Page 33 - Guidelines for cities to achieve carbon Net Zero through digital transformation

Other key areas to be addressed and incentivized to work on new solutions include:

• Energy efficiency, aiming at zero emissions to reach the full potential of energy efficiency -
especially in the buildings sector, which accounts for 40 per cent of energy demand.

• Deployment of renewables and use of electricity to fully decarbonize Europe’s energy supply -
as calculated by the Commission, an electricity supply that is fully decarbonized by 2050 must
come approximately 80 per cent from renewable generation.

• An efficient mobility for all, clean, safe and accessible including carbon-free and alternative
fuels, promotion of public transport, walking and cycling, smart multimodal solutions such as
mobility as a service (MaaS), and automation.
• Integration of the circular economy approach that employs re-use, sharing, repair, refurbishment,
remanufacturing and recycling in a close-loop system for minimizing the use of resource inputs
and the creation of waste, pollution and carbon emissions.

• Reaping the full benefits of bioeconomy and create essential carbon sinks since global and
European assessments confirm that a Net Zero-emissions economy will require increasing
amounts of biomass compared with today’s consumption.
• Optimizing the carbon footprint of Gigabit society as the latter becomes an increasingly
important part of the society and economy.

The implementation

The EU initiative will select cities of all sizes and level of preparedness if they have high ambitions.
All cities with 50 000 citizens or more should be welcome to apply to become a Climate Mission
City. In Member States with five or fewer cities above 50 000 inhabitants, the threshold of 10 000
should be applied. Carbon neutrality, namely mitigating and offsetting all GHG (in CO -eq) within
2
a city, is the target of the mission. The Mission will establish a robust, transparent, yet simple
monitoring process to measure and evaluate (HGW) progress towards the Mission goal. Three
indicators are proposed:

1. Scope 1 GHG emissions for the city within the geographic boundary (mandatory from the
beginning of the mission). This indicator will be calculated based on the emissions from
buildings, industry, transport, waste treatment (solid waste and wastewater), agriculture and
forestry and from other activities.

2. Scope 2 GHG emissions for the city (mandatory from the beginning of the mission). This
indicator will be calculated based on the emissions from indirect emissions due to production/
consumption of grid-supplied electricity within the geographic boundary and indirect emissions
due to production/consumption of grid-supplied heat or cold within the geographic boundary.
3. Scope 3 GHG emissions for the city (recommended, to be adopted by 2030). This indicator
will be calculated based on the emissions from out-of-boundary emissions from the treatment
of waste produced within the geographic boundary, out-of-boundary emissions from
transmission and distribution of energy consumed within the geographic boundary, out-of-

23