As urban areas increasingly contend with the impacts of climate change, cities are adopting advanced technologies to build resilience and reduce emissions. A longstanding leader in the smart cities sphere, ICLEI Europe joined this year’s Smart City Expo World Congress in ICLEI Member Barcelona (Spain) to explore how smart tools—and smart policies—can create more sustainable, livable urban spaces.
Under the banner of “Live Better,” ICLEI’s presence focused on its collaboration with the European Commission’s Smart Cities Marketplace, an initiative providing cities with technical assistance and investor matchmaking for actions they wish to implement. Through a Joint European Commission representation of initiatives, many ICLEI-supported projects featured in the event’s programme, covering everything from high level policy to technical innovations.
Geospatial Tools for Cities Focus Group
The Smart Cities Marketplace’s Geospatial Tools for Cities Focus Group, co-chaired by ICLEI Europe and led by Eurisy, introduced attendees to the power of geospatial data in addressing urban challenges. This session showcased case studies from Lyon and Barcelona, offered insights from SPASCAT Technologies, and invited stakeholders to join the group, fostering an ongoing collaborative effort to leverage geospatial technology in urban planning. Learn more here.
Technical Assistance for SECAPs: Collaborative Brainstorming Session
A closed session hosted by the Covenant of Mayors and Smart Cities Marketplace focused on helping cities implement and finance actions under Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs). Representatives discussed common challenges, such as the complexities of financing sustainable projects, and explored solutions to overcome these barriers. The session stressed the need for innovative funding sources and regional collaboration. The SCM has a running call on technical assistance available here, and in 2025 the Covenant will launch a streamlined access to the SCM assistance for their signatories which will be included in ICLEI’s Member mailings and Newsletter when published.
Financing Spanish Cities’ Climate Goals
A dedicated session provided Spanish cities with a comprehensive overview of financing options that can be exploited at the local level. Delivered jointly with GNE Finance and the Covenant of Mayors, this session emphasised that public funding alone cannot cover the costs of sustainability initiatives. Options like crowdlending and project aggregation were introduced as innovative approaches, particularly for smaller municipalities. One-on-one follow-ups will explore potential partnerships with Spanish cities looking to advance their climate agendas. For more information, contact xavier.casanova@iclei.org
InnoMatch Project: Connecting Buyers with Innovators
ICLEI presented the InnoMatch project at ACCIO’s Cities Challenge, demonstrating its potential to bridge public and private buyers with EIC-backed SMEs and startups through €2.28 million in funding for pilot projects. This initiative empowers cities to access innovative, tailored solutions that address specific urban needs, paving the way for widespread adoption of groundbreaking technologies. Learn more here.
AI, Data, and Green Tech: Paving the Way to Sustainable Cities
ICLEI Europe’s session, “AI, Data & Green Tech: Building Sustainable Cities,” highlighted how AI and data can transform cities into lower-carbon, more climate-resilient hubs. Examples from ICLEI Members Izmir (Türkiye), Barcelona (Spain), and Stockholm (Sweden) showcased AI’s role in urban heat mapping, emissions reduction, and sustainable infrastructure development. Google’s role in advancing data collection and the importance of scalable, accessible tools for city-level climate efforts was also highlighted before announcing an ICLEI-supported training with Google’s AI Opportunity Fund - an opportunity for cities to receive free training on AI tools to address climate challenges through innovative, community-focused approaches to be delivered by ICLEI in 2025-2026. Learn more here.
Urban Data Governance Stakeholder Dialogue
As part of NetZeroCites, the main project supporting the EU’s Mission of “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030” ICLEI organised a Stakeholder Dialogue on Urban Data Governance which brought together stakeholders from business, research, and civil society to discuss data accessibility, interoperability, and privacy based on Mission Cities´experiences. This consultation will inform European Commission policy on data governance, ensuring that cities have the frameworks necessary to manage data securely and equitably. Learn more here.
Re-Value: Collaborating for Climate-Neutral Waterfronts
Finally, ICLEI Europe is engaging in the partnership Re-Value, seeking to advance climate neutrality across nine waterfront cities in Europe. In a session dedicated not to the technical challenges, but the relational ones it was emphasised how important empowering residents is to successfully (co)create sustainable urban spaces. Learn more here.
In addition ICLEI Europe supported a wider approach to cooperation between the many European projects and initiatives, most visibly through the many sessions with multiple partners, and the key conference session of the joint representation, moderated by ICLEI’s Head of Green Digital Transformation, Alis-Daniela Torres. The session included speakers from the European Commission, the City of Barcelona, and was co-supported by the Intelligent Cities Challenge, NetZeroCities, the Driving Urban Transitions (DTU) Partnership, the European Urban Initiative (EUI) the Covenant of Mayors and the Smart Cities Marketplace to name a few.
Marc Serra Solé, member of the Barcelona City Council, President of the Climate Action and Energy Transition Area at the Provincial Council of Barcelona and speaking in the session on behalf of the Covenant of Mayors Board, said “Communication and multilevel governance is a key enabling factor: the national and the regional level should speak to the local level and citizens, and set up open dialogues.”
This dialogue showcased the relevance of working together within the different EU initiatives to deliver effective and coordinated support to EU cities of all sizes to help them advance on their climate neutrality and resilience journey and guarantee a just transition in Europe.
Learn more about this joint session here.