Background
The need for decarbonisation across all levels of society is clear. Municipalities play a pivotal role due to established instruments and cross-sectoral impact. Climate Neutral Districts (CNDs) represent a crucial urban strategy for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by integrating sustainable energy systems, enhancing energy efficiency, and promoting low-carbon lifestyles. With accelerating urbanisation, cities are emerging as central actors in climate change mitigation, and CNDs are positioned to lead this transition. Developing robust methodologies and adaptable frameworks for CNDs is essential for aligning urban planning with ambitious climate targets. These methodologies encompass technical innovations as well as social and governance mechanisms, including data-sharing platforms, analytical frameworks, stakeholder engagement, and governance models. Adaptable frameworks enhance the precision and transparency of environmental assessments, providing critical baseline data and revealing optimal, impactful solution pathways. This approach enables cities to track progress, allocate resources effectively, and achieve climate-neutral objectives, while maintaining social and economic balance. Collectively, these frameworks streamline fragmented efforts, offering scalable models that empower cities and project developers to meet sustainability goals.
Districts are a pivotal point of this development because they allow a holistic perspective including mobility and other services that cannot be addressed on the building level. It is also a suitable level for municipal intervention and planning, although previous research on PEDs has shown distinct gaps in suitable instruments and processes.
Objectives
The IEA Cities TCP Task 4 aims to develop specific methodologies and adapt the necessary (existing) frameworks for the implementation and the assessment of Climate Neutral Districts across selected Participating cities.
This translates into the following sub goals:
- Conduct an extensive review of state-of-the-art instruments, methods, tools, and other essential resources for the planning and implementation of CNDs, referencing insights from previous initiatives and scientific networks, including IEA EBC Annex 83, COST Action PED-EU-NET, NetZero Cities, and the Global Covenant of Mayors.
• Evaluate and qualify these methods and tools to ensure their efficacy.
• Map these methods and tools to targeted use cases and stakeholder needs, aligning with the case studies developed in Task 2. - Perform a comprehensive gap analysis to identify areas needing further research and practical application.
- Develop new methods and tools where gaps are identified, supporting advancements in CND planning and realisation.
- Disseminate validated methods and tools through reports, websites, and other platforms to ensure broad accessibility and practical impact.
The scope of Task 4 involves four subtasks, each focusing on key aspects such as:
- Subtask A: Data collection and open data-sharing platform
- Subtask B: Engagement strategies
- Subtask C: Governance Frameworks and best practices
- Subtask D: Analytical and assessment frameworks.
Activities
An initial draft of the Task 4 Workplan has been defined, detailing activity descriptions within each sub-task aligned with the sub-goals specified in the project objectives. A workshop is planned in the coming months to refine and finalize the Workplan. Additionally, this task aims to build upon and integrate findings from prior initiatives, such as Annex 83 on “Positive Energy Districts” and the climate-neutral cities (CNC) framework.
Deliverables
- As a part of the initial work plan, the following deliverables are planned in the scope of the Task 4 activities
Comprehensive Report on Methodologies and Frameworks for the implementation and assessment of Climate Neutral Districts. This includes the following reports:
• Sub-task A: Interoperability challenges of existing data sharing platform
• Sub-task B: Implementation of Stakeholder activation and engagement plans
• Sub-task C: Stakeholder and Cities feedback on engagement and governance plans
• Sub-task D: Synthesis report on assessment frameworks, including case-studies of districts in selected cities and policy recommendations for district-level GHG accounting in ambitious district-level projects
Status
In preparation
Time period (planned)
Ongoing
Operating Agent & Contact person
AEE – Institute for Sustainable Technologies
Participating countries (planned)
- Austria (Operating Agent)
- Netherlands
Open for participation