Entering the final month of the project, and LOCALISED partners have been actively disseminating and upscaling the tools. On 9 September 2025, a webinar was held for Austrian local administrations, showcasing the LOCALISED Climate Action Strategiser (CAST) in an interactive format.

The event was hosted by ÖGUT, the Austrian Society for Environment and Technology, which invited its network of municipalities to learn about the project and its results. More than 30 representatives from local administrations participated, engaging with the tool and sharing valuable feedback.

During the webinar, Bernd Hezel from Climate Media Factory presented the CAST. This science-based tool offers regional and municipal-level emission reduction and adaptation pathways aligned with national long-term strategies. Based on downscaled national decarbonisation trajectories consistent with Europe’s net-zero target, it supports the development of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) and monitoring of related Sustainable Development Goals. CAST is designed to inspire policy makers and local experts on their path toward climate resilience, while also assessing the social impacts and equity of selected measures.

The event also featured insights from Hanna Jagenteufel of Langenzersdorf municipality in Lower Austria, who had previously tested the tool with fellow administrators. She highlighted the benefits of CAST’s automated SECAP reporting and the learning potential for smaller-size administrations. The tool demonstration was welcomed with genuine interest and detailed questions from the audience.

If you are interested in applying the tool in your municipality or wish to share feedback, we invite you to get in touch with us.

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Are you interested in testing a new, state-of-the-art climate action planning tool? In our LOCALISED project we have been developing the Climate Action Strategiser (CAST) over the last three years, together with a range of stakeholders from European cities and regions. To make sure it meets your professional needs in local/regional climate planning, we would be grateful for your valuable feedback!

WHAT IS THE CAST?

The LOCALISED Climate Action Strategiser is a free, web-based climate action planning tool for European regional and local administrations. It translates national climate action roadmaps to the local level and provides relevant knowledge to support administrations and policy makers in becoming driving forces on the road to climate neutrality and resilience.

This is achieved by setting up a comprehensive climate action plan, tailored for your city or region, optimized in terms of cost, emission cut or social equity, and based on scientifically-sound decarbonisation pathways and a large database of adaptation and mitigation measures. Additionally, it will include information on how the chosen measures affect SDGs as well as a monitoring function.

With the tool, you can automatically generate the relevant cornerstones of a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) for the Covenant of Mayors, which can be refined with further input from the user. It is the first tool with an optimization function and has been co-created with multiple stakeholders from the field.

See a more comprehensive feature liste here: localisedclimateaction.eu 

WHOM IS IT FOR?

The tool is designed for all people working in in the field of regional administration, not only specifically on transition. If you have some knowledge on your region, what characteristics it possesses or which sectors are prevalent, you will be able to benefit from it. It is not necessary for you to have deep knowledge on Climate Change or sustainability, as this is just what the CAST can help you with in an easy way.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE?

The testing will take about half an hour, and the survey guides you through everything: ACCESS HERE!

For any additional information, please write to climateaction@climatemedia.de. 

Researchers from the University of Twente travelled to Istanbul to present their latest findings at the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) Conference. Their work focuses on the feasibility of climate actions, conducted under the umbrella of the LOCALISED Project.

In the special session “Governing the ‘Carbon Neutral City’: Barriers and Enablers for an Integrated Climate Governance in Cities”, Gerard Martínez Görbig introduced key outputs of the LOCALISED Project and presented new insights into the socioeconomic and spatial factors that support the implementation of just and inclusive climate action. This work – Exploring the Feasibility of Climate Actions: What Guides Adaptation Implementation in Europe? – was developed in collaboration with Diana Reckien, Johannes Flacke, Richard Sliuzas (University of Twente), and Aldo Treville from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.

The session, organised by Eloïse Deshayes (Universitat Internacional de Catalunya) and Eda Yücesoy (Istanbul Technical University), also featured presentations by Eloïse Deshayes – Accounting Beyond Boundaries: Exploring Consumption-Based Carbon Approaches in Paris and Gothenburg – and Will Brown (University of Cambridge) – Urban Carbon Emission Data. Together, the three talks provided valuable perspectives on how cities can progress toward carbon neutrality and the tools and data that can support this transition.

The session concluded with an engaging discussion between presenters and the audience, highlighting the critical role of emissions data and information tools in achieving local climate neutrality and building urban resilience.

From July 9 to 11, 2025, LOCALISED was at the Lisbon Livable Cities Conference 2025, organised by AMPS (Architecture Media Politics Society), an international, interdisciplinary research organisation brnging together academics and professionals around how we inhabit, teach, and interpret the built and natural environments. The event took place at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Iscte).

Indeed, the conference featured high-quality talks from passionate and skilled researchers and urban planners worldwide, all focused on discussing and identifying the best strategies to improve urban well-being and the preparedness of cities for crises, from earthquakes to flooding. The event provided an opportunity for exchange, where experts could engage in fruitful debates on methods and tools for better planning of urban systems, spaces, and infrastructures. Themes included, but are not limited to: Architecture, design, planning and context; Public health and wellbeing; Urban regeneration and economic prosperity; Sustainability and resilience; Human geography and urban migration; Communities, participation and representation; Landscape design, art and placemaking; Heritage, conservation and tourism; Intelligent cities and smart urbanism; Transport, mobility and infrastructure; Social justice, accessibility and inclusive design.

LOCALISED presented its work on co-developing science-based tools with local actors, including municipalities, businesses, and citizens to support climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. These tools include:

• Climate Action Strategiser

• Citizen Engager

• Net-Zero Business Consultant

• LOCALISED Sustainable Business Model Canvas

The presentation focused on lessons learned from stakeholder collaboration and the challenges of integrating scientific knowledge into practice and planning. Moreover, with a focus on understanding and approaches for urban resilience, the session included presentations with interesting insights on risk, vulnerability, and resilience, with examples from Detroit´s contaminated soils by N. Caverly and adaptation planning in Florida by M. Winter, including essential discussions on methods such as collaborative introspection by T. A. Esteban for community´s risk perception research. These talks prompted critical discussions around public trust in science, the role of diverse knowledge in policymaking, and the meaning of resilience in urban contexts.

“The adoption of a meaningful collaborative perspective between science-practice-planning and with local actors in the urban context may have a high transformative impact, crucial for tailoring measures and unlocking societal innovative potential, as well as, as we already know, for fostering legitimacy and acceptance, cooperation, and trust in institutions and, therefore, for moving towards more democratic, better-informed, and community-oriented arrangements. In this context, “meaningful” also means multi-perspective. The importance of diversity in actors engaged in the co-creation for successful policies, but also services and products, emerges as crucial.” – Sandra Barberino Vignola (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), LOCALISED scientific assistant

Particularly, some project experiences, methods, and outcomes were shared because relevant, such as the Sustainable Oriented Indicators (SOIs), for the local evaluation of SDGs (Ibañez Iralde et al. 2024); the Data-Sharing Platform (DSP), our integration of data for climate adaptation and mitigation (Martínez Görbig et al. 2024), the methodology for downscaling pathways (Patil et al. 2024); and the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) for (mal)adaptation (Reckien et al. 2023) and assessing mitigation measures impacts.

What emerged from the three days was a tightly scheduled series of talks. The specialised knowledge of each talk highlighted state-of-the-art methodologies, but also a common need for holistic approaches that consider communities’ needs and perspectives, as well as open, accessible, standardised, and integrated datasets. The future seems full of possibilities, where innovation, collaboration, and inclusivity are key to shaping livable, climate-resilient cities.

“Planning and implementing a city’s transition towards climate neutrality and resilience is a collaborative commitment involving the whole community. In this way, local stakeholder groups are engaged in developing a context-specific city’s climate strategy using data-based alternative sets of measures. “ – Sandra Barberino Vignola (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), LOCALISED scientific assistant

AI was used to generate all of this image. App or device used: ChatGPT. Content Credentials issued by OpenAI

As part of a comprehensive strategy to support the decarbonisation of the private sector, LOCALISED has launched the Sustainable Business Model Canvas (LSBMC), a practical, interactive tool designed to help businesses explore and reshape their business models for a low-carbon future. The tool is especially targeted at companies with established sustainability departments and consultancy firms specialised in sustainability and climate strategy, particularly those working with organisations in high-impact sectors such as manufacturing, construction, agriculture, and transport.

The LSBMC complements two other major developments:

• the Net-Zero Business Consultant (NZBC), which supports companies in assessing their climate vulnerability and exposure; and
• a set of technology and best practices factsheets that help visualise real-world sustainable solutions already in use across Europe.

Together, these resources aim to:

• Help businesses analyse their vulnerability and exposure to climate change (via the NZBC),
• Diagnose their current business model and explore strategic improvements (via the LSBMC), and
• Visualise concrete solutions and technologies (via a set of sector-specific factsheets).

What Makes the Tool Innovative?

The LSBMC builds on and enhances traditional business model canvases by integrating advanced sustainability features:

• a preliminary self-assessment taxonomy to position a company within an eco-social-economic spectrum;
• database of 400+ measures and instruments to explore actionable decarbonisation options;
• a customisable measures database to incorporate company-specific strategies;
• direct linkages to SDGs and over 250 sustainability-oriented indicators;
• possibility to map the connections with GHG Protocol Scopes 1, 2 and 3; and
• a repository of real business technologies and innovations, presented in the form of sectoral factsheets.

 Validated with Real Companies Across Europe

The LSBMC has been tested through interviews and hands-on sessions with companies in Italy, Poland, Germany, and Spain from key sectors: manufacturing, construction, agriculture, and transport.

Participants valued the tool as:

• A starting point for decarbonisation planning;
• A support system for sustainability reporting; and
• A way to align internal strategy with sustainable development goals and opportunities.

The tool also enhanced strategic awareness among users, prompting reflection on barriers, opportunities, and future pathways.

One Tool — Multiple Connections

The real strength of the LSBMC lies in its integration with other LOCALISED project outcomes:

• It complements the Net-Zero Business Consultant, which evaluates risks and vulnerabilities;
• It connects directly with the WP4 database of adaptation and mitigation measures;
• It draws on WP5’s SDG-linked indicators; and
• It links to WP7’s fact sheets, which showcase real European examples of green technologies across various sectors.

In doing so, the LSBMC not only helps businesses understand their present but also design their sustainable future.