The agora session, The Power of Communities: Co-Creating Pathways to Climate, explored the vital role of effective stakeholder engagement in developing climate-neutral solutions for cities. Moderated by Veronika Cerna from both ASCEND and the Scalable Cities Secretariat, the panel featured insightful contributions from representatives of the ASCEND project, NEUTRALPATH, Re-Value, and Citizen-Led Renovation Support.

ASCEND participated in the Back to the Future session organised by the Scalable Cities Secretariat on 5 November at the Smart City Expo and World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The session explored the evolution of the smart cities community, tracing the journey from projects to the ambitious goal of implementing 100 climate-neutral cities. The panel featured case studies from ASCEND, NEUTRALPATH and RESPONSE.

This session will offer a deep dive into real-world examples from the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Portugal, each illustrating different stages of PED development and showcasing diverse approaches to building resilient, community-driven energy systems.

In the week from October 15 to 18, the ASCEND Lighthouse and Multiplier cities gathered for an impactful workshop jointly organised by Energy Cities and hosted by the city of Stockholm. The workshop focused on capacity building, featuring three expert training sessions as part of ASCEND’s Capacity Building Programme and multiple site visits.

On 5 November 2024, a pivotal moment unfolded at the Smart Cities World Expo Congress in Barcelona, Spain, as ASCEND and NetZeroCities formalised their collaboration, by signing a Memorandum of Understanding

Yesterday, the SPARCSeu Final Conference brought together leading voices from across Europe to discuss the future of urban energy and sustainability. In the afternoon sessions, ASCEND contributed to key discussions on scaling innovative solutions for climate-neutral cities.

The city of Porto hosted a workshop on "Business Model Innovation for Positive Energy Districts (PCEDs)" on 3 July 2024.

We are excited to announce our upcoming webinar on "𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 (𝗧𝗘𝗦)" on 5 September 2024, from 10.00 to 11.15 CET.

Don’t miss the opportunity to join this informative training session on 3 October from 9 to 12PM CEST, that will look at how to build an energy community through crowdfunding.

Cities interested in developing an energy community in Europe can apply for the Scalable Cities Roadshow on “How to finance energy communities and make them viable”, in Kladno, Czech Republic on 24 – 25 October 2024.