Page 32 - Guidelines for cities to achieve carbon Net Zero through digital transformation

As city populations continue to grow, the demand for efficient services and resources also increases.
This growing demand strains essential services such as energy, water and transportation, which
are critical for a city's prosperity and sustainability. At the same time, cities are undergoing a
digital transition that needs to be managed effectively. The spreading of ICT is essential for urging
economic development in cities. European digital policies and initiatives aim to support and
accelerate the transition to sustainability for urban areas and communities through digital means.
This will involve building high-quality connectivity infrastructure, creating a digital environment
that empowers end-users, upholding European values and norms, fostering skill development,
and generating long-term growth opportunities across all sectors of the European economy.

Examples of projects that could have a great impact include stability, effectiveness, and safety
of low- (zero-) carbon electric grids, automated disassembly and separation of waste using AI
and robotics. On top of these processes, ICT can also help prevent significant damage arising
from disruptive weather patterns and phenomena, through climate impact modelling for optimal
mitigation and adaption. This will allow for a wide collection and better access to the wide range
of environmental “big” data and help engage with citizens using digital tools. To this end, the
planned creation of common European dataspaces, in particular the Green Deal dataspace, will be
an important step towards developing the digital ecosystem of the environment. One of its early
deliverables will be the creation of a data ecosystem for climate-neutral and smart communities,
which will facilitate the access, share and re-use of locally relevant data (in areas such as mobility,
energy, climate and zero pollution) and as such can serve as the underlying digital infrastructure
for the cities supported by the EU initiative. Therefore, the initiative will need to be powered by a
proper framework and by digital solutions that:

i) allow the management of cross-domain data (interoperable platforms and mechanisms for data
sharing); and

ii) also help cities pursue their digital transformation their own way (i.e., by preserving their security
and flexibility, as well as their data and technological sovereignty) when adopting technological
solutions.

The following initiatives could be of interest to the initiative:

• Future spending under the Digital Europe Programme in Smart Cities and Communities to
support the digitalization of urban areas to adopt AI-based services for green purposes.

• Work with Digital Innovation Hubs to help smart cities and communities in their use of advanced
digital technologies such as AI.
• Work with the COP-CITIES community to engage smaller cities and support them in scaling up
digital solutions.

• Work towards the creation of a smart communities’ dataspace with an agreed governance
structure and collaboration mechanism to access, share and re-use all kinds of data from
different sources with relevance for cities and communities.

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