Full steam ahead for POLIS' Climate Neutral Cities Mission Taskforce!

On 16 February 2023, POLIS’ Climate Neutral Cities Mission Taskforce held its kick-off meeting. Together, POLIS members across Europe, Rotterdam to Rome, Stockholm to Sofia, joined to share their visions and challenges for their journey to climate neutrality.

About the Taskforce?

30 POLIS members are amongst the 100 cities selected for the EU Mission for climate-neutral and smart cities mission. The Climate Neutral Cities Mission Taskforce will help local and regional transport officials (both technical and political) make the most of this Mission through impactful mobility solutions.

This Taskforce does no seek to duplicate tasks or resources planned by the Mission, we are not looking to create an added layer of work. Instead, it will adopt a bottom-up approach, complementing those tasks and resources, addressing gaps, and critically, providing a safe environment for frank discussions on challenges and difficulties encountered in moving from ambition to action.

The discussion

During this meeting, POLIS members explored the concrete goals they have developed, the capacity for implementation and the funding, human resource and measurement obstacles they are facing.

It was an opportunity for cities to talk honestly and openly about their concerns and hear from POLIS about the climate impact assessment, support mechanisms and funding opportunities available.

“With this Taskforce POLIS will provide a unique platform for our members to engage in a cross-sector dialogue and peer-to-peer exchange on how they can reach their transport decarbonisation targets. We seek to complement tasks and resources planned by the Mission, addressing the gaps and following a genuine bottom-up approach. Since local and regional authorities hold the keys for the most important actions needed to move to climate neutrality POLIS will support members to reach 2030 targets and goals.” said Marko Stancec, Taskforce coordinator.

Want to know more about the taskforce?

The Climate-Neutral Cities Mission Taskforce supports members through concrete, tangible, and result-oriented interventions to accelerate the shift to sustainable urban mobility.

You can find out more about this taskforce HERE.