All the knowledge cities in green transitions need

A wealth of dispersed knowledge for cities in green transitions

The European Urban Initiative has been focusing on Green and Just Transitions for a number of years. Besides providing funding to cities engaging in greening, sustainable mobility and energy transition through the Urban Innovative Actions programme, EUI also initiated studies and policy reviews on Green and Just Transitions, focusing on climate-friendly urban planning, as well as sustainable energy, housing and mobility. EUI is, however, not the only EU organisation promoting the concept of Green and Just Transitions.

Between research programmes, knowledge exchange, citizen initiatives and lighthouse projects, European programmes produce a great wealth of knowledge about climate change and transition. The Urban Agenda of the EU Partnership on Greening Cities brings together a variety of stakeholders including cities, regions, national authorities, transnational umbrella organisations and EU programmes to work towards better knowledge, better regulation and better funding in the realm of Green and Just Transitions. URBACT organises EU Labs and conducts surveys to explore cities’ needs in knowledge and capacity building. The Cities Mission (100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030) and JPI Urban Europe support cities in their transition processes. European cities have at their disposal a great range of evidence, research findings, theoretical frameworks, methodologies, toolboxes.

Portico for cities in green transitions

But this knowledge, despite earlier attempts to map and catalogue all urban initiatives and programmes in the EU, has been dispersed across different programmes, directorates and repertories. Portico, the EU platform on urban matters providing relevant knowledge on sustainable urban development and for a local net-zero green transition collects and organises this distributed knowledge in an accessible, transparent and comprehensible manner.

Access all the knowledge on Green transition

During the launch of Portico[1], representatives of various EU programmes, municipalities as well as funding authorities and journalists, generated a great diversity of ideas to make Portico more engaging and user-friendly. Portico should be connected to other existing platforms about green transitions: the Net Zero Cities’ one-stop-shop, for example, brings together all European Commission Directorate-Generals in the Cities Mission Board, thus creating a governance structure that enables synergies between all urban programmes – a governance arrangement Portico can potentially learn from.

The success of Portico would also partly depend on its ability to combine hands-on data with inspiring stories on green transitions. On the one hand, in addition to collecting all funding opportunities and relevant events for cities, Portico could be a repository of technical expertise, helping cities to fill their capacity and expertise gaps. On the other, Portico needs a strong storytelling element, and it should promote good practices, engaging the civic, private and knowledge sectors to share their experiences, knowledge and expertise on the platform, helped by journalist to transmit stories in more engaging and inclusive ways. The platform could be enriched by user-generated content with the help of a more inclusive and participatory editorial structure, involving a network of editors, citizens, public servants, municipal science officers in generating and sharing knowledge.

[1] EUI launched Portico at the EU Week of Regions and Cities 2023. The session introduced Portico and gathered input from the audience on their capacity and knowledge building needs to implement green transition. In the first part of the session, a roundtable explored knowledge production across the EU’s urban programmes and discussed ways to better connect these segments of knowledge and align knowledge production activities with the needs of cities.