NetZeroCities
We have been working with NetZeroCities since early 2022 to advise cities within the EU’s flagship Mission – ‘100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030’ as part of the ‘NetZeroCities’ project.
NetZeroCities supports Europe and in particular European cities to drastically cut down greenhouse gas emissions through climate action to achieve ‘climate neutrality’, one of the biggest challenges our societies face today.
NetZeroCities provides the platform for cities in the EU Mission 100 Smart and Climate Neutral Cities by 2030. The Mission is the most far reaching and radical programme to achieve climate neutrality for cities globally. Reaching climate neutrality by 2030 for most cities is extremely challenging and requires systems transformation in governance, and in approach and delivery across the entire city (not just within the local authority). This requires a systemic whole-of-city approach to be taken, and the programme provides innovative governance tools to help cities encourage wider stakeholders to get on board with the journey, known as Climate City Contracts.
Directors Ed Synnott and Jane McLaughlin provided strategic and technical advice to a group of more than 22 cities, working one-to-one with them to understand their needs, and to orchestrate support and resources in support of the cities’ journeys towards climate neutrality. This specialised role has required an agile approach, as each city’s needs are different, and change dynamically due to internal and external drivers such as elections, natural disasters, funding, changes in personnel and local citizen engagement outcomes and requirements.
Jane co-led City Support within NetZeroCities, orchestrating co-design and implementation of support to cities, innovating in the internal organisation of support networks and teams across multiple organisations, and was a member of the programme’s Executive Committee. We also advised the programme leadership on data strategy, knowledge management, and smart cities.