By Abbas Nazil
The city of Porto, in Portugal, has unveiled an ambitious plan to achieve climate neutrality by 2030 through a citizen-centred digital transformation strategy that places residents at the core of urban climate action.
The initiative is being implemented under the NetZeroCities programme led by Climate KIC, which supports European cities in accelerating climate neutrality through innovation, governance experimentation, and community engagement.
At the centre of Porto’s strategy is a new mobile application called “WAKE UP! – Wider Approach to Keep Engaged citizens on sustainable Urban Policies,” designed to help residents understand and reduce their carbon footprint by tracking everyday behaviours such as transport use, energy consumption, water use, and waste management.
According to Porto’s Vice Mayor for Urban Planning, Environment and Sustainability, Catarina Araújo, the city recognises that municipal authorities alone cannot achieve climate neutrality, as direct municipal emissions account for only about 5% of total emissions.
She explained that around 40% of emissions come from mobility habits while roughly 50% originate from residential and service-sector energy use, making citizen behaviour essential to achieving meaningful emissions reductions.
The WAKE UP! platform integrates data from existing municipal systems such as smart meters and the Porto Citizen Card to provide residents with real-time insights into their consumption patterns and environmental impact.
The system allows users to compare current and past consumption, monitor progress, and receive personalised feedback on how their daily choices contribute to emissions reduction goals across the city.
The initiative also introduces a gamified reward system where citizens earn points for sustainable actions, which can be exchanged for benefits linked to cultural, sports, and civic activities, encouraging long-term behavioural change through positive reinforcement.
Officials noted that the programme is not only designed as a monitoring tool but also as a civic engagement platform that connects individual behaviour with broader citywide climate targets, fostering shared responsibility among residents and institutions.
More than 2,000 citizens and nearly 300 organisations are already participating in Porto’s Climate Pact, which supports collaboration between government, private sector actors, civil society, and residents to drive the city’s transition.
City officials also emphasised that the project serves as a living laboratory for testing digital governance tools and behavioural strategies that could be replicated in other European cities pursuing climate neutrality under the EU Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission.