The City4Climate consortium met today in Guimarães to discuss the next steps of the project, which aims to harness Digital Twin technology to support urban climate governance and accelerate the transition to carbon neutrality.
During the meeting, partners presented the limitations of the GPC Protocol (Global Protocol for Community-Scale GHG Inventories) in measuring greenhouse gas emissions, highlighting the need to develop a new, more dynamic model. This model will be implemented in Lisbon, Porto, and Guimarães, with the broader goal of supporting cities in achieving their Climate Contracts, which foresee a significant decrease in emissions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050.
The discussions also focused on the integration of urban data platforms, simulation tools, and climate action indicators, which will enable the creation of a Digital Twin framework for the three pilot cities. This virtual model will simulate scenarios related to energy, mobility, and air quality, providing municipalities with actionable insights for decision-making.
The project has attracted significant media attention this week:
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Jornal de Notícias highlighted the collaboration between Porto, Lisbon, and Guimarães as partners in reducing emissions (read here).
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Jornal de Guimarães emphasized the city’s commitment to carbon neutrality within the City4Climate initiative (read here).
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Jornal de Negócios described the project as playing a “SimCity at advanced level for the environment”, underlining how Lisbon, Porto, and Guimarães are using data and simulations to anticipate and mitigate climate impacts (read here).
With 15 partners across academia, municipalities, and industry, City4Climate is a collective effort to design scalable, replicable solutions for sustainable urban governance. Today’s meeting in Guimarães reaffirmed the city’s role as a living laboratory for innovation and climate action.