The ambition of the Global Knowledge Exchange Centre (GKEC) for Urban Climate Neutrality is to mainstream actions towards climate neutral and net-zero urban developments on a global level. In this sense, the GKEC will provide support in terms of global outreach for the European Cities Mission as well as contribute to the Urban Transition Mission of Mission Innovation. It will provide effective support and knowledge for local governments and international stakeholders and through this, support European policy such as the European Green Deal and work towards the international commitments of the Paris Agreement. The GKEC will make available evidence and good practice for urban climate neutral and net-zero transitions globally and facilitate capacity building, knowledge exchange and moderated learning for municipalities and key stakeholders. In operational terms, the GKEC will set up actions according to the three impact pathways: 1.Mainstream knowledge and good practice to accelerate urban transitions: The mission platform will be extended towards global use, making available international solutions and good practices and promote financing and funding opportunities to implement integrated urban climate action and net-zero pathways. 2.Offer advanced frameworks and moderated learning across all governance levels to raise awareness of and capacities for CN and NZ policies: Policy advocacy for climate neutral and net-zero approaches will allow aligning of global policies. Capacity building measures for local and regional actors will provide guidelines and support mutual learning to drive systemic change. 3.Establish the GKEC as a forum for international exchange and cooperation on climate neutral and net-zero transitions: Global and regional events accompanied by comprehensive dissemination measures will raise visibility of EU and international good practice and strengthen international cooperation on climate neutrality and net-zero pathways.

The Urban Transitions Mission (UTM) mobilises decision makers across all levels of government to prioritise climate-neutral and net-zero pathways enabled by clean energy and systemic innovation across all sectors and in urban governance. By accelerating capacity-building and closing the gap between research, development and deployment, the Mission empowers cities to adopt innovative solutions and help reach tipping points in the cost and scale of those solutions for urban transitions. Launched at COP26, the UTM is one of the seven missions of Mission Innovation - a global initiative catalysing a decade of action and investment in research, development and demonstration to make clean energy affordable, attractive and accessible for all. The Mission brokers solutions, approaches, and knowledge for net-zero transitions at each step of a city climate action journey. The work proposed aims to: - Consolidate and capitalize on two years of achievements - ensuring that the Mission stays its course and remains both relevant and ambitious against the ever-evolving goals and challenges that sustainable urban development faces. - Expand the UTM cohort by recruiting up to 200 new cities - working towards the Mission's goal to support 300 cities globally to be well on their way to reach net-zero by 2030 - Strengthen capacity building, knowledge sharing and technical support for new and existing cohort of cities - helping cities apply the UTM net-zero Transitions Framework to future-proof their current strategies and climate plans, and offering a platform to exchange robust, cross-sectoral and integrated solutions - Accelerate demonstration of innovative solutions in response to the most urgent needs and R&I priorities for cities - in collaboration with research, academia, a Global Alliance of partners including national governments, financial institutions, and private sector supporting cities to develop, pilot, and scale innovative solutions and approaches for urban transitions.

ReGreeneration is a public-private consortium including 9 European cities that will design & experiment together for 4 years Nature Based Solutions to regenerate deprived neighbourhoods for climate resilience, GES reduction and local ecosystem dynamization through participative methods. A set of mixed skills, covering architecture, landscape design, geomatics and digital twins, project value modelling, urbanism, nature & public space facilities, sociology, economics will be deployed in different projects in Paris (FR), Barcelona (ES), Alverca (PT), Bucharest (RO), followed by replicators located in Roma (IT), Gent (BE), Ljubljana (SL), Segrate (IT), Lappeeranta (FI). Projects are complementary and will contribute to create a replicable knowledge on a large set of cities’ challenges: - How to regenerate quality of life, health and attractiveness in marginalized areas (Bucharest, Paris) - How to capture carbon, create freshness Islands, preserve biodiversity, make a better usage of water, develop low carbon mobility & continuity, prepare resilience to stressed weather events (Alverca, Barcelona, Paris) - How to educate and make local actors (inhabitants, municipality agents, local businesses, political authorities) participate to design & maintain the green areas created ? (the nine cities) - How to analyze the diversity of local contexts to choose the right best practices to replicate in a european territory, and define the required investment & governance model ? (Roma, Gent, Ljubljana, Segrate, Lappeeranta) The knowledge to successfully create for meeting these challenges will focus on some key concepts: 1) Creation of an in-depth territory analysis unifying multiple planning domains and able to simulate evolution scenarios; 2) Extensive use of 15 Mn methodology and pedestrian/green mobility focus to support life quality and impacts analysis; 3) Permanent integration of local climate resilience challenges at each key milestones of the project.