Hi Olle! For those who are not familiar with Viable Cities, could you briefly describe what Viable Cities is and your mission?

- Viable Cities is a Swedish strategic innovation programme with the mission climate-neutral cities 2030 with a good life for all within the planetary boundaries. 23 Swedish cities are part of our programme. The selected cities receive funding for their innovation activities towards the mission, including forming innovation teams with the capacity and mandate to lead the transition. Together with the cities and six government agencies we have co-created the Climate City Contract, which is a key element in our work. Mayors from the cities and general directors are signing the climate city contract each year, always raising the ambitions. We are inspired by – and inspire – the EU and European cities – as well as global initiatives with our approach on Climate City Contract.

What can Nordic cities learn from cities in the US and viceversa?

- Nordic cities can learn a lot from the US on mission-oriented innovation. After all, this is where the Apollo programme was born… We would be more than happy to share our insights so far from working with many different types of stakeholders for mission-oriented innovation in the city and climate context. I hope that we can find synergies in working with huge mobilization efforts across sectors in relation to the mission of climate neutral cities. In Sweden, we have developed practices around system demonstrators to become a powerful tool for the climate transition. We especially hope that we can share - and jointly develop - insights for how such real life demonstrators can be important for large-scale implementation within important areas for change.

What are the biggest challenges for cities in 2/5/20 years?

- Cities might not take up so much of Earth’s surface - it’s roughly 3%, but they are responsible for a high level of energy use and, therefore generating about 70% of global GHG emissions. So of course, cities are particularly important for the climate transition. Mobility is a very important sector as transportation is a major emittor, we experience challenges within policy as well as behaviour change. Balancing reduction of emissions with social aspects is a general challenge for all areas, one example is affordable and green housing.

What trends do you see in urban development?

- At Viable Cities, we believe governance innovation is crucial to overcome challenges, so it is great to see more and more initiatives for multi-level governance. This includes a portfolio approach to how cities can connect the most promising initiatives towards common goals. We also see new levels of understanding the potential of innovation in finance as well as digitalisation. Such trends hopefully mean that we strengthen our capacity at meeting challenges for climate-neutral cities and make the journey quite exciting. For example, we will most likely see new models for energy communities.

Who do you hope to meet at Bifrost Summit?

- I hope to meet a wide range of stakeholders from the US, the Nordics and from other parts of the world that we can build alliances with towards the mission of climate neutral-cities. For example, financial institutions that are interested in new mechanisms for investments in cities and city representatives that want to explore system demonstrators and new procurement models for climate innovation. I would be surprised if we would not meet with tech and innovation representatives who can inspire the future of mobility, housing and energy in cities. 

What are you looking forward the most at Bifrost Summit?

- Together Green Transition Initiative and Swedish Government Agencies, Viable Cities is planning for many activities during 2024 to connect deeper with stakeholders in the US for climate-neutral cities. Bifrost will kickstart 2024 for us, so I look forward to getting inspired and surprised by how much we can achieve together with new partners from the US and the Nordics.