Climate-4-CAST Consortium Meeting in Östersund: Advancing the Climate Action Decision Support Tool Pilot Phase

From 1 – 2 October, representatives from 14 organisations across the Baltic Sea region, including 10 cities, gathered in Östersund, Sweden, for the third Climate-4-CAST consortium meeting. Hosted by the Municipality of Östersund, one of the project’s six pilot cities, this meeting marked a crucial step forward in the ongoing pilot implementation of the Climate Action Decision Support Tool.

Highlights and Focus

A key focus of the two-day event was the progress of the Climate-4-CAST tool development, designed to assist cities in implementing climate budgets. The six pilot cities – Bytom, Riga, Norderstedt, Tampere, Aarhus, and Östersund – shared their insights from the first phase of tool testing, highlighting their experiences and challenges. The discussions also covered preparations for pilot reporting and outlined the next steps for the second phase of piloting starting in March 2025.

The event was joined by representatives from four associated organisations of the Climate-4-CAST project – Bergen, Copenhagen, District of Herzogtum Lauenburg, and Turku – who contributed to the discussions by sharing their own experiences with climate budgeting and reviewing the pilot implementation of the Climate Action Decision Support Tool in the six partner cities.

On the second day, Kausal Ltd., the technical partner, presented the current status and future development roadmap for the tool, while gathering feedback from participants. This was followed by a reflection workshop led by Uppsala University, which focused on evaluating the project outcomes and sharing best practices. The consortium also discussed future project activities, including the upcoming Climate Budget professionals’ training course and the Climate Budget Summit scheduled for 2025.

The meeting concluded with a guided visit to Östersund’s combined heating power plant, which provides renewable heat and electricity to the city, reflecting the city’s ongoing commitment to climate-neutrality.

Future Outlook

The Östersund consortium meeting marked another important milestone for Climate-4-CAST, as the project partners continue to refine the decision-support tool to better fit the governance frameworks of participating cities. The meeting fostered knowledge exchange on how to effectively integrate the tool into local contexts, with a view to improving its functionality and ensuring its broader applicability across the Baltic Sea Region.

As the project moves forward, Climate-4-CAST partners will continue to work collaboratively, aiming to strengthen the tool’s capacity to support climate neutrality initiatives in cities across the region and beyond.

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