session we have more questions than the
other missions and certainly more
participants as well so if you are at
work please ask your colleagues next
door to connect and if you are at home
you can ask also your old mother to
connect and listen to us now I’d like to
give the floor to Pi who will be
presenting to you the mobility
management plans and behavioral change
topic P the is yours thank you very much
Philip um I continue with what my
colleague previously already mentioned
um the behavioral change which we see is
crucial um for the uptake of Mobility
management plans or in general not only
to shift towards lower emission Mobility
um and transport but this won’t happen
if the behavior and the thinking is not
changing so this is why we proposed this
topic on Mobility management plans and
behavioral change it will be a
coordination and support action with 5
million and the same deadlines as
presented by my colleagues before and we
have a specific condition we would
really like to see at least four cities
from four different countries in the
Consortium um and two of those cities
should be among the selected
112 from the mission on climate neutral
and smart
cities um coming to the expected
outcome um why why are we doing this um
so first we want to have a better
understanding of Mobility schemes
condition um and the users’s motivation
in implementing them using them and what
actually leads to the uptake of such
schemes so
um because this enhanced societal uptake
is um then also
always targeted to relevant uh groups
um to ensure this shift to um from low
to zero
emissions um Mobility like public
transport but also active Mobility what
has several co- benefits for for health
as well and to ensure this broader
acceptance and uptake as well of
bidirectional char bidirectional
charging of electric vehicles we do
think this is very important um not to
only uh speak about mobility in an
isolated case um but also link it with
the energy um if you have an electric
vehicle and you need to charge it within
a city uh you also need of course the
infrastructure and it should be used um
as well this is why we linked it to the
energy sector
here so at the end we also would like to
see um recommendations for national and
local authorities and what can actually
be taken up and where do you see the
barriers
um so basically the mobility management
concept we want to see is really this
promoting and shifting behavior and what
do we know what is out there um and how
can we increase it that is uh very
important especially when we speak from
uh single o occupancy car use that we
have now a lot in cities to that shift
towards
multiple um occupancies car use or
public transport so if we could move to
the scope um how do we do this uh there
are of course already projects on
Mobility management and plans and also
cities doing that or uh entities like
companies
hospitals but what we would be very
interested is to take stock of what is
there um and that an analysis and or
summary is being done um and we would
like to see what really works um and
what is actually the barrier that
hinders the uptake and wide roll out so
that we really see um a tremendous
shift for this I also invite you to
check uh the CV test website they have a
very good um overview of Mobility
management projects that had been funded
in the
past
um and then we um really encourage also
that uh codesign with uh
organizations
um can be uh will be done to develop
these and assess these Behavior
related um Behavior related solutions
for the different Target groups what do
you mean with different Target groups it
can be different age groups it can be
different um people working in Shi
shifts working um at rush hours
families um women traveling alone and
how do you really get to these different
Target groups in implementing
Sustainable
Solutions again linked to this we also
want to establish incentives to promote
um renewable based e-mobility schemes
notably uh the smart and bidirectional
charging in cities and propose
recommendations to support and
incentivize these uptakes as I already
said um what we would also like um or
what we think is important is also to
encourage new Mobility behaviors by
means of marketing information awareness
raising campaigns basically to spread
those best behaviors and make it uh
available to everyone um and with this
I’m I’m done and give over to my to the
moderator thank you
uh I realize that we are actually a
little bit ahead of schedule so for the
first time in my life as moderator I
will be able to turn to the last speaker
and says take the time you need Octavia
the floor is yours thank you thank you
very much Philip uh good afternoon
everybody I will be introducing and
presenting the topic that is linked with
integrated per urban areas in the
transition towards climate
neutrality this is an innovation action
uh that indicative budget you can see 28
million euro we expect to fund about
three projects each of around 9 million
euro then you have the dates that are
the same as the previous topics for
opening and deadline to submit your
proposal and a specific condition as in
the case of the previous topics to have
collaborations with the city’s Mission
platform uh established through a
memorandum of understanding
some words about uh um the the purpose
of having this topic um of course City’s
mission is focusing on uh on cities and
on urban areas however we realize that
the majority of the problems perhaps
also come from this area that is has a
more undefined and and less clarified um
uh um Urban uh characteristics which are
the periurban so these areas that lie
between uh uh urban and
rural so there are many many challenges
there um and that’s why also the topic
is quite long and has uh a number of
areas that are
presented and it’s perhaps it will be uh
um not very easy to
to address um all the aspects that are
there and that are
requested realizing the complexity the
topic uh requires and the proposals to
focus on two of the following
domains so the expected outcomes what
first first one is mobility increased
accessibility where the the expected
outcome is to increase the accessibility
and connectivity of periurban areas by
providing inclusive inclusive suitable
and affordable
Alternatives uh also the expected
outcome in Mobility is to improve uh per
Urban uh Network performance to improve
transport inclusivity and
safety and to uh um overall try to have
this integration of land use and
transport planning so to to develop this
land use and transport planning models
and
policies with regards to
energy uh the purpose is to um or the
aim is to have improved and decarbonized
energy
grids uh business models and Technology
Solutions and or guidance for setting up
local energy
communities also the expected outcome is
to have business models and or guidance
for energy uh generation with a specific
uh focus on renewable energy
sources with regards to Industry uh the
the the main expected outcome is to
reduce uh uh greenhouse gas
emissions uh and increase the deployment
of strategies uh of strategic clean
Technologies improved Energy Efficiency
in industrial
processes enhance uh recycling in
industrial processes and
materials um and uh uh reinforce overall
the green transition of
Industry as much as possible to public
and private Partnerships name it the
local green deals and the last area that
you could choose to cover yeah in in
your proposal refers to governance and
here we we talk about um trying to build
capacity to support the development of
planning and implementation skills uh to
support overall a better integration uh
of per urban areas into the current
spatial land use and transport
planning if we continue with the uh next
slide for the scope uh again here the
text is uh is quite long but if we look
at the the main aspects so uh the topic
aims to Foster the integration of green
and smart Mobility energy industry and
governance
Solutions and measures within the
current periurban development and
planning practice in order to reduce
these areas greenhouse gas emissions and
to improve their
livability also propos proposal should
explore particular characteristics of
periurban areas that are distinct from
rural and urban ones and analy relevant
Urban rural
Dynamics uh such as continuous and
frequent land use and functional changes
poor and inaccessible transport
infrastructure scattered and unevenly
distributed services and
amenities proposals should also explore
models of Urban periurban Development
and planning containing um the above
mentioned the previous mentioned
Dynamics um in Brackets you have some
examples that are already existent of
these
models uh um and then uh these are aimed
at overcoming sustainability
decarbonization and local climate
challenges of the urban rural Fringe and
of course all this should be done
ensuring that there is co-creation
uh with all the relevant stakeholders
and that all the relevant stakeholders
are engaged uh in this um in these
processes and in this uh in the
development of uh of um yeah and the
integration of uh of all these
elements and this concludes the topic
four of
um of this goal thank you Octavia you
could have taken more time but that’s
okay you are
forgiven I was looking actually on my
phone at the questions that have been uh
we have received so far on slido there
is something like 10 10 questions so I
think you can do more and you can do
better and we want you to ask questions
more questions if you can so again the
link to the the slido site is available
on the screen uh if you find also that
there are questions that are already
been posted that
uh are questions that you would like to
uh to ask you you can vote on uh those
questions and we will take them by order
of
popularity now I’d like to say a few
words about uh another topic that we
have in the work program 2024 which has
actually a different timeline than the
other topics that we presented to you uh
the this topic is about the support of
national regional and local authorities
to prepare for the transition towards
climate neutrality within cities so this
is actually a topic that uh is follow-up
action of an initiative that we launched
in the previous work programs of horizon
Europe and the rational for this uh act
this action is very
simple uh in the cities Mission we
target particularly the cities the
cities that are part of the mission the
one2 cities that I mentioned but we
realize of course that uh the uh
strategy that those cities will develop
for reducing their emission of
greenhouse gases and the magnitude of
the investment that is required uh
cannot be borne exclusively on the on
the cities themselves it’s very
important to have uh as well a
commitment from Regional and National
authorities and what we wanted to do
from the start was have to have a close
involvement and commitment from the
regional and the national uh layers of
governance in the followup and the
support of the Cities mission
uh one of the aspect that we wanted to
to develop in particular was for the
member states and the associated
countries that are part of the Cities
mission to develop a national network of
cities that are participating in the
mission and to do uh to have a network
that actually goes beyond the cities
that are participating directly in the
mission but to also involve additional
cities that are interested in this
process and that will benefit from the
uh support uh and the uh work that will
be done or that is being done by the
cities of the mission so as I said it is
a follow-up action uh we have supported
a first phase of this uh this project uh
in Horizon Europe which was called
capacities and what we would like to do
through this call is to provide some
follow-up actions to uh broaden up the
scope of uh the the the the activities
that were carried out and implemented by
capacities so what we have here is a
coordination and support action with a
budget of 3 million and we expect to
select only one project uh from this uh
from this topic as I said the deadlines
are a little bit different than those
that you have heard from my colleagues
presenting before their topics we want
actually to open this uh Topic in uh May
on the 16th of May and it will close in
September and the reason why we have a
different deadline is that we want to
ensure continuity of the activities that
have been already uh carried out by the
capacities
project uh so like with the other uh
actions there is a link to the mission
platform and the reason why we want to
ensure that all the projects that we are
supporting in the city’s Mission have
this mou is the mission platform is
because the mission platform is really
the Hub where we want to concentrate all
the information all the results that are
being produced in the the projects that
we are funding in in the cities Mission
work program so that uh this information
these Solutions these good practices can
be shared with not only the cities that
are participating in the mission but all
the other cities that are interesting in
reducing their emission of greenhouse
gas the expected outcome that we for see
from this action is uh very simple is
first of all to have an increased
preparedness and capacity of national
regional and local authorities in both
member states and countries Associated
to the Horizon Europe framework program
to engage in City’s transition towards
climate neutrality we want to take the
uh opportunity of this action to
identify actually the challenges and the
barriers that cities may have in order
to roll out and Implement their strategy
for climate neutrality and to identify
the solutions that can be put in place
at National level Regional level in
order to uh remedy and address these
barriers in a coherent way uh what we
want to do also from uh this this action
is to make sure that we can develop more
synergies with existing National and
international
communities uh actions and programs so
that we can uh increase the impact of uh
what we do in the city’s Mission and
here you have an explicit reference to
some initiatives that we are also
managing in Horizon Europe namely the
driving Urban transition
partnership so as for the scope of the
action the the idea really is to support
the setup of national networks in
countries where such networks do not
exist we have made an analysis of uh the
situation we are in in Europe for the
cities Mission we have something like 14
to 15 National networks that have
already been established in member
states and Associated countries these
networks include of course the cities
that are part of the mission but as I
said before they include a larger number
of cities and that’s the whole added
value of these National networks to have
uh to to to to increase the the the
scope and impact of the city’s Mission
so we would like not only to set up
networks when there are no networks but
we want to reinforce also the capacities
of the existing networks through this
action we want to strengthen the
capacities and the competence of the the
the these networks by engaging really
all the relevant institutional players
with with responsibilities in City
relevant affairs we want to mobilize and
support a large number of urban relevant
authorities across the different
Ministries and implementing agencies we
want to support capacities building of
local authorities and multi-level
governance structure to for the
transition to climate
neutrality and as I said uh in the the
expected impact one of the activity of
this action will be to really identify
the specific challenges and the
opportunities and the best practices to
make policy and Regulatory Frameworks
that are compatible with the objective
of the Cities
Mission next slide please so that was a
presentation of this topic which has as
I said a different timeline than the
others and now I would like to say a few
words about other actions actions that
are not subject to call for proposals as
I said in my
introduction uh it might be a little bit
OD to present those actions because they
are not open to call for proposals uh
but I think for sake of completeness it
is important for us to give you the
whole picture of the type of activities
that we are supporting in the city’s
Mission work program and I will start
with uh the action that we uh have uh
together with the JC The Joint Research
Center uh which is supporting us in the
uh review of The Climate City contract
and that is uh something which we find
very important because the action plan
uh is a very complex document that
requires a lot of technical expertise
and scientific expertise and we have
with the JC the perfect partner that can
team up with us in the review of these
uh these Climate City contracts but the
JC is also very much involved in the
monitoring of uh the the the cities
Mission and the type of information that
can be expected from from the cities to
monitor the progress and uh of of their
the implementation of their their
strategy it is also very much involved
in methodological development for
instance uh addressing the three
emission which is something which is not
directly linked to what we would like to
do in the Ci’s Mission what we want to
do in the city’s mission is address
preferentially and preferentially indeed
scope one and scope two uh but we would
eventually like to have cities
addressing scope three and uh the JC
works on methodological development that
will allow cities to take on board these
scope three missions in their strategy
and then there are a number of other
initiatives and activities that the
Jersy will be responsible for in
particular developing a self assessment
tool that will be used by cities that
are not part of the mission in order to
test their capacity or their level of
Readiness uh with respect to the
objective of the mission so the budget
that we have for this action is of 2
million and it’s uh it will be
translated into an administrative
agreement between the jersey and the
commission next slide
please so something also which is very
important that is is not subject to an
open call for proposal is our support to
the aband transition mission of mission
Innovation Mission Innovation is a
global
initiative uh that uh has a number of
activities in uh particularly in uh
renewable clean energy and renewable
energy and we have a dedicated mission
in Mission Innovation that uh supports
the urban transitions of cities across
the globe we have a number of co-leaders
uh managing this uh Urban transition
mission
and the commission is one of them but we
have also as Co leads in the urban
transation Mission the global Covenant
of Mayor and GPI Urban Europe and the
objective of this mission is really uh
linked to what we do in Europe but it’s
to some extent the external the
international Outreach of what we do in
Europe with the cities Mission uh so
that we can share the information share
the experience share the knowledge that
we develop in Europe in the cities that
are participating in the mission to a
global Arena
and make sure that other cities across
the globe can benefit from the the work
that is done by the European cities
Mission there is a number of activities
that are being performed by the
transition Mission at the moment as we
speak there is about 100 cities that are
involved across the globe in the urban
transition Mission and we feel that it’s
very important to support this
initiative so that we can also share the
the the the the the the experience that
we have in Europe as regard reducing
green greous gas emissions the the
budget that we are allocating to this
action is of 1 million next slide
please I mentioned uh quite a lot in uh
the overview presentation of the city’s
Mission the financial advisory
Services uh we are uh topping up uh the
services that are provided by the
European Investment Bank to uh to cities
in order to make sure that uh the the
bank will be able to provide some uh
dedicated support to cities in helping
develop uh mature projects that will be
bankable and will be able to find
investors and uh in that context we have
a budget of typically 19 million that we
are going to transfer to uh to the EI to
uh help them develop uh dedicated
support to the cities Mission and uh
cities that are interested in reducing
their emission of greenhouse gas the
second activity that is also of the
responsibility of the eiib is their
involvement and their contribution to
the review of The Climate City contracts
similarly to what the jrc is doing with
the action plan theb is contributing to
the review of the investment plan and
provides a lot of feedback to uh to the
cities when uh reviewing their uh their
investment plan and uh this is something
that is really part of the review
process
and which we are happy to support with
an additional 1
million next slide
please uh this is something that I’m
very happy to present which is this
brokerage event that will be organized
by the NCP Network for the for the
missions uh this is an event that is
taking place on the 21st and the 22nd of
May this event will focus on all
missions and all the calls that have
been launched by the five missions you
can see their list and of course the 100
climate neutral and smart cities mission
is included in that list of uh
activities that will be covered by The
Brokerage event the registration is
available on this uh slide and uh you
can register till the 17th of May to
this event so I really invite you to
participate to this brokerage event
because this is an opportunity again to
know more and to learn more about what
we are doing in the missions and to get
more information on particular
particular particularly on the topics
that have been presented to you today
and uh that uh will also be the the
subject of the the attention of this
brokerage event and I believe there is
probably another slide if I’m not
mistaken yes the slide there is to
really say that we have closed our
presentation to the different topics and
we would like to move to the second part
of uh this session which is the Q&A uh
on slido so I invite you to connect to
slido and put your questions when you
connect to slido you have to to use the
right hashtag which is indicated on this
slide and you have to refer to the
channel for the climate neutr smart
cities uh Mission and then you have the
different top possibilities there to
enter your questions if you have
specific questions on a specific topic I
really invite you to indicate in your
question the topic number so that we can
direct that question direct to the
person that has been presenting the
topic today
so I’m looking at the uh slido screen
and as I said we are going to take the
questions in order of
popularity uh and the first question
that we have is I’m going to read it out
are the topics open to all city is there
a restriction to the 12 C selected for
the U Mission in climate neutral paties
question mark That’s a wrong question
and I have the vague feeling that I’m
the one going to answer that question so
um there is no restriction so that’s the
simple answer to that what we have in
the cities Mission work program is a
program that is really there to support
cities that commit to the objective of
the mission and that is something that
we spell out very clearly in the
introduction of the work program we are
happy to have cities participating in
any of the activities that we have
presenting to you today even if they are
not part of the 112 cities of the
mission cities of the Cities Mission
sorry and uh
that as long as the cities that will be
participating in those actions commit to
the objective of the missions and the
objective of the mission are those that
I mentioned to you either to be climate
neutral by 2030 which is really those
112 cities that are part of the mission
or commit to the objective of climate
neutrality by 2050 and there I would say
all cities are eligible because this is
our objective in the green deal to have
Europe as a continent climate to told by
2050 so basically if you are a city and
you commit to one or two or the first
one or the second one of the objective
of the mission you are eligible so there
is no restriction to uh to the calls
that we have to the 112 cities that are
directly participating in the mission
all the other cities are
eligible uh as long as they subscribe to
the objective of the mission and in some
condition we have in some calls specific
conditions and maybe my colleagues may
be able also to comment on that
where we say that for instance we have
we need to have so many cities coming
from the from from the mission and the
reason for that is not that we want to
restrict the call to only those cities
that are participating in the in the
mission but we want to take advantage of
the fact that those cities are um are
really in the front uh Front Runners are
in the lead and they have already a lot
of experience and know how that they can
share to a uh to other cities so that’s
the reason why we in these calls usually
specify that we would like to see so
many cities coming from the mission
participating in the Consortium but it’s
not an exclusivity condition other
cities are welcome so I hope that uh I
answered that question convincingly at
least then if we look at the other
questions that we have on slido the next
one is uh Target
at Octavia I’m afraid where you will
have to explain what the definition of
periurban is yeah so I guess this uh per
Urban it’s indeed a um intriguing and
challenging topic so in the in the topic
understanding we refer to Regions that
lie at lie at the outskirts of the of
the urban area where urban and rural uh
meet yeah there are generally zones
characterized of a mixture of
functions and of uh let’s say an
agglomeration not in a very organized
way of of different activities you
should not think necessarily at um
entities that have a certain um um
um um administrative yeah or or a
geographical limit but these are
territories where you should think at
the function at the at the at the
functional part
then um so is this interface between
rural and urban uh these are areas that
are often h under high pressure from the
from the urban core where there is this
uh uh uncontrolled and uneven Urban
expansion where you also have in terms
of demographics a mixture of populations
there can be residents that are there
for a long time accustom to a certain
way of living that is more rural and
then you have some um um let’s say uh
new duelers that are coming from an
urban
environment um there is also in terms of
Transport there are many challenges
where you have all kinds of
infrastructured scattered over a large
territory so um I will not insist more
than this I hope this clarifies if not
please uh address also your question via
the funding and tender portal I just
want to emphasize that there is a kind
of a um way to explain what what kind of
uh um um perban we are looking into if
you look at the scope of the of the
topic in the first paragraph following
the scope you have a brief presentation
of what we understand by periurban in in
this specific topic thank you very much
octav maybe Arrow would like to complete
I don’t know because he’s also um
involved uh he’s online and he’s
involved in this topico do you want to
add
anything I think you covered it very
well so I don’t have anything specific
to add on at this
point I just wanted to hear the sound of
your voice that’s
all and the the connection works that’s
good uh so thank you very much for
responding to that question you
mentioned something which is indeed very
important the participant portal yes so
the questions that we have
that we receed today we will try to
answer them all it may be that in some
cases because the question is very
technical and very very very precise we
may not be able to answer that question
on the spot in any case we will take the
questions all the questions and we will
eventually post the answers to these
questions on the participant portal in
the uh area where the the the the topics
are are being described so I’d like to
move to the next question and that is a
question that will be put to Patrick the
question is the following should the
proposal address all challenges in both
energy and Mobility that’s the question
when addressing energy or Mobility
challenges can we mix both categories or
do we need to stick to all four energy
and all four Mobility challenges that’s
a good question yes I hope you have a
good answer to that of course excellent
I hope it will be very clear to all of
you thank you for the question in fact
in this topic we have two main areas of
interventions one really related to
relocation of urban space and redesign
of infrastructure which both cover
energy and mobility and there is a
second era intervention related to
Dynamic curite management which is
mostly focusing on Mobility so as I
mentioned previously both areas should
be covered but having said that in the
first area of intervention as you
mentioned there are eight total research
actions four for mobility and four for
energy and uh either the one ready to
Mobility or energy should be covered so
it’s either the mobility ones or the
energy one which will be covered uh and
you should cover also the other one on
curb side management having said that in
particular in the mobility area a lot of
related activities uh are related also
to energy when we speak about for
example electromobility so I hope I
answer to your answer thank you I don’t
know if you want to add anything EO from
your side as we wrote the topic all
together yes indeed I think you the
point you made at at the end was very
relevant the energy and Mobility Parts
some of them are totally connected to
each other so it’s a little bit
artificial actually even to to separate
them so I I believe that there the um
the key point is indeed that you cover
four areas and uh and then in reality
they will be mixing uh easily
um or go going across the energy versus
Mobility
border very good thank you thank you to
both of you now the next question that
we have in the list is uh on the topic
on zero emission zero pollution cities
so I will ask Michael to answer that
question then the question is the
following are the domains air Soil and
Water all required or is it possible to
focus on one domain what is your answer
to that well maybe a slightly linguistic
one um but if we look at the expected
outcomes for instance what is listed if
you have the list of the different um
types of pollution what it says is
airwater soil and slash or um noise
pollution um so in that sense it’s an
and or um that being said what might be
useful in your reflection is to think
how you can add most value with what you
do so what kind of proposal if you look
at the outcomes and the scope would add
most value also in in this sense but
it’s an and or in in the
text thank you Michael and then we have
another question which is a little bit
more General and which can apply I
suppose to all the topics that were
presented to you today and the question
is the following who are you expecting
the applications to come from within the
cities city councils government systems
universities and research organizations
maybe I can take that question and I
will invite my colleagues to
compliment uh
well everyone uh to some extent depends
very much on the type of of the topic
that we are talking about uh but it goes
without saying that when we are
referring to uh the participation of
cities we have in mind City authorities
which could be City councils or
governments local governments local
authorities uh and of course it goes
without saying particularly for those
topics that have a specific research and
Innovation dimension like the the r or
the integration integrated actions
Innovation actions sorry to to to some
extent as well universities and research
organizations uh should be considered as
part of the Consortium so I I think it
depends very much on the the the the
content of your proposal uh but for me
it goes without saying that all those
entities are should be welcome and
participate in in the projects that are
going to be prepared uh to to respond to
the call that uh that we have in the
work program I don’t know if anyone
wants to add anything to that Patrick
just a about specifities for the topic
on Urban Space Management maybe uh it
will be important of course to have City
Authority involved but also to have also
service providers so from the industry
as well but also infrastructure
management as we are re using the
infrastructure for different use it
would be very important to have all
these entities involved in the Pro
proposal thank you and then maybe also
for topic four yes uh and I guess this
is also applies in your case in fact in
many cases these topics uh intend to
establish these local Partnerships
between different local stakeholders
that are relevant for the specific topic
and to kind of learn them how they can
better cooperate sure and to to yeah to
engage towards different solutions and
to implement together these Solutions so
yeah city councils of course should be
in the lead and so on but then this
definitely has to be complemented by all
the others that are there because it
doesn’t make it possible and sometime
citizens as well which can be involved
in the different applications
yeah thank
you next question will be addressed to
Michael you’re very
popular and there is a question I’m
going to put to you and I’m not sure I
understand the question myself so happy
to give it to you question is is Source
appointment emphasized brackets versus
expected outcomes methods for
determining the source of air pollutants
and at Urban
level yeah I you understand the question
I hope I do um I was looking at it
before um I I hope it’s what I think
which would be uh a question on the
terminology um and if it’s what we’re
saying there in terms of the methods for
determining sources refers to the term
Source apportionment which is one that
is used for instance in the
in the context of air quality so
determining the sources means Source
apportionment so in that sense the the
term Source proportion is what what is
meant there if that is the question so I
hope that helps thank you thank you now
a question to Octavia to what level need
each of the four requirements be
addressed are to do with all cities with
that budget can expect be done by only
one city or in a project
so first uh maybe I was not sufficiently
clear when I presented the topic um that
from from the first page it is clearly
written that only two of the areas that
are listed which are four should be
addressed by a proposal so this means
you can choose for mobility and um a
governance or you can choose for
industry and governance or for mobility
and energy it’s up to you to decide
which one depending on the uh on the
topic that you want to to cover best
then um the topic also mentions that um
at least three cities it is here at
least three uh lead Urban per urban
areas and at least three replicator per
urban
areas uh if we consider only two of the
domains um then it is clear clearly
written that three lead cities and or
periurban and three uh replicator cities
so um hard to do with all the cities so
I’m I’m guessing that if only with two
uh domains it would be possible to to
cover uh uh three cities or per urban
areas uh can aspects be done by only one
city in a
project well the topic is clear three so
I don’t know if it is uh any potential
way of negotiating
there is no negotiation you you should
know being from the
agency very no negotiation yeah and
actually the next question thank you
very much uh the next question I will
sneakily give it to you as well uh which
is about the the uh because the question
is whether or not I mean so as I said in
uh at some stage in the the presentation
we want all the projects that we are
going to support in the different topics
that we have under the cities Mission
work program to uh formalize their Co
collaboration with the mission platform
through anou that’s a that’s a
prerequisite basically so the question
is when do we actually prepare when do
the consort does the Consortium prepare
thatou during the gap or after the Gap
after the Gap after the Gap after the
Gap how much time do they have depends
on the it’s depending on the project and
the cooperation with the mission PL from
Consortium it can happen within the next
6 months following the the start of the
project so it’s after the start of the
official start of the project I mean you
have the experience of the
implementation of the the the previous
calls in the work pram 21 22 23 24 where
we had these conditions is that
something that has ever been a problem
for the projects that were selected to
to develop this mou with the the mission
platform not necessarily of course with
the first projects it was more difficult
to to find a way to to finalize this or
maybe to more than 6 months um yeah with
some projects we are still in the
process of uh trying to to find a way to
sign this memorandum of understandings
but it’s not yeah maybe on a related
issue and then I will go back to the
questions you structure the the projects
by clusters yes yes so maybe this is
something that you want to say a few
words about yes it’s true uh the
projects so far have been grouped in in
clusters depending on the area and the
topic that they cover uh we have
clusters related to public transport
another one that covers positive energy
districts others that look into the
urban planning and design problematic
and uh we try to the extent possible to
um not have a memorandum of
understanding with each project but to
have a memorandum that covers the the
cluster the groups of projects which
facilitates a little bit the the
discussion and the um so because we’ve
having we’ve already we have about 15
projects ongoing a memorandum with each
project is not easy for the mission
platform also to manage so then it’s
much better to to try to group and to
have um um yeah and then all this is
based on uh um finding the communalities
and the common interests of all those
involved on the one side mission
platform and the project so identifying
uh
um ways to uh do communication together
dissemination together uh to find um
yeah um common approaches and evaluation
of the Project’s uh results or of the
Project’s activities overall so so my
understanding is that for those project
that will be selected uh from these uh
these topics that will be presenting
they will be new clusters and they will
be part of clusters yeah okay thank you
very much
right now let’s move to the back to go
back to slido uh and again Michael very
popular I mean this is I will start to
believe that this is the most popular
topic that we have in the work program
your colleagues will be jealous so the
question is how many pollution streams
need to be included in this topic on
zero pollution cities will the EC found
one proposal per type of emission I
think on on the first question it’s a
bit similar to a question we had before
so again in the expected outcomes Etc it
says and or in the list of different
types of emissions so and or um on the
second question um whether there would
be a funding for one proposal per type
of emission speaking under the control
of colleagues who know the functioning
of horizon Europe much better than I do
um my answer would be depends on the
proposals we get what will be chosen and
on the merits of those proposals I it’s
indeed we expect about four projects and
that coincides with the number of
different pollution types that you see
in in the list so I understand where the
question comes from but my understanding
is it
would depend on the merits of the
projects what is chosen and not um that
it’s one per type of emission it was not
specified in the in the the description
of the topic so we we we can consider
that we could have two projects
addressing the
same type of emission even
though uh I mean it would be nice to
have the whole coverage of the of the
topic in in the projects that are being
selected so again it will depend very
much on the the quality of those those
proposals that are
submitted
P next question is yours can local
transport Authority be member of the
Consortium instead of the city
itself um very good question um local
transport authorities are of course um
members that we encourage also to apply
and be part of the Consortium instead of
the city itself speaking also under the
control of my colleague uh who evaluates
here um I would say no because uh what
what we had in mind when designing and
writing the topic was um that the
coordination usually happens at city’s
level and we want the authority to have
a good overview um to see um the missing
links and to have an integrated urban
planning happening and this is usually
the city who is in charge of that um
therefore I encourage you to be part of
the Consortium but instead of a city I I
would say
no this is your last
word okay that’s fine that’s fine I
don’t know if Octavia wants to
compliment me but uh when we have a hard
requirement of four
cities yeah
uh perhaps to a certain extent let’s say
um we can consider uh transport
Authority also representing the because
the the focus of the the topic is on
transport yes on mobility and behavioral
change in
Mobility so yeah perhaps a transport
Authority can take the lead in
organizing some activities but
definitely what I would say the the the
local author ities of the city
Administration should be definitely
involved I should not be missing yeah at
least a good link yeah a good a good
link between the two so um
yeah thank you the next question is
again on zerolution
cities you have been paying your family
to ask
questions right the question is do you
emphasize more the methods and tools for
assessing exposure or the health impact
assess
ments yeah I think here it’s a pretty
clear answer that these two are
intrinsically linked and so there is not
necessarily an emphasis more on one than
the other um because basically exposure
to pollution is what leads to health
impacts so if you want to assess impacts
exposure is involved in this so I don’t
think you can put that apart and say one
is more important than the other and
there’s no emphasis stronger on one side
or or the other both are are just linked
simply
thank you and the the the next question
is also targeted at you but uh I would
like the other speakers maybe to to to
share their views for their own specific
topic whether and the question is
projects from the under this topic the
one on zero pollution cities should
involve at least two cities is it a
benefit to have more than two cities so
if you can answer that and maybe the the
colleagues that have also some
requirements on the number of cities if
they can they can expand for for their
own topics mhm um well here I think it
it really depends um on the proposal and
what you’re planning to do I think you
should look at what you’re planning to
do and what makes sense there um and
would it add value to have one city or
the other would it add value to do it
with two specific cities three four
however many it depends on what you do I
don’t think there is a clear answer that
more is better or or less good it
depends really on the proposal and of
course
um I would always say whatever you do um
explain it well why you have made that
choice why you have gone for two cities
three cities or whatever you have gone
for also possibly which cities you have
gone for because there can be in terms
of pollution very differing uh
situations in um different local
circumstances which then might lead for
instance for this to be more replicable
or not so just the reasoning for
whatever you do as a choice there would
I think be important to explain
P um yes for the mobility management
topic we actually put at least four
cities um I I would agree with what my
colleague just said because uh we think
as well the more the better in terms of
um maybe already best practices to be
shared but at the same time you have to
be able to work as a Consortium well
together so if it if it’s getting too
big uh to work with um this is really up
to the applicants but um I encourage you
as I said there are some cities who have
Mobility management plans or there are
some entities in different cities who
have Mobility management plans in place
um
so to to get a good overview of what is
working and what not and deduce some
best practices and recommendations from
that I think the more you get the better
but it is also then up to you if you
think it is important that they’re part
of the consortia or you out to them via
different
channels Patrick Octavia is there
anything you want to add to that maybe
just to precise for again for the topic
number one which is on Urban Space
Management we specifies there that we
would like to have three cities which we
call lead cities on three replication
and four cities onment what you my two
colleagues said I think it is important
to have on the cities when you make the
choice is to have a very good
geographical balance but also in the
type of cities which would be
complimentary because you have different
types size of cities in Europe so it
would be very good to have smaller
cities bigger cities coming from
different geographic area in Europe so
to have a very good complementary
approach and in this case and in other
topics as well we we very encourage uh
to have also follower cities in order
you can Implement what we have developed
in the main demonstration cities uh
after the end of the project all these
different demonstration activities which
would be implementing is many other
cities and it’s why also it is very
important to have this cluster of
project you mention Octavia that we can
even disseminate more all these
activities around Europe in all type of
cities thank you no nothing to add from
my side nothing to add very good thank
you very much to all of you can can I
okay I just want to say that we actually
also put in our topic the geographical
balance now it’s an it’s an EU project
we we like geographical balances M yeah
that’s a very important Point indeed to
to to to to stress thank you for these
answers the next question that we have
surprise surprise is
on who can leave maybe Michael’s topic
are actual bment actions to be also
delivered through this
topic um well the way I would uh read
again the expected outcome in scope is
that no that doesn’t have to be the case
but of course depending on what you do
you might be working in conjunction with
actions that are being taken for
instance if you look at the exploration
of the effectiveness of dynamic
abatement strategies by monitoring
changes in pollution levels you might do
that with an action that is being taken
but that would not necessarily have to
be an action that without this project
wouldn’t have been taken so um as such I
would say no it doesn’t have to be that
abatement actions in terms of measures
on the ground um have to be uh delivered
through the funding of this uh topic no
very clear thank
you next question is a general question
and uh I read it out loud to you
considering the request of having at
least one or two of the 112 cities on
board for all topics can the same city
participate in more City Mission City
topics maybe I can I can say something
there uh I mean there is no rule that
will prevent cities to participate in
more than one proposal and more than one
project uh the most we have a lot of
very active cities that are
participating in in many uh research
activities that we are supporting in
Horizon Europe and before in Horizon
2020 I think the only thing that those
cities will need to be attentive to is
their own capacity to participate in
several projects uh bearing in mind that
uh the the Departments that are
responsible for the the the preparation
and implementation of the climat city
contracts are usually limited resources
so if they start participating in quite
many projects they have to make sure
that they have the the the the staff and
the manpower to do so but uh in
principle there is
no nothing preventing cities to
participate in in more than one
topic I don’t know if there is anything
you want to to add to
that but diversity is still good so we
we we we we like
uh with to to see uh cities
participating in in our activities
coming from all Horizons and the what
you refer on geographical balance is
also something that needs to be taken
into
account and nothing you want to add to
that
question no no we are okay I’m okay the
next question
is the following the work the mission
platform currently managed by nity is
doing is very relevant and impactful
they will be happy to know
that are the are there idas to increase
resources to deliver even more impact
and support to cities maybe I can take
that one so the mission platform as I
said earlier on was actually launched as
part of the Horizon 2020 green deal call
that was uh that was prepared in 2019 if
my memory is
correct uh so the the that was the the
first tranch of funding that we are
provide we provided to the to the
mission
platform uh and then since that first
project that we had in Horizon 2020 we
had two
tranches of funding that were uh added
to
the resources that the mission platform
has to to support the um the cities of
the mission through what we call the
framework partnership agreement so we
have two specific Grant agreements in
Horizon Europe
that
uh were added to the the support that
was initially provided by the mission
platform in the work program 2024 we did
not include an additional trunch of
funding through a specific G agreement
so all the activities that the mission
platform presently manage namely the
pilot projects the twinning activities
the technical assistance to the to the
cities through the city advisers all the
activities related to financial
advisories through the upcoming Capital
Hub own are covered through the specific
Grant agreements that have been
supported in Horizon Europe in the first
work programs 2122 and 23
24 so as I said no additional support to
the mission platform in the Work World
2024 having said that we are also
working uh on the preparation of the
next work program the work program
2025 and uh we are also reflecting on
what type of support will be provided in
the work program 2627 so we could not
exclude and we have in mind more
specifically for the work program 2025
to have an activity that will Top up the
existing activities of the mission
platform so indeed we will be very
likely increasing resources to the
mission platform so that they deliver on
what needs to be done at the time and uh
when we talk about the work program 2025
we are actually talking about activities
that will be implemented very likely at
the end end of 2025 beginning of 2026
and it’s clear that the type of
activities that will need to be provided
by the mission platform at that time
will not be the same as we have today
today we are talking about still very
much technical assistance to City to
help them prepare their CL City
contracts in two years time or in one
year one year and a half time we will be
in
the deployment of the The Climate City
contracts in the implementation of the
Climate City contract so the focus will
be more more on for instance the
financial advisory Services than on
helping cities develop their strategy
for climate neutrality so we will have
to adapt the type of support that we’ll
be providing to the mission platform in
the coming few years to the needs of the
Cities uh of the mission but uh to
answer quickly that question yes we we
have in mind to to provide additional
resources but not in this work program
in the upcoming work programs 25 26 and
27 anything you want to add to
that so we can consider that the the
question has been
answered and if we can move to the next
question are there any plans to Foster
Real collaboration with the adaptation
Mission so that’s someone from the
adaptation Mission probably that is
pying on us how the synergies could be
make real maybe through National
platforms I don’t know if anyone wants
to take that
question otherwise I do it do it we have
plenty of plans to uh increase our
collaboration with the adaptation
Mission and I think the the the reason
for that is that there are real
complementarities between what is being
done by the climate adaptation Mission
and what is being done by the city’s
Mission and uh to give you an
example uh in the Climate City contracts
that have been prepared by the cities so
far that have been submitted to us I’m
talking about the 33 that have already
received the label already and the 20 OD
cities that are in the process of being
reviewed now in many cases there are
references to climate adaptation
activities because in many cases it’s
very difficult in a strategy which is
focusing on mitigation to ignore the
climate adaptation Dimension so there
are many actions that are covered uh in
the Climate City contract that actually
relate to climate adaptation and that
makes perfect sense uh to to explain Al
other opportunities of collaboration
that we have had with the climate
adaptation mission in the previous work
program we had a joint topic with
climate adaptation and this happened to
be one of the most popular topic that we
had in the cities Mission work program
precisely because it addressed a real
need from the cities to combine and to
to address in in the in a complimentary
way the requirements of the climate
adaptation mission to to adapt to the
the the new climatic conditions and the
requirements of the city’s Mission which
is about reduction of greenhouse gas
emission and and climate mitigation so
we have done so in the past this
collaboration and we will do it in the
future for instance uh I could think of
uh having some common activities or
uh let’s say to have a coordinated
approach when it comes to uh fin Cal
advisory
Services uh it’s clear that for from the
perspective of an
investors uh the fact that a project is
linked to climate mitigation or climate
adaptation uh does not make too much
sense uh and uh we could very much
consider that in the future the
activities of the capital hub for
instance that we have in the that we’ll
be launching in a few months and that we
have in the city’s Mission could also
serve the needs of projects that are
more related to The Climate adaptation
Mission but this is something that is a
reflection that is ongoing and as I said
I I certainly would not exclude that in
the in the future as for the national
platform the same goes uh in the sense
that there are a number of national
platforms National networks that have
been established in a number of member
states that uh make build Bridges with
what is done in the the climate
adaptation Mission and this is also
something that we are supporting
I don’t know if there is anything on
that point you want to uh to add to what
I just said so if this is not the case
maybe we can move to the next
question does EC plan to offer extensive
Financial tools by the and EU funding to
facilitate urgently needed local
investment in decarbonization measures
so I mentioned the the support that we
are providing uh through the IB to the
cities using the existing Financial
advisory services that the IB has like
the
IB advisory Services I mentioned in the
slides and we have it in the work
program a reference to Elena which is
also a program that is being managed by
by the eib and which focus on energy and
transport I mean those tools uh and
those services that are provided by theb
are uh services that we have topped up
through the work program 2024 with a
budget of 19 million uh Our
intention similarly to what I was saying
on on the the support provided by the
mission platform is indeed to continue
this support of financial advisory
services so that we can really address
the needs of the cities that uh will uh
come up with their clim City contracts
now uh at the moment we have Provisions
in the mission platform and uh through
the support the top up support that we
are providing to the IB to limited
number of cities but that number will
increase necessarily uh we hope
hopefully we will have as I said uh this
year uh 100 Climate City contracts that
will be submitted for review uh so that
all cities will have submitted their
clim City contract and that means that
potentially starting next year and and
after that there will be sizeable number
of projects that will require some uh
support to become bankable and uh that
will that will be ready for investment
so this is something that we are indeed
committed to do this uh reinforced
support to financial advisory services
that they may come from the IB or uh
other
channels I think I answer the
question next question if a specific if
a specific city government is part of
the mission cities but not it’s
Metropolitan Authority can the
Metropolitan Authority be counted as
Mission City
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to interesting question
um
well Octavia so that I can breathe for
five minutes and and I for me the short
answer will be no and the long answer
but maybe yeah there is flexibility and
the long answer and the explanation of
why
would be that uh if there is a certain
entity administrative entity that has
taken responsibility for the development
of the Climate City contract and has
engaged it is that Authority that has
engaged it’s not the Metropolitan
Authority so if it’s a certain so that
Authority that has is recognized as
among the 112 is the authority to uh can
be considered as one of the Mission City
cities yeah Mission City city uh so um
but this is my uh this is my
angle yeah because then becomes very you
know very blurry and very flexible we do
not know
anymore yeah it’s it’s that entity but
however we expand or we live so it
becomes very very
unclear what is a mission
yeah I I I think you you rais an
important Point here indeed the uh I
mean if I take the example of France I’m
just using France as an
example uh most of the cities that
participate in the cities Mission coming
from France are Metropole so it’s not
only the city itself it’s the city with
its metropo but not all of them and
there are some examples of French cities
that are part of the mission that are
coming as the city itself without the
Metropole uh I say that I think if the
metropo is interested in participating
and contributing to the the projects
that uh that specific City wants to to
to to develop through the the actions
that we have in the in the work program
they can participate as members uh as an
additional legal entity that that could
be part of the of the the project so we
it’s we would not exclude the Metro
politan Authority uh to participate but
they could not be considered as the
Mission City itself um so I mean in a
way uh there is no there is no nothing
preventing Metropolitan authorities
participating in projects but they would
not be considered as necessarily a
mission City the Mission City the local
Authority the city Authority should be
the one participating to be counted as a
mission City in the
project and maybe I’m I’m thinking that
this maybe relate more to this very
Urban topic uh because there you can
consider looking at the metropolitan
area and the topic description does not
require to have a mission City involved
so yes so it’s not there’s no
requirement to have one of the three
lead cities to be a mission City so it
can be indeed a metropolitan area if you
want to yeah in that are you in that
context replying to the last question
that we have received uh yes maybe you
you want to take that
one Urban leave it I leave it to you
municipality be selected as a twin to a
neighboring city that is among the 112
cities or should the twin be in another
country yeah well it’s not an easy
question because we were commenting
earlier on the need of a certain
geography iCal
balance um we have for instance I mean
you could look at the topic in many ways
we have three lead and three uh
replicator cities they are called
areas so you can consider I don’t know
uh let’s say that the lead city is U um
um the main the lead partner and then it
is uh the twin it is a smaller um city
that is located in the very urban area
of the of the main city if this is the
question very been selected as a twin to
a neighboring City that I think yes it
can be but always keep in mind that
overall the the the proposal should
provide a certain geographical diversity
and not limits only to uh yeah to to a
to a to a to to a region or to a
country okay thank you cavia that’s very
clear and I think you can take also the
last question that we have so regarding
the mou should we somehow take this into
account in The
Proposal indeed this is a a
condition
um you should be taken into account um
yeah considering that at some moment
during the project
lifetime perhaps you will need to
dedicate some time and resources to um
yeah to to see how this memorandum of
understanding can be can be signed and
prepared but yeah um it’s just a
condition so this is not the main
requirement of the
topic um so it should receive the let’s
say um not too much importance not too
less importance but of course yes if
it’s there I think it is uh
um it’s good to mention that you foresee
some uh way of
collaborating with the mission
platform thank you Octavia and uh we are
now reaching the end of the questions
the that were put onto slido so if you
have a last minute question that you
would like to to to ask please do that
now uh because as I said I think we have
exhausted all the questions and we have
hopefully answered all the questions
that you
had uh so you still have a few minutes
to to put questions if you want to so
that we can answer
them uh
live if not I would like maybe that we
go back to the slides and uh show the
the the slide for The Brokerage event so
that uh the participants can have a look
the one before yes no one more thank you
very much thank you very much so that uh
I keep on Advertising this brokerage
event on the 21st and the 22nd of
May uh so you please do register if you
are interested in the in the city’s
Mission and the missions in general and
you will get more information from the
NCP Network so I’m looking around to see
whether there are
still questions to be answered it
doesn’t seem to be the case so I’m also
aware of the fact that this is
lunchtime and uh we have to closely
slowly come to the end of this info
session uh we are closing a little bit
ahead of schedule so people hopefully
will not mind that much uh I would like
to take this opportunity to thank the
participants the speakers so Octavia Pia
Michael Patrick I would like to thank
you very much for presenting the the
topics I would like to thank oo who is
connected remotely for his interven
mention thank youo and I would like to
thank the team that is hiding behind the
uh the screens for the work that they
have done thank you to kazimir I gave
your name you are famous now
forever and uh on that last note uh I’d
like to thank you very much and wish you
a very good afternoon thank you thank
you very much goodbye
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The event aims to inform potential applicants about the new topics included in the EU Missions and Cross-cutting Activities work programme 2024.
More information: https://research-innovation-community.ec.europa.eu/events/3WjiVunxm0t5j4zQlVax3Q/overview