Smart Climate City Strategy

Smart Climate City Strategy Vienna –
our way to becoming a model climate city

Climate change imposes great global challenge, especially for cities. The climate crisis requires ambitious responses and the ability to adapt. The effects of climate change, which are becoming increasingly noticeable, make it necessary to sharpen the climate action targets and define goals more precisely. The Smart Climate City Strategy Vienna, as the city of Vienna’s sustainability strategy, paves the way for this.

As early as 2014, the Vienna City Council set an initial milestone for combating the causes of climate change and dealing with its consequences with the Smart City Wien framework strategy – with a target horizon of 2050. In 2020, the goal of climate neutrality by 2040 was anchored in the Wiener Regierungsübereinkommen (Government Agreement, German only). With this claim, Vienna is reaffirming its commitment to global and European climate goals. Therefore, a renewed revision of the Vienna Smart City objectives was tackled. The strategy is also based on all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN Agenda 2030.

The Vienna City Council decided on the revised Smart City Strategy Vienna on February 23, 2022.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE STRATEGY!

The Smart City Vienna mission remains the same:

“High quality of life for everyone in Vienna through social and technical innovation in all areas, while maximising conservation of resources.”

The headline goals

1 In the non-ETS sectors, i.e. those not covered by the EU Emissions Trading System.

2 Baseline year 2019.

Smart City – the Viennese way

In its Smart Climate City Strategy, Vienna is committed to a social, human approach. “Smart” solutions are not an end in themselves, but must always focus on people and their quality of life. “Smart City Vienna” is the vision of a city in which life is good without doing so at the expense of the environment and future generations. Vienna uses the opportunities that social innovations and new technologies bring with them actively and prudently to achieve the goals.

The cornerstones of the new strategy

From climate-sensitive urban planning to the energy sector, from the recycling economy to environmentally friendly mobility, from participation to social inclusion – concrete objectives have been formulated in eleven subject areas under the three dimensions of quality of life, resource conservation and innovation.

The revision focused in particular on:

Integration of the new key objective “Climate neutrality by 2040” and a Vienna “greenhouse gas budget”
Adaptation of the individual goals to the new key goal – especially in the areas of mobility, buildings, energy supply and zero waste – i.e. waste avoidance and recycling – as well as the circular economy
Specification in the area of adaptation to climate change
Stronger focus on implementation in all target areas

Indicators

Long-Term strategies such as the Smart Climate City Strategy need to be evaluated and measured. Here you can find the preliminary indicators for the new objectives (German only).

Foundation for the climate model city of Vienna

The Smart Climate City Strategy Vienna is the umbrella strategy for the city’s climate package. It works hand in hand with the Klima-Fahrplan (Vienna Climate Guide), which uses concrete measures to make the goals on the way to becoming a model climate city tangible. All measures are financed by the Wiener Klimabudget (Vienna Climate Budget). The Wiener Klimacheck (Vienna Climate Check) is an instrument of this climate budget and evaluates projects in terms of their climate effectiveness.

Another pillar is the Wiener Klimarat (Vienna Climate Council, German only), which was set up in 2019. Scientists, experts, employees of the City of Vienna and representatives from politics, business and civil society advise politics and administration on climate policy projects.

The Smart Climate City Strategy Vienna serves as a long-term foundation for all of this – the common thread for the transformation of Vienna into a sustainable urban living space: sectoral initiatives, specialist concepts and various projects build on it. You can find a selection here.

Smart City Vienna needs all of us

Smart City Vienna also needs the commitment and initiative of the Viennese people. It thrives on the fact that as many people as possible get involved actively and in a self-determined manner – with their experience and creativity, in discussion processes, in the development and implementation of innovative projects, through responsible consumption or mobility behavior. The Wiener Klimateams (Vienna climate teams, German only) are an opportunity for citizens to help shape things. From April 2022, citizens in the three pioneering districts of Margareten, Simmering and Ottakring are called upon to submit ideas for climate protection and then to work out concrete climate projects together with the city and the district.