UTM City2City is the Urban Transitions Mission’s global peer-learning programme to scale real-world climate solutions.
UTM City2City is a space for mutual support, exchange, experimentation and innovation.
UTM City2City illustrates that a local solution can have a global reach.
UTM City2City strives for participants to leave the programme with a pilot.
The UTM is now looking to select up to 50 motivated cities from the UTM Cohort to take part in up to 20 twinnings until the end of 2026. Cities are invited to apply online and express their interest to join the UTM City2City programme by 4 September 2025 through a brief questionnaire form.
With a 106 cities strong cohort, we want to facilitate small groups exchange to solve common challenges and accelerate innovative solutions together.
Cities engaging in the twinnings will support each other to boost sustainable urban development towards net-zero strategy through a practical exchange on how to design, implement and manage sustainable urban practices in an integrated and ambitious way.
The UTM will leverage existing relationships with the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) and international experts (e.g., members of the UTM Global Innovation Alliance, UTM R&I Clusters, other Mission Innovation initiatives, etc.) to broker the co-creation of viable solutions fit-for-purpose and meeting your city’s own needs and ambitions.
With UTM you get access to a global network of cities who share your challenges and your drive to find concrete solutions with the support of technical experts.
UTM City2City is open to all cities of at least 50,000 inhabitants. Both current UTM cities and prospective UTM cities can apply.
The city must have a climate action plan/strategy covering the whole city (e.g., SECAP, SEACAP, CAP 2 or equivalent) – each municipality within an applicant consortium must also have its own equivalent plan/strategy in place.
Prospective UTM cities simply need to submit an application to join the cohort before the UTM City2City programme deadline on September 4th.
This novel twinning programme will help UTM’s cohort – current and prospective cities – create a wider sense of community, experience innovation in urban transitions, define new training needs and R&I priorities, as well as identify and scale new pilot actions.
The UTM team is drawing on long experience from leading similar initiatives and exchange programmes to nurture an environment conducive for participating cities to learn valuable lessons from each other and from experts meant to help iteratively transform cities’ challenges into viable opportunities.
Experienced facilitators from the UTM team will coordinate each twinning, organize all group sessions and guide cities’ interactive discussions between participants.
City representatives engaged in each City2City pairing will meet at least four times over the course of a year, through series of interactive sessions:
Cities with ambitious goals and a drive to replicate inspirations that withstood practical testing and/or implementation are highly encouraged to apply for this twinning programme!
The UTM team will be there every step of the way for your city as it builds up relevant capacities, from launching new twinnings to ensuring effective knowledge transfer to moderating the final showcase which could feature your city’s insights on a global stage.
Though the programme’s design aims to ensure that cities gain relevant expertise, its practical focus is aimed towards preparing the ground for concrete pilot actions to be implemented.
Matchmaking:
Open your city to dialogue and partnership with new global peers and relevant stakeholders (public and private)
Sharing:
Help others to solve issues by sharing your own experiences, testing innovative solutions and relaying lessons you have learned
Learning:
Get access to new ways of approaching challenges and benefit from knowledge from global experts and from a wider pool of urban good practices to draw upon
Showcasing:
Profile your best practices and achievements internationally
Piloting:
Work in a deep exchange environment with new partners who include academia and the private sector to make your vision of sustainable urban development a reality
We’ve put together a comprehensive FAQ to help you find quick answers about the programme — including engagmenet, how to apply, implementation, and more.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for or have specific questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at utm@globalcovenantofmayors.org. Our team will be happy to assist you.
The UTM City2City programme is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement n. 101102296 — MI UTM — HORIZON-MISS-2024-CIT-IBA of the Horizon Europe programme. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union.
Engaging UTM Cities
[Busan, Korea, Monday 25 August] – The Urban Transitions Mission (UTM) announced its core focus and a series of significant initiatives for 2025, aimed at…
On 17 June 2025, the Urban Transitions Mission Centre (UTMC) hosted its Annual Conference in Bonn, supporting the Urban Transitions Mission and in collaboration with…
The Urban Transitions Mission launches City2City, a new global twinning initiative connecting cities in dynamic peer-learning to co-create practical solutions for net-zero, resilient, people-centered urban…
