Spain’s cities are at the forefront of Europe’s ambitious EU Cities Mission, working towards the goal of climate neutrality by 2030. Seven Spanish cities—Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Valladolid, and Vitoria-Gasteiz—are part of this challenge, and while the path toward decarbonization is promising, it’s far from easy. These cities face complex governance challenges, from fragmented structures to weak citizen engagement, that offer valuable lessons in urban governance and innovation as we move closer to achieving the climate goals set by the European Commission (European Commission, 2021).
The Climate-Neutral Cities Mission represents more than just a policy shift; it’s a call for mission-oriented governance that requires municipalities, private actors, and civil society to unite under a shared objective: achieving climate neutrality. However, achieving this goal isn’t as simple as it sounds—it involves overcoming deeply entrenched governance barriers, political hurdles, and societal dynamics.
How we assessed the challenges
In examining these obstacles, our research relied on qualitative interviews, focus groups, and observations at workshops and summer courses attended by stakeholders from the participating cities. We also tapped into reports from NetZeroCities and the CitiES2030 platform to enrich our analysis.
A key tool we used to frame this research is Marc Wolfram’s Urban Transformative Capacity (UTC) framework (Wolfram, 2016), which evaluates how cities can lead systemic change. The UTC framework focuses on inclusive governance, community empowerment, and innovation, assessing cities’ readiness to make the leap from small adjustments to a fundamental transformation of urban structures, governance, and infrastructure.
Key challenges: More than just words
Spanish cities face a fundamental need to shift from incremental changes to disruptive strategies that can challenge old norms and trigger systemic transformations (Wolfram, 2016). Central to this shift is how cities view their Climate City Contracts (CCCs). These contracts should be much more than documents—they need to evolve into co-creative tools that help municipalities rethink and redesign their climate strategies with stakeholders (Mazzucato, 2018a; Shabb & McCormick, 2023).
In Spain, the creation of CCCs has been hampered by the typical governance challenges—siloed structures, communication breakdowns, and political stagnation. In some cases, the mission’s execution has even fallen on the shoulders of just one individual, revealing a stark lack of resources. This has prevented CCCs from fully reaching their transformative potential, as cities lack the capacity to break free from traditional governance approaches (Turnheim, 2015; Frantzeskaki, 2012).
To make up for these limitations, many Spanish cities have turned to consultancies to help shape their CCCs. These consultancies bring much-needed expertise, guiding municipalities through complex climate strategies and helping them meet their goals. For cities without the internal resources or capacity to handle the mission alone, this support has been invaluable.
However, relying too much on consultancies carries significant risks. Over time, cities may find themselves becoming dependent on external expertise, missing the chance to build their own internal capacity and transformative agency(Mazzucato & Collington, 2023; Gond & Bres, 2019). Instead of fostering local governance skills, cities may be pushed to focus on short-term wins that limit the transformative potential of their long-term climate goals.
A combination of limited resources and tight timelines puts many cities at risk of “Mission washing,” where they rebrand existing policies under the EU Cities Mission without making the systemic changes needed for real climate impact. This could mean that the sustainability outcomes we hope for are never fully realized (Wittman et al., 2021).
Additionally, there is growing concern that the heavy involvement of the private sector in the mission could lead to greenwashing—where business interests take precedence over social and environmental goals. In these cases, the drive for profit may dilute the mission’s social and environmental impacts, hindering the transformative potential of real climate action (Mazzucato, 2018; Cullenward, 2020).
So, how do we move forward? To overcome these barriers, Spanish cities need to place a stronger emphasis on community participation and empowerment. In many cities, these elements have been underdeveloped, leading to power imbalances where the voices of marginalized communities are often ignored (Avelino et al., 2024; Walker, 2010). By engaging these groups in the decision-making process, cities can create more inclusive and equitable climate strategies that address the needs of everyone.
Another vital piece of the puzzle is political support. Without it, the mission’s goals lack the momentum needed for long-term success. Municipal technicians have played a crucial role in insulating the mission from political fluctuations, ensuring that cities stay on course despite changes in leadership or political will (Kivimaa et al., 2019; Kivimaa, 2014). Still, stronger and more consistent political backing is necessary to help cities navigate their transition to climate neutrality.
In Spain, beyond the work of the municipalities themselves, local intermediaries such as universities and research centers have been key to supporting the climate mission. These intermediaries have played a crucial role in fostering knowledge production, experimentation, and reflexive processes, offering more targeted, place-based solutions than broader European-level initiatives like NetZero Cities (Kivimaa, 2019; Soberon, 2022).
These actors have been instrumental in bridging governance gaps, reducing the costs associated with climate transitions, and helping cities better align their strategies with broader national and European objectives (Kivimaa et al., 2019; Soberon et al., 2023). In many cases, intermediaries also support cities in implementing just transition principles, ensuring that climate actions are fair and inclusive (Barrie & Kanda, 2020; Hyysalo et al., 2022).
Opportunities: What we’ve gained so far
Despite the challenges, the EU Cities Mission has catalyzed significant progress in Spain. The mission has been instrumental in promoting systemic governance approaches, pushing cities to move beyond fragmented efforts and embrace cross-sector collaboration that includes public institutions, private actors, civil society, and academia. This has helped cities better align their climate initiatives with urban planning, economic development, and environmental policies, fostering a long-term mindset.
Moreover, the mission has provided cities with a shared narrative, aligning their efforts not only with each other but with the broader European climate agenda. This has facilitated the exchange of best practices, knowledge, and resources, allowing Spanish cities to adopt innovative solutions and address complex environmental challenges in a more coordinated and impactful way.
Conclusion
Spain’s cities are actively working to overcome the governance challenges hindering their climate neutrality goals, but much remains to be done. Overcoming the fragmentation of governance, addressing resource constraints, and improving citizen engagement requires both innovative approaches and strong collaboration between public and private sectors. Platforms like CitiES2030 will continue to play a pivotal role in fostering collaboration, sharing best practices, and helping local administrations navigate the complex landscape of climate governance (CitiES2030, 2022).
By addressing these challenges head-on, Spain’s cities are setting the stage for a future that is not only climate-neutral but also more sustainable and resilient for generations to come.
