The Climate City Contract 2030 is a long-term commitment aimed at fostering cooperation between cities and the national government in Sweden, developed within the Viable Cities initiative "Climate Neutral Cities 2030." First signed in December 2020, it initially involved nine cities and four government agencies, including the Swedish Energy Agency, Formas, Vinnova, and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth. Since then, the contract has expanded to include 23 cities—among them the seven Swedish cities part of the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities—and six national agencies, with the Swedish Transport Administration and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency joining the original signatories.
The Climate City Contract serves as a key mechanism for defining and advancing Sweden's climate-neutral city goals. It establishes mutual commitments between cities and national agencies, fostering broad political support and creating a platform for cooperation in new and innovative ways. This process has strengthened multi-level governance by enhancing coordination between local and national authorities in their efforts toward achieving climate neutrality by 2030.
Through the Climate City Contract, the authorities commit to collaborating with one another and acting as active partners in local efforts and with Viable Cities. Their goal is to strengthen cities' capacity for sustainable transition, improve coordination, and support the implementation of climate-neutral solutions. This includes developing new working methods, enhancing dialogue, and fostering continuous learning, with the Council for Sustainable Cities serving as a strategic forum for inter-agency cooperation. In particular, the agencies commit to:
- Policy development for accelerated local transition: The agencies work with municipalities to identify and develop more effective regulations and policies for sustainable urban development and climate transition, while enhancing understanding of existing frameworks. This process, focused on municipalities’ needs for accelerated climate action is based on proactive dialogue and mutual learning.
- Coordinated efforts on funding: The agencies commit to coordinating and providing a comprehensive view of financial support for sustainable urban development, based on the needs identified by municipalities. This includes exploring new forms of interventions and improving access to funding.
- Ensuring Swedish participation in European initiatives: The agencies actively participate in European initiatives for sustainable cities, helping shape calls and activities through dialogue with cities in Viable Cities. They also support cities in joining the EU’s Cities Mission.
In addition to the municipalities and the government agencies, Viable Cities as an intermediary also signs the national Climate City Contracts. In particular, Viable Cities commit to:
- Coordination of the Climate City Contract: As efforts of transition are accelerating, both locally and internationally, the Climate City Contract serve as a crucial tool. To scale up this work, better coordination and continuous development of the contracts are necessary. Viable Cities has established a coordination function in Sweden to support the Climate City Contract process, helping agencies, municipalities, and stakeholders strengthen their commitments and implement measures to accelerate the transition.
- Policy development for faster local transition: Viable Cities remains a driving force in smart policy development, helping municipalities navigate Swedish and European legislation relevant to the climate transition, such as the Fit for 55 package. The program also offers process support to adapt regulations and norms for smoother climate action.
- Innovation, implementation and scaling: Viable Cities will enhance its role as an intermediary, helping strengthen coordination and mobilization within the emerging ecosystem for climate-neutral cities. By providing competence networks and process support, the program will help cities implement and scale innovations that accelerate the transition, particularly in areas like climate-smart mobility and digitalization through collaborations such as the Urban Twin Transition Centre.
- Coordinated financing: Viable Cities will continue supporting municipalities’ financing needs for climate transition by promoting collaboration and synergies between agencies and other funding entities. This includes advancing financial frameworks for the Climate City Contract and developing climate investment plans for cities.
- Engagement with EU’s Mission for Climate-Neutral Cities: Viable Cities collaborates closely with the support structures for the EU's mission on climate-neutral cities by 2030, including platforms like NetZeroCities. The program also actively engages in European partnerships like Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) and contributes to discussions around synergy with the climate adaptation mission and the New European Bauhaus initiative.
The Climate City Contract is not a static bureaucratic document but a collaborative, evolving process. It is revised annually in an iterative manner, incorporating new insights, addressing challenges, and sharpening the contract's objectives at both the local and national levels. This flexibility allows for continuous adaptation, but it also poses challenges, particularly in managing a growing number of stakeholders from different governmental levels, each with varying capacities and mandates. Onboarding new participants and ensuring alignment among the many actors can be complex. However, the large and diverse group of stakeholders is also a key strength, as it brings together a broad base of knowledge and resources.
In addition to aligning more closely with the European Climate City Contracts, the 2024 revision of the Climate City Contracts also introduced the following new elements:
- Strengthened coordination/establishment of a coordination function: The process aims to strengthen coordination between agencies, municipalities, regions, the European Commission, and other stakeholders, aligned with the Mission's objectives.
- Climate investment plans: Efforts will be made to integrate climate investment plans into the Climate Contract 2030 by 2024, including the economic perspective on the transition to a climate-neutral and sustainable future: first, the (re)direction of funding for both ongoing operations and investment needs; second, the existing financing and investment capacity; and third, the need for additional investment funds for the transition, including the implementation of the roadmap.
- Financing, investments, and procurement: The process will further enhance models, methods, and tools for climate investment plans, while exploring innovative financial instruments such as crowdfunding, lending, and blended finance.
- Twin transition: Digitalization offers significant potential to accelerate the sustainability transition, particularly through improved decision-making and data-driven initiatives. For digitalization to effectively support municipalities in their transition to sustainability and climate neutrality, they must align key strategies, such as climate action plans and digitalization strategies. Integrating these into regular governance processes, including portfolio management and monitoring, ensures that both digitalization and climate transition become embedded in daily operations.
- Smart policy development: Advancing methodologies, processes, and the scaling of smart policy development, including initiatives like policy labs, sandboxes, and similar frameworks.
- Just transition: Embedding just transitions at different levels and in the portfolios of cities and across all levels of the transition. Focusing on a just transition, it is important to identify and prioritize climate initiatives that generate multiple benefits and synergies. Multiple benefits occur when a single action leads to several positive outcomes, while synergies arise when the interaction of actions creates greater advantages than if done separately. For example, green infrastructure can act as a carbon sink, boost climate resilience, improve the environment, enhance public health, and strengthen the local economy. A holistic approach ensures that actions in one area produce positive ripple effects for the broader community.
- Integration of climate mitigation and climate adaptation: The integration of climate mitigation and adaptation strategies is essential for building resilient, sustainable, and attractive living environments. It promotes more efficient resource use, cost savings, and better policy coherence in climate and sustainability efforts. By creating synergies, this approach enhances the effectiveness of both mitigation and adaptation actions. The goal is to develop holistic strategies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase carbon capture, and strengthen resilience to climate change.
With the participation of 23 cities—representing over 40% of Sweden's population—and plans to expand further in 2024, the CCC 2030 has the potential to cover more than half of the Swedish population. Each December, on European Viable Cities Day, cities sign revised and more ambitious versions of the contract, further refining the strategies needed to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.
This continuous development process ensures that CCC 2030 remains a living, actionable framework rather than a static agreement, empowering cities to experiment, innovate, and scale up climate action in cooperation with national agencies.