The State of European Smart Cities : exploring and showcasing models, solutions, and financing for European replication to achieve climate neutrality

Recent global developments, including the Russian invasion in Ukraine and its weaponisation of the energy sector have called for a radical acceleration of the European clean and just energy transition: cutting our dependency on external fuel sources, such as Russian gas, speeding up energy efficiency and the pace of buil.ding renovation and scaling up investments in renewables, resolutely addressing energy poverty and improving affordability of energy more widely, empowering and protecting consumers. The EU's coordinated response to the crisis was the RePowerEU Plan, our strategy to become independent from Russian energy as soon as possible and well before 2030 by diversifying our supplies, saving energy and, becoming more energy efficient and more renewable - approaching climateneutrality quicker in a just and fair fashion. Today, the situation is improving, not least thanks to the EU's interventions. What remains is the even bigger and long-term challenge of climate change and all its effects, such as devastating storms, floods, and fires. Cities and towns, representing three quarters of the EU's population not only have been key allies for the implementation of RePowerEU, but are also pivotal partners in the just and clean energy transition. Looking ahead, they are rallying to join the pathway to net zero. We have seen strong commitment in action when city representatives, smart city professionals, investors, SMEs, policy makers and other smart city stakeholders met during the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona to discuss the state of the European Smart Cities and to showcase the way forward