Achieving 100 climate neutral cities in Europe: Investigating climate city contracts in Sweden

The European Commission has established a mission to achieve 100 climate neutral cities by 2030. A key element in the process is for municipalities to develop a Climate City Contract (CCC). Simultaneously, Viable Cities, a national strategic innovation program in Sweden, is also focusing on the transition to climate neutral cities where CCCs are being developed. Viable Cities is at the forefront of the process by not only creating the first CCCs at the national level but also in supporting the European Commission in developing the CCCs at the European level. This article investigates the first CCCs in Sweden and consequently Europe. To do so, it evaluates the content of the Swedish CCCs against a framework for best practice deep decarbonization plans, developed by Linton et al.; and also analyses the process of developing them. This article is based on a literature review, document analysis of the Swedish CCCs from nine municipalities, and draws on five interviews with the municipalities of Lund, Umeå and Stockholm and Viable Cities. The objective of this article is to investigate the content and process of Swedish CCCs but also to generate insights for subsequent CCCs that are to be developed across Europe.

Katherine Shabb, Kes McCormick