City Networks for Sustainability Transitions in Europe and Japan

Abstract

In both Europe and Japan, city networks have emerged aiming at supporting cities to collectively address sustainability challenges. In this chapter, we introduce four such city networks: the MUSIC network in Europe and the Eco-model City, the “Future City” Initiative, and the Green and local autonomy model city in Japan. The numerous sustainability challenges of the networked cities include the reduction of CO2 emissions, the integration of sustainability in urban planning processes, or demographic change. Notwithstanding similar aims, these networks have a different setup and thereby illustrate different possibilities to address sustainability challenges on an urban scale through concerted action by a network of cities. The MUSIC network is a cooperation project among European cities and research institutes in Northwest Europe, with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions by 50 % by 2030 in the five European partner cities: Aberdeen, Montreuil, Ghent, Ludwigsburg, and Rotterdam. The Eco-model Cities, “Future City” Initiative, and Green and local autonomy model city networks focus on innovating technologies, services, and business models as well as the socioeconomic and physical fabric of the cities to make them fit for addressing global developments. All four city networks systematically organise learning and exchange between the cities on their pathways to becoming more sustainable.