Climate Smart Cities Challenge

Broader Programmes

Climate Smart Cities Challenge

2 November 2020

What is the Climate Smart Cities Challenge??

An innovation competition to accelerate the shift to climate neutral cities.

The Climate Smart Cities Challenge harnesses the creativity and energy of innovators to work with cities to help achieve global net zero and create a better future for all.

Launched by the UN and Sweden, this innovation competition will accelerate the shift to climate neutral cities, by empowering innovators and communities to collaborate in designing and demonstrating solutions and reinventing how cities innovate.

The competition asks innovators – technologists, SMEs, start-ups, developers, finance experts and more – to submit their best ideas and solutions to one of the unique challenges identified by the four partner cities – Bogota, Colombia; Bristol, United Kingdom; Curitiba, Brazil and Makindye Ssabagabo, Uganda.

We are looking for organizations that can play a role in implementing transformative, real-world projects.

The challenge was delivered by Challenge Works in partnership with Teknikföretagen, Viable Cities, UN-Habitat, Smart City Sweden, Vinnova, Swedish Energy Agency and Expo 2020 Sweden.

Why are we doing this?

Cities around the world face daunting sustainability challenges.

The catastrophic risks of climate change coupled with rising inequalities, lack of affordable housing and transport options, food and energy insecurity and other problems pose real threats to cities.

But cities have always been beacons of innovation, centres of influence and thought-leaders demonstrating new ideas and models of governance and ambitious partnerships with business and civil society.

Find out about each of the four city challenge finalists

What were the four city challenges?

A view of the city of Bogota

Bogotá, Colombia

Every day more than 67,000 delivery vehicles clog the streets of Bogotá, contributing to the traffic congestion of the city and emitting 850,000 tonnes of CO2.

How can we increase the efficiency of these operations to reduce congestion and emissions and improve productivity?

More about Bogotá Challenge

A cityscape view of Bristol

Bristol, United Kingdom

Bristol – currently facing a climate emergency and a housing crisis – aims to develop 24,000 new affordable homes by 2050. While the built environment contributes around 40% of the UK’s total carbon footprint.

How can we develop and scale new ways of delivering affordable and carbon-neutral housing?

More about the Bristol Challenge

Aerial view of Curitiba

Curitiba, Brazil

Despite an impressive history as a world leader in developing active mobility and public transport, private car ownership in Curitiba continues to rise.

How can we create zero carbon neighbourhoods that integrate multiple urban functions, and promote economic opportunity and green job growth for local residents?

More about the Curitiba Challenge

A view of Makindye

Makindye Ssabagabo, Uganda

Makindye Ssabagabo is one of the fastest growing cities in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan area, but has a severe lack of affordable and green housing.

How can we develop scalable, affordable green technologies and models to accommodate the growing population sustainably?

More about the Makindye Ssabagabo Challenge

The finalists for each city

Challenge Stages

We were involved in the design and delivery of the first two stages of the Challenge, which were…

Open call for cities

In November 2020, we worked with Teknikföretagen, Viable Cities, UN-Habitat, Smart City Sweden, Vinnova, the Swedish Energy Agency and Expo 2020 Sweden to launch the Climate Smart Cities Challenge open call. This was the first stage of the Climate Smart Cities Challenge and an opportunity for cities to apply to be  a partner to run an open innovation competition that will invite a global pool of technologists, businesses and investors to develop, test and scale cutting-edge solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create a better future for all.

We were looking for cities to tell us about their aspirations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions whilst creating thriving communities. These could have included a wide range of interventions across multiple sectors or a combination, such as urban form and physical design, transport, waste management, food production, energy systems, housing, ecosystems, use of public space and others. We were interested in hearing about challenges that, if solved, would not only reduce or offset emissions but would also promote other sustainability and livability goals for cities

Four cities were selected in April 2021 who, alongside the challenge partners, would support innovators to develop, test and scale cutting-edge solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under an open innovation competition. The cities were Bogotá, Bristol, Curitiba and Makindye Ssabagabo.

Four city-based challenges

In November 2021, we worked with UN-Habitat and Sweden to launch the four Climate Smart Cities Challenges at the Swedish Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. The climate challenges of these four cities ranged from green and affordable homes, net-zero-carbon neighbourhoods to urban freight management. The Challenge invited innovative organisations of different types and sizes to submit their best approaches, solutions and technologies to reduce carbon emissions while providing positive impacts on the quality of life in the four cities.

The Climate Smart Cities Challenge used an open innovation competition process, where teams of innovators were selected to collaborate with cities and investors to demonstrate climate smart approaches that will inform future investments in the cities. The outcomes of the competition will have a significant impact on the four cities’ responses to climate change by significantly strengthening their capacity to engage in diverse partnerships and enabling communities and innovators to play a key role in designing people-driven solutions.

In January 2022, 45 finalists were selected from nearly 200 proposals, which were reviewed by an expert advisory panel, the cities and the Climate Smart Cities Challenge partners. The solutions proposed by teams of innovators will tackle specific challenges in four cities (Bogotá, Bristol, Curitiba and Makindye Ssabagabo) such as freight mobility and affordable housing.

Delivered by Challenge Works in partnership with

Teknikforetagen logo
Viable Cities logo
UN-Habitat logo
Smart City Sweden logo
Vinnova logo
Swedish Energy Agency logo
Expo 2020 Sweden logo

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