In the first annual report of the Climate-Neutral City Mission in 2023, we reported that ten Austrian cities had signed agreements with the Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (BMIMI – then known as BMK) to work together to make urban climate neutrality a reality. By the end of 2024, 47 cities had joined the Climate-Neutral City Mission.

Often, it is the same measures that protect the climate and strengthen a city as a location. After all, when a city's infrastructure is modernised and made more sustainable, everyone benefits – residents, businesses and also local authorities, which see a reduction in operating and maintenance costs.

In the first annual report, we described this process as the 'first phase' of the mission, in which the participating cities set out their own paths to climate neutrality in strategy documents. With the now expanded focus, which addresses both climate protection and location development simultaneously, the second phase has begun.

A win-win situation for cities and businesses

Greater cooperation between cities and businesses can lead to a genuine win-win situation. This is already evident today. Austrian companies in the environmental sector are among the most successful innovators in Europe.

Companies and research institutions in the environmental sector are working on sustainable innovations that help cities fulfil their diverse tasks using less energy. This starts with evidence-based and forward-looking spatial planning and extends to the intricacies of control and regulation technology, which contribute to reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions at a wide range of levels.

Find out how cities and companies are cooperating, what neighbourhoods that generate more energy than they consume look like, and who is making this possible in our cities in the 2024 Annual Report.

The Climate-Neutral City Mission is the Austrian implementation of the European Commission's initiative '100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030'.