Hydrogen cities

Expected Outcome:A growing number of cities across Europe is developing hydrogen strategies, either for mobility applications or for decarbonising their local and peri-urban industries and hard-to-abate sectors. By acting as experimentation and innovation hubs, these cities can be testbeds for the energy transition, balancing decarbonisation with competitiveness and social cohesion.Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:Investments in - and deployment of - hydrogen applications and infrastructure for hard-to-abate sectors in and around cities to mitigate local air pollution and lead to economic growth and jobs, bringing urban environments at the forefront of sustainability and innovation.Communities of practice to foster the interaction between stakeholders from cities, ports, industry, local and regional government, as well as researchers and citizens.Enhanced synergies between the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission and the Horizon Europe Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Scope:The selected project is expected to establish ‘twinning’ of Hydrogen Valleys (in particular those that have elements relevant for cities or ports) with cities that are interested to decarbonise their local and peri-urban hard-to-abate sectors using hydrogen and to improve air quality. Focus should be on hard-to-abate and/or hard-to-electrify sectors, such as industrial uses, heavy-duty and long-distance transport, aviation, maritime uses, or any combination thereof. The use of hydrogen for heating purposes is out of scope.Twinning will help cities to access the best available expertise and tools that can enable them to identify and implement decarbonisation strategies based on renewable hydrogen. To foster cooperation between cities and Member States, it is encouraged that there is a geographical balance between the participating authorities to foster learning from different projects and approaches.This twinning should be based on mentor-mentee pairings