The EU Mission “Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities” is one of five missions under the Horizon Europe program, designed to address one of Europe’s most pressing challenges: achieving climate neutrality in cities by 2030. A total of 112 cities – known as Mission Cities – have been selected to participate, including 100 cities from all 27 EU member states and 12 from Horizon Europe-associated countries.
A preliminary analysis shows that, of the 52 Climate City Contracts available on the Net Zero Cities portal, a total of 58 foundations are referenced across 22 cities in 11 EU member states.
In such a context, our Founder Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, jointly with Philea (Philanthropy Europe Association), consider a paramount of importance to evaluate and analyze the current involvement of European foundations within this EU Mission.
As a research and innovation Foundation, LINKS undertakes several initiatives focusing on smart cities, decarbonization, climate change and adaptation, with a strong focus in future green mobility.
Compagnia di San Paolo published on the 31st March 2025 the booklet “Foundations Role in Climate Neutral and Smart City Mission v1.0”, as a preliminary analysis on the relationship between Philanthropic foundations ant their actions for the EU mission “Climate-Neutral and smart Cities. V2.0 is now available: https://linksfoundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CSP_booklet-2025-04-15.pdf.
This initiative will be completed by a full report to be published and presented during the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission Conference 2025 in Vilnius.
