The role of governance in the EU Mission Approach – learning from the Cities Mission of Stockholm

Acknowledging that cities play a key role in climate change mitigation, the European Union (EU) launched the Cities Mission in 2021 to accelerate urban climate action. This EU mission approach is a governance innovation aiming to create new forms of collaboration and citizen engagement, while emphasizing the role of research and innovation. Concretely, the EU selected 100 cities to develop Climate City Contracts, which should include "clear and visible" commitments and involve citizens, research organizations and the private sector. Supported by a Mission Platform (managed by NetZeroCities), these missions are supposed to unlock innovative management strategies, economic and financial mechanisms, integrated urban planning and digital technologies. While scholars have critically reflected on the potential of the EU Mission Approach and Cities Mission, there is a limited understanding of how they occur in practice and whether both, in fact, foster collaborations and the intended innovations. To address this gap, we employ the who-how-what analytical framework to the EU Cities Mission with a hierarchy, market and network governance modes perspective (Lupova-Henry & Dotti 2019). Our case of study is the Cities Mission of Stockholm: one of the first cities to have its Climate City Contract approved by the EU and the first to receive a so-called EU Mission Label. For this study, we will conduct semi-structured interviews with policymakers and other stakeholders involved in the Cities Mission of Stockholm. This will be complemented by an analysis of secondary sources such as official reports. Our results will identify who is involved in governing the Stockholm mission and how, as well as what is being governed. This analysis will help us to understand the potential shift to a collaborative governance approach, which is considered a prerequisite for fostering innovations. These results will provide lessons to other European cities seeking to act on climate neutrality goals. More broadly, the paper contributes to our understanding of EU Mission Approach and its operationalization, while critically reflecting on its added value as a governance innovation.