22 June 2021

Through the EU Green Deal, the European Commission has set the ambitious target of making Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Key to reaching that goal is ensuring that the EU’s 80 000 towns and cities develop plans to implements the idea of the Green Deal locally through Local Green Deals. To help guide cities and towns, the Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) is releasing Local Green Deals – A Blueprint for Action.

The first of its kind, the Local Green Deals – A Blueprint for Action, developed as part of the European Commission’s Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC), provides cities with a guide and good practice case studies to support them with creating Local Green Deals. It outlines the rationale behind Local Green Deals, and provides the key principles, levers, and steps for cities, stakeholders, and local communities to implement them. The guide was written by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability. It was launched today during an online event for European Mayors, hosted by the European Committee of the Regions together with the ICC project.

The Blueprint provides a roadmap for towns and cities to build momentum and scale up the implementation of their Local Green Deal. It offers step-by-step guidance on localising the EU Green Deal, including how to build a case for this work, how to manage and coordinate the process, how to create synergies between their Local Green Deal and existing sustainability policies in their city, how to build partnerships around this work, and how to finance a Local Green Deal.

The Local Green Deals Blueprint includes practical examples and case studies from cities across Europe, including, among others, the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Mannheim (Germany), Espoo (Finland), Milan (Italy), and Umeå (Sweden).

Find the full-text version of Local Green Deals – A Blueprint for Actions here.

See also what the ICC mayors are saying about Local Green Deals.