BRUSSELS, 23 January 2024 - EUCityCalc has officially launched its free, open source online platform that allows local councils and other stakeholders to visualise and simulate low-carbon scenarios for their towns and cities, as well as to assess the trade-offs related to available choices.
Although the European Green Deal and the European Union’s other climate policy tools aim to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the EU by 2050, only a handful of European cities have been able to translate these commitments into precise and tangible transition plans. One reason for this is that city councils often lack the technology and knowledge to develop and assess these plans. This makes it vital that these cities are equipped with tools, information and skills that empower them to make those targets a reality.
“Our role is to support cities to turn their inspiring transformative solutions into sustainable policies. Within this project, Carbon Market Watch has been facilitating the outreach to relevant stakeholders and fostering their peer-to-peer learning, as well as advocating for a robust multi-level governance framework that ensures the alignment of local, national, and EU climate policies.”
Climate roadmaps
The EUCityCalc project, which is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, brings together 10 pilot cities in different stages of their climate neutrality transition to empower them to devise locally owned and inclusive transition roadmaps. To help them chart this path, these local authorities have now gained access to the powerful new European City Calculator.
The tool was developed to empower cities around Europe to develop scientifically and actionable policy scenarios and transition pathways, not only in line with the 2050 EU targets but also underpinned by a cross-sectoral and territorial approach to decarbonisation.
The online platform allows local councils and other stakeholders to integrate their Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) data as well as some key socio-demographic trends. The model underlying European City Calculator completes the missing data (energy, emissions, activity data) thanks to a rich database at the level of each European country. The webtool provides public officials with critical insight and foresight into the implications and ramifications of various policy choices and investments at their disposal.
The European City Calculator provides cities with an overview of the different types of measures and their effects on emission reductions and indication of costs. Cities can build their own climate and energy scenarios, discover their impacts and compare them with their climate and energy targets. The web tool is ultimately designed to make the decision-making and implementation of their climate and energy strategies easier for European cities.
"A town can use the European City Calculator to simulate various measures, such as public transport initiatives and low emission zones. This approach enables the town to effectively identify and assess the best strategies for reducing urban emissions.”
Starting on 26 February 2024, cities will have the chance to enroll in the EUCityCalc learning programme to discover how to gather data and use the tool, organise and run co-creation workshops involving different stakeholders, as well as to understand the crucial role that local authorities can actively play in the national policy process.
Contact us to join the training and learn more about the EUCityCalc project
About the EUCityCalc project: This EU Horizon project (2021-2024) aims to support cities in developing and implementing scientifically robust, detailed and integrated transition pathways towards climate neutrality. These pathways will serve to design other policy scenarios and transition roadmaps, such as the revision of the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan in the framework of the Covenant of Mayors. Throughout this project, its 10 pilot cities – Riga, Dijon Métropole, Mantova, Zdar, Palmela, Sesimbra, Setubal, Koprivnica, Varazdin, Virovitica – are running a key stakeholders engagement process on their territories, targeted to key stakeholders in local working groups, as well as multi-stakeholder dialogues for a broader stakeholder community and the public. The project has also created a free, open-source and easy-to-use web tool for model exploration that provides cities with a cross- sectoral outlook based on a rich database customised using Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) data integrated by cities.
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