Instituto Superior Técnico is one of the eight international partner institutions of the Science for Development Center (CCD) ‘Carbon Neutral Cities’ project, an initiative of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), which aims to help municipalities of this Brazilian state mitigate their greenhouse gas. The ‘Carbon Neutral Cities’ project was launched on 10 December, in São Paulo.

The research carried out aims to develop and apply technologies inspired by nature to increase urban resilience to the impacts of climate change and the capture of greenhouse gases, as well as using digital twins and green computing to improve the efficiency of buildings, monitor the reduction of emissions, transfer knowledge and promote public policies.

The CCD ‘Carbon Neutral Cities’ will involve a team of researchers from the Centre for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research (IN+), a Técnico research unit.

In addition to participating in this project, Paulo Ferrão chairs the European Union’s “Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities” mission, which inspired the creation of this initiative. In a statement to FAPESP, the Técnico professor argued that ‘connecting government, academia, the market and civil society in a network to tackle climate challenges, such as the one established by this new centre, is vital for decarbonising cities’.

This text was written in collaboration with the Centre for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research (IN+).