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The POCACITO project develops an evidence-based 2050 roadmap for EU post-carbon cities. POCACITO facilitates the transition of EU cities to a forecasted sustainable or “post-carbon” economic model. The project focuses on towns, cities, megacities, metropolitan areas and urban clusters larger than 1 million people as well as small and medium-sized cities.

The POCACITO project develops an evidence-based 2050 roadmap for EU post-carbon cities. POCACITO facilitates the transition of EU cities to a forecasted sustainable or “post-carbon” economic model. The project focuses on towns, cities, megacities, metropolitan areas and urban clusters larger than 1 million people as well as small and medium-sized cities. POCACITO’s approach uses participatory scenario development as a mutual learning and living lab environment strategy. The project recognises that post-carbon city transitions should improve urban resilience to fluctuating environmental and socio-economic pressure. Pressure in this context includes long-term changes in urban resident demographics, city and rural migration patterns, and potential city health concerns.

Further, POCACITO develops innovative long-term outlooks for European post-carbon cities to address climate adaptation and urban environmental metabolism concerns by using a participatory city case study approach.

The project’s research supports the sustainable development objective of the Europe 2020 strategy and the Innovation Union flagship initiative.

POCACITO’s main objective is to produce a long-term outlook into the future of EU sustainable post-carbon cities in a global context. This outlook serves to assess the long-term trends and tensions in EU cities which may have a relevant impact on urban development and to explore innovative approaches for achieving sustainable post-carbon cities in the EU.
The goal of the POCACITO project is to develop an evidence-based roadmap for EU cities to transition to post-carbon systems by 2050. This main objective will be achieved using seven components:

  • Assembling an inventory of current initiatives and best practices which will serve to inform about potential measures and successful approaches to a post-carbon transition process.
  • Producing an initial assessment of the current situation in case study cities as an input into the scenario development.
  • Identifying win-win situations at the city level regarding CO2 reductions and tackling other environmental problems, such as air pollution or climate change adaptation. Partner cities in the EU and in emerging economies will be informed about best practices and potential policy transfer through a dedicated ‘Marketplace of Ideas’ with study tours and learning opportunities. Mutual learning, exchanging visions and experiences between EU cities and internationally.
  • Developing together with stakeholders a set of three to five qualitative socio-economic scenarios for specific case study cities. This foresight will be completed by adding a post-carbon vision to each scenario in each city.
  • A quantitative analysis will measure the distance between the scenarios and the business-as-usual development and the post-carbon vision in each city. The result of the gap analysis will then inform stakeholders when choosing potential additional measures to be added to their scenarios.
  • In an iterative approach, the combination of scenarios and measures will be assessed as to their socioeconomic impacts in order to adjust the choice of measures.
  • Positioning the EU as one of the first movers regarding low carbon urban solutions. Based on the results of the above six components, a set of strategic transition papers, city-specific foresights, and a generic EU 2050 roadmap with recommended pathways for a set typology of cities will be produced.