Power of Communities: Co-Creating Pathways to Climate Neutrality

At the Smart City Expo World Congress 2024, a group of EU-supported projects hosted a panel discussion titled Power of Communities: Co-Creating Pathways to Climate Neutrality, including the Support service for Citizen-led renovation. The session tackled a key challenge for climate-neutral and positive energy districts: connecting stakeholders to foster meaningful, sustainable change.

Moderated by Veronika Cerna from Twenty Communications, the session emphasised that achieving climate-neutral districts involves technology and engaging the people and organisations who each hold different pieces of the solution.

Engaging Local Communities to Drive Change

Jörgen Lööf, City Representative, Stockholm (ASCEND), shared Stockholm's approach, where ElectriCITY serves as a local accelerator for climate innovation. “We have about 18,000 people living, breathing, and testing innovations with our partners and members. We have about 88 members and partners and real people trying in a real environment to see if these innovations are good or bad.” He highlighted the importance of financial viability, noting, “Our guiding principle is: it’s got to be profitable to be climate-smart, and that’s how we’re spreading things.”

Anh Minh Vu, Project Coordinator for the NEUTRALPATH project, City of Dresden, explained how Dresden is piloting positive clean energy districts. “We are working with the energy provider, the University of Dresden, and real estate companies to realise these demo projects,” he said, adding that they use gamification to engage citizens in energy awareness. This initiative, Anh shared, was rooted in a citizen referendum: “There was an initiative in Dresden called Dresden Zero, and they initiated a referendum with 20,000 signatures. This pushed the city council to take the matter into their own hands and speed up the decision-making process toward climate neutrality. So if we talk about the power of communities, we should also talk about the political decision-making processes where citizens can have a say.”

Dirk Ahlers, Project Manager, Re-Value, spoke about Re-Value’s collaborative efforts across nine European waterfront cities. “We are working… finding ways towards climate neutrality in a co-creation way with the local communities, with local stakeholders.” He emphasised the value of intentional engagement, stating, “The co-creation part is really, really important. It’s not just participation, but it’s a bit more targeted, more intentional participation to give people a different way to participate.”

Baptiste Mougeot, Project Manager, Scalable Cities, discussed the benefits of Scalable Cities’ cross-border community network. “Scalable Cities is about creating communities at the European level, where we exchange knowledge and support each other to achieve climate neutrality as fast as possible.” He gave an example from Lyon, where working within the network helped their mobility hub project find a sustainable business model by learning from other cities, like Madrid. “This experience shows how communities at the European level can help deploy solutions more quickly to achieve neutrality as soon as possible.”

Leen Peeters, Founder, Th!nk E, on behalf of the European Citizen-Led Renovations Initiative explained why energy communities have excelled in renovation projects. “The Commission saw that there were energy communities trying to diversify their activities, and some of them moved into renovation—and they were pretty successful at it, much more than a typical neighbourhood approach. There’s a reason for that… one key reason is trust. If a nonprofit organisation helps you out with professionals, and you can talk to someone else nearby who’s used the service, it’s easier… The fact that they’re nonprofit helps because these service providers aren’t gaining anything from giving you certain advice.”

Following the presentations, panellists and audience members exchanged ideas on effective ways to spark and sustain engagement. They emphasised tailored methods, from educational games for families to structured workshops with local government officials, highlighting how these approaches can make climate action accessible and relatable.

The session reinforced a key message: successful climate-neutral and energy-positive districts rely on partnerships across sectors—citizens, cities, businesses, and policymakers. Each has a role to play in building inclusive, sustainable communities.

You can download the slides of all presenters here.