It is a new and innovative way to work together and improve the lives of people in Europe and beyond. EU missions aim to tackle big challenges in health, climate and the environment, and to achieve ambitious and inspiring goals in these areas by 2030. Their implementation requires a collective effort cutting across the boundaries of policies, programmes and different levels of governance. They aim to mobilise and activate public and private actors, such as EU Member States, regional and local authorities, research institutes, entrepreneurs and investors to create real and lasting impact. EU Missions will engage with citizens to boost societal uptake of new solutions and approaches.

Cities can register for the call for expression of interest. They can respond to the call until 31st January 2022. After assessment by independent experts, the Commission will announce the list of selected participant cities by April 2022. The first cities will be able to start working on their Climate City Contracts with the support of the Mission Platform as soon as the selection process is completed.

The overall objective of the Mission is to foster at least 150 climate resilient regions and communities by 2030. Building up to this main objective, the Mission will, by 2030 :

• provide general support to European regions and communities to better understand, prepare for and manage climate risks and opportunities, by providing local and regional administrative units access to climate risk profiles, enhanced early warning systems, and guidance for the development of comprehensive risk management plans (specific objective 1: Preparing and planning for climate resilience);
• work with at least 150 regions and communities to accelerate their transformation to a climate resilient future, supporting them in the co-creation of transformative innovation pathways to climate resilience, and in the development and testing of solutions for safe transformative adaptation (specific objective 2: Accelerating transformations to climate resilience);
• deliver at least 75 large-scale demonstrations of systemic transformations to climate resilience across European regions and communities, by supporting regions and communities across the whole EU (specific objective 3: Demonstrating systemic transformations to climate resilience).

Timeline

• a build-up phase (2021-2023), during which the supporting system for the Mission will be set up and some 60-100 regions and communities will have started to be fully engaged in the Mission;
• a deployment phase (2024-2027), during which the Mission will make any adjustments resulting from the evaluation, and will activate all other actions to unfold its full potential, further engaging another 50 to 100 regions and communities;
• a consolidation phase (2028-2030), during which the Mission will develop its legacy and seek to sustain the momentum achieved in the drive towards climate resilience.

The initiative expects to mobilise around 10 billion euros from public and private sector funding - have a read of the implementation plan
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