Cities Lead the Way: Insights from the Climate Budget Summit in Malmö

The Climate Budget Summit, held on 1 October in Malmö as part of the UBC Sustainable Cities Commission Meeting 2025, brought together over 60 participants — city officials, researchers, and practitioners — to exchange experiences on how climate budgeting can turn urban climate commitments into measurable action.

Co-organised by UBC Sustainable Cities Commission and Climate-4-CAST project and hosted by the City of Malmö, the event highlighted how integrating emissions data and climate targets into local financial and governance systems is key to achieving the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality goals.

Keynotes by Professor Jörg Knieling (HafenCity University Hamburg) and Anna Huttunen (NetZeroCities, Climate-KIC) opened the day with insights on urban climate governance and how climate budgeting strengthens implementation of city climate plans by linking them to financial decision-making.

City representatives from Copenhagen, Bergen, Turku, and Krakow then presented concrete examples of how climate budgeting is shaping local policies — from embedding emission targets into annual budgets to developing sector-specific indicators and transparent reporting systems. Their experiences demonstrated that successful climate budgeting depends on cross-departmental collaboration, clear mandates, and continuous political support.

The afternoon focused on innovation in digital tools. Michael Mechenich (Kausal Ltd) introduced the Climate Action Decision Support (CADS) Tool, developed within Climate-4-CAST, followed by Hanna Meriläinen (City of Tampere), who shared how Tampere uses the tool to integrate climate actions into budget planning and assess their financial and emission impacts. Participants also received an overview of the new Climate Budget Training Course, designed to help municipalities across the Baltic Sea Region build expertise in climate budgeting.

By linking research, innovation, and city practice, the Climate Budget Summit showcased how Baltic Sea cities are pioneering governance models that make climate goals actionable, transparent, and financially grounded — paving the way toward a climate-neutral and resilient region.

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