Networks and cities' news

Eat4Climate: the European cities changing citizen diet to cut carbon emissions (Network artice #1)

 “In Mouans-Sartoux, people are surrounded by sustainable food”

In the French Riviera town of Mouans-Sartoux, schoolchildren eat organic vegetables harvested a few kilometres away, disadvantaged families pick up subsidised produce from a municipal grocery, and cooking workshops are as common as sports clubs. Sustainable food is not hidden in specialist stores or reserved for environmental enthusiasts. It is woven into everyday life.

“For people here, sustainable food is everywhere,” says Gilles Pérole, deputy mayor for food policy. “People are surrounded by it.”

That deceptively simple idea has become the foundation of Eat4Climate, a new URBACT Transfer Network bringing together six European territories determined to cut their climate impact by changing how people eat.

SPARK Partners Prepare for the ADAPT Phase During Online Network Meeting

On 23 June 2026, the partners of the SPARK Transfer Network met online to review the progress achieved so far and coordinate the next steps of the project as the network moves from the UNDERSTAND phase to the ADAPT phase of the transfer journey.

THE END OF THE BEGINNING. THE BEGINNING OF THE END. THE WISH-CITIES PARTNERS COMPLETE THEIR TRANSFER JOURNEY

Predicting the future is a fools game

Time flies in URBACT networks. Partners start - and hopefully end - with a rush of enthusiasm. But before you know it, the final event is here and we are all saying our goodbyes. For the Innovation Transfer Networks (ITNs) that time has come, and WISH-CITIES, along with their peer networks wrapped things up in mid-June, in our case in Milan, where our network journey started. 

Image: WISH-CITIES partners at the final network event

From an expert perspective, the start is always exciting because you can never be sure how things will play out. The partnership is new, with its own theme and distinctive chemistry that grows over time. Most partners are also unknowns at the kick-off. 

At this stage, it’s hard for experts to resist trying to predict how each will use the network opportunity. And in my experience, we are nearly always wrong! We might expect that smaller cities, new to URBACT, might struggle. Conversely, we could assume that bigger, more experienced cities will stay the course and get the best results. Hmmm, not always right…cities will often surprise you. 

E4C Toolbox - Sustainable Food Policy Cards

How can partner cities grasp, in a quick and operational way, what represents more than 25 years of accumulated food transition policies in Mouans-Sartoux? And how can this dense experience become a lever for strategic discussion rather than an overwhelming catalogue?

The challenge is not to replicate a model, but to support city stakeholders in identifying what could realistically be transferred, adapted or reinvented in their own local context.

E4C Toolbox - Eat4Climate Compass, an orientation tool for action

The challenge

Cities cannot launch a PhD thesis or a full assessment study every time they design a new food policy action, adjust an existing one, or arbitrate budget priorities. Yet decisions must be taken, often quickly, in complex and uncertain contexts.

E4C Tool Box - Eat4Climate Stakeholders Inspiring Mapping

A mapping of the Mouans-Sartoux’s stakeholders provides an interesting way to read its food transition strategy. The actionability of the transfer for city partners depends on their official competences and network outreach and is differentiated according: