One of the key goals of UP2030 is to ensure uptake – that is, to maximize impact in reaching climate neutrality through sustainable urban planning and design. That means going beyond the pilot cities involved directly in UP2030 to bring their experimentation and co-creation activities to a broader audience, including other related projects and initiatives. In service of shared goals like the EU Mission: Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, UP2030 frequently engages and collaborates with platforms like NetZeroCities, as well as projects like Re-Value and CLIMABOROUGH that fall under the Urban Planning and Design Cluster.

Through close collaboration with these related projects and initiatives, UP2030 connects urban planning and design with policy priorities around climate neutrality in the EU. For example, with many UP2030 pilot cities taking part in the Cities Mission, UP2030 is a major contributor to the implementation of Climate City Contracts (or CCCs). So far, ten of these CCCs have been labeled with an endorsement by the European Commission – including specific portfolios of activities that each city plans to take. UP2030 helps its pilot cities to plan these types of activities via roadmaps that get them closer to climate neutrality, based on an examination of each city’s unique baseline context, barriers, and opportunities. Beyond this, UP2030 uses its 5-UP Approach to co-create new tools and methods helpful for all cities as they put their plans for climate neutrality into action.

The Urban Planning and Design Cluster has convened four times thus far, often with the inclusion of NetZeroCities partners. The collaboration kicked off with a meeting in Brussels in February 2023, and has since been a center point for sharing experiences from pilots and case studies, methods being used, common themes in areas like policy, monitoring and evaluation, and opportunities for shared dissemination.