The launch brings together 13 Mission Cities and their twin partners in a year-long effort to accelerate the transition to climate neutrality.
The fifth cohort of the Twinning Learning Programme, unveiled on 20 July, links 16 Mission cities with 13 twin cities across 11 partnerships spanning Europe. The initiative is designed to help cities share practical solutions, exchange expertise and turn climate ambitions into tangible action as the EU works towards its goal of climate-neutral cities by 2050.
Among the new partnerships are Izmir and Sofia with Cascais, Dortmund with Gdynia and Issy-les-Moulineaux, Istanbul and Athens with Prague, and The Hague and Sønderborg with Ghent. Other pairings connect cities from Portugal, Sweden, Greece, Croatia, Latvia and beyond in a growing network of climate collaboration.
The programme is built around practical learning. Twin cities will bring experience from EU-funded projects covering areas such as clean energy, sustainable mobility, nature-based solutions and citizen engagement. Mission cities, meanwhile, will share lessons from implementing Climate City Contracts and delivering city-wide decarbonisation strategies.
Over the next 12 months, participating cities will take part in online exchanges, study visits and joint planning sessions. The aim is to develop actionable roadmaps that can be adapted locally and scaled across Europe.
Since launching in 2023, the Twinning Learning Programme has connected more than 200 cities, helping spread successful climate solutions beyond the Mission’s core group of pioneering urban centres. The latest cohort further strengthens that network, reinforcing the idea that Europe’s path to climate neutrality will be driven not only by innovation, but by cities learning directly from one another.
Source: European Commission.
Author: ISEP-Transform News Team
