Commit2Green: Participatory urban greening and renaturing towards climate neutrality and resilience in European cities

 Commit2Green is a Horizon Europe Innovation Action focused on advancing participatory urban greening and renaturing as a pathway towards climate neutrality, resilience, and improved quality of life in European cities. The project supports cities in moving beyond isolated nature-based solutions towards integrated, long-term greening strategies that are embedded in local policies, shaped by communities, and capable of delivering tangible environmental and social benefits.

The project brings together a consortium of 25 partners from across Europe, combining expertise from cities, research institutions, civil society organisations, and technical experts. The project is funded by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) under the Horizon Europe Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities.

At its core, Commit2Green promotes a participatory and evidence-based approach to urban transformation. By using city districts as entry points, the project integrates ecosystem services into urban planning and decision-making, addressing challenges such as heat stress, flooding, biodiversity loss, and unequal access to green spaces. Local communities play a central role throughout the process, contributing to the identification of vulnerabilities, priorities, and demands, and co-designing solutions that respond to real local needs.

The project supports eight European cities in developing comprehensive greening and renaturing strategies that are cross-sectoral, inclusive, and aligned with existing urban policies. These strategies are translated into concrete demonstration actions that test innovative blue-green-grey infrastructure solutions with a focus on biodiversity net gain, climate resilience, and social acceptance. Through iterative learning and citizen engagement, the project strengthens local ownership and increases the long-term sustainability of urban greening interventions.

Commit2Green is implemented through an integrated structure of five interlinked work packages, covering strategic planning, methodological development, city-level implementation, and knowledge sharing. This structure ensures coherence between local action and European-level learning, while enabling replication and upscaling of successful approaches beyond the pilot cities.

By fostering collaboration between cities, experts, and citizens, Commit2Green unlocks the transformative potential of urban nature to create more inclusive, healthy, resilient, and climate-neutral cities. The project contributes to shared European learning on urban greening and supports cities in embedding nature-based solutions as a core component of their climate and sustainability transitions.