Workshop
Accelerating Urban Decarbonisation through City–Business Collaboration
Date: Wednesday, 6th May
Location: Canoe, Steinkargata 8, 4006 Stavanger
Time: 09.00 – 11.30
Co-organised by: ClimateKIC, ICLEI, WBCSD, Nordic Edge
Attendees: Nordic cities, companies and public actors
Across Europe, cities are at the forefront of the climate transition. Although they cover only around 2% of the world’s surface, they consume roughly 78% of global energy and generate more than 60% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Through the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, supported by the NetZeroCities platform, more than 100 cities have committed to reaching climate neutrality by 2030. These commitments are formalised through Climate City Contracts, alongside associated investment plans that define priority actions and funding pathways.
At the same time, Europe is working to strengthen its industrial competitiveness by building strong lead markets for clean technologies and climate-resilient, sustainable solutions. These agendas are closely linked. When cities move from ambition to coordinated implementation, they generate predictable and time-bound demand for the solutions required to deliver climate neutrality. If that demand is structured and aligned across cities, it can help scale solutions faster, provide certainty for industry and investors, and accelerate Europe’s broader economic transformation.
Nordic cities are advancing some of the most ambitious climate actions globally including zero-emission mobility, circular construction, clean energy systems, district heating, hydrogen, and maritime decarbonisation. At the same time, Nordic industries are global leaders in power systems, offshore technology, green fuels, digital infrastructure, and materials innovation.
However, progress is constrained by a set of shared challenges across the region:
- Fragmented demand across cities
- Slow procurement cycles
- Limited early-stage market signals
- Infrastructure bottlenecks (grid capacity, charging, ports)
- Skills shortages
- Lack of long-term investment certainty
about this Workshop
The Challenge:
Norwegian, and more broadly cities across the Nordic are pushing toward climate neutrality, yet the most stubborn emissions are concentrated in hard-to-abate urban systems: such as maritime, construction, and local energy systems. These sectors require deep technology shifts, massive infrastructure adaptation, and new forms of cooperation between cities, industry, and national government.
Workshop Focus:
Accelerating decarbonisation in hard-to-abate urban systems through coordinated city demand, industrial readiness, and system enablers.
The session identifies where aligned city demand, industry readiness, and national enablers can accelerate emission reductions across freight, maritime, construction, buildings, and local energy systems. Participants will codevelop practical demand signals, system enablers, and collaboration pathways to deliver faster, deeper urban decarbonisation.
This workshop brings Nordic cities, industry, and national actors together to work collectively on where implementation is currently blocked and where it can be accelerated.
Expected Outcomes:
Participants will:
- Identify where demand is clear and can be aggregated
- Assess which solutions industry is ready to scale
- Clarify system enablers required for deployment
- Develop concrete collaboration opportunities to accelerate deployment (e.g. pilots, joint initiatives)
