To have insight into how “culture for climate action” has been interpreted under the umbrella of the European Green Deal, we went through to the following EU policies and programmes:

Starting from this background, we have analyzed a sample of CCCs from the EU Mission cities. We have supposed that these CCCs, conceived and approved between 2022 and 2024, may also include the principles of the NEB. Table 1 shows the list of the analyzed documents.

As for the Mission Climate–neutral and smart cities sample, we have selected those cities that simultaneously have (Table 2):

To detect the interlinkages between culture-related actions and the CCCs' possible social impacts, we have relied on text mining software, TaLTaC.¹⁴ This tool combines natural language processing and statistical techniques (Bolasco and De Gasperis, 2017). We have implemented and progressively refined a thematic categorization (tagging) to facilitate the semantic exploration and document labeling of the selected CCCs. As a first step, we have identified a set of keywords for both the Cultural/heritage domain (Category 1) and the Social domain (Category 2) from the advocacy documents mentioned in the introduction (UNESCO, the OECD, ICOMOS, etc.). We have assumed heritage as both natural (biodiversity, parks, gardens, waterfronts, etc.) and built (streets and paths, squares, and buildings), in the spirit of the NEB.

We have refined this first selection of keywords by analyzing the culture-heritage and social domain vocabulary in the text corpora of the recent EU Green Deal policies and programmes (EU reference policies). We have then searched for the occurrence of these sets of keywords in the 11 CCCs sample. These documents develop a bottom-up approach to climate-neutrality and smartness from specific geographic and socio-cultural contexts, entailing different priorities and, hence, different terminology used. So we have further refined the set of keywords in the two categories. The CCCs' structure follows a standardized template, but not all the cities fully embrace it. For example, the descriptions of individual actions are omitted in some cases. This obliged us to limit the complete analysis to eight of them, excluding Parma, Tampere, and Zaragoza.

Text mining was applied to the CCCs' descriptions of individual actions (Section B2-2). It has also been extended to the portfolios (Section B2-1) for Guimarães and Kalamata and the CCC annex for Leuven. These selected text corpora meaningfully vary from 166 to 4,689 total words, hence leading to different vocabulary sizes and richness.¹⁵

The occurrence of Category 1 keywords led us detect the culture- and heritage-related actions in each CCC. To get evidence on how CCC culture- and heritage-related actions may impact the social area, we have attributed the Social domain keywords (Category 2) to four subcategories:

This classification builds on the NetZeroCities indicators framework (Neumann et al., 2022; Rizzo et al., 2022) and the more culture- and heritage-specific “holistic heritage impact assessment model” established by the EU H2020 Social Platform for Holistic Heritage Impact Assessment (SoPHIA)¹⁶ project (Arif et al., 2021), both shown in Table 3.

This has allowed us to highlight the interlinkages between the two domains in the CCC actions. We have also applied text mining to detect indicators of culture-induced social impacts (in the four subcategories).

To correct the categorization, that is, the set of keywords used to tag the actions and detect impact indicators, the accuracy of the text mining outputs has been verified at different stages of the process, shown in Figure 1.

The occurrence of the Category 1 keywords in the reference EU policies (shown in Table 4) reveals how heritage and culture are encompassed in the reference programmatic documents, such as the Urban Agenda for the EU Energy Transition Partnership Action Plan and the EUI. The latter belongs to the Cohesion Policy objective 5, “a Europe closer to citizens,” for an integrated and inclusive social, economic, and environmental development, including culture, natural heritage, sustainable tourism, and security in urban areas.

The EU Mission Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Info Kit is rich with culture-related keywords even within its broader scope (climate neutrality and smartness) and its launch before the NEB communication.

The new NEB paradigm, linking aesthetics, sustainability and inclusion, is evident in the vocabulary of the 2022 EUI call for urban innovative actions to demonstrate NEB principles. Skills, affordability, equality, inclusion, accessibility, and sustainable behaviors, in the themes' descriptions of the call, are strictly related to culture and heritage keywords, as shown in Figure 2.

So, how are recent innovative urban transition policies responding to the NEB approach?

In the eight Mission Cities' CCCs selected, we have identified 40 Culture and Heritage–related actions. These actions reflect the themes EUI suggested for the NEB demonstrators (regeneration of urban spaces, preservation and transformation of heritage, etc.). They aim at educating citizens, creating awareness, generating social innovation, promoting behavior change and new lifestyles, and supporting economic development and innovation through creativity.

The culture-heritage related actions, that we have tagged by social impact areas (L&C, SI&D, QoL, Ec-D), are evidenced in Table 5. Actions are also classified by transition field (building, mobility, green infrastructure and natural-based solutions, industry, or systemic) and theme.

The analysis evidenced that culture- and heritage-related actions for learning and capability on climate are a majority. Most cities declare education and awareness efforts as cross-cutting actions, in the general description of the CCC pathway for climate-neutrality and smartness; that's why, learning and capacity (L&C) keywords are absent from the individual actions' descriptions (we derived the information from the human reading of the initial part of the documents). The education effort, with a role for CCIs to engage citizens explicitly specified, may concern low emission and circular regeneration of historic buildings (Guimarães, Florence, Kalamata, and Valencia), climate-neutral mobility (Espoo), sustainable tourism (Guimarães and Valencia), and conservation of biodiversity and protection of natural heritage; the latter improves adaptation and mitigates the urban heat island effect. In 38% of cases, these actions also produce co-benefits in terms of social innovation (i.e., co-creation and the creation of skills for disadvantaged groups).

The regeneration of heritage spaces and the protection and valorization of valuable sites entail citizen participation and co-creation, hence social innovation¹⁷ and democracy in most of these actions (35% of all cases). Heritage can nurture a sense of belonging to places and raise concern on vulnerability to climate hazards. The transformation of heritage sites can “enable the collective reinvention of present and future lifestyles”.¹⁸

An urban heritage regeneration co-benefit is improved quality of life (QoL), linked not only to positive perceptions (visual, acoustics) and health (Stockholm) but also to security and resilience (Valencia, Guimarães, and Leuven). Healthier and more sustainable habits are driven by new green corridors and infrastructures in heritage areas and the valorization of historic centers (Kalamata, Leuven, and Stockholm), waterfronts (Kalamata and Valencia), gardens, and biodiversity sites (Florence, Guimarães, and Espoo).

Some CCCs count on heritage and culture's power to attract other activities (recreation, sport, and leisure as well as the tertiary sector and tourism) and leverage economic development (Ec-D). This also includes immaterial heritage valorization, for example, the olive tree culture and the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle (Kalamata, Florence, and Valencia). Innovation hubs count on co-creation with citizens (Espoo), creative start-ups, and, in some cases, heritage site protection and transformation to attract companies and investments (that may be risk-free for the community).

Behavioral change (attitudes, lifestyles, and habits) is at the core of half of the actions. As for the transition fields, the actions touching on heritage buildings mostly deal with energy efficiency and circular renovation. Heritage can also be associated with a wider urban transformation, including valorization of natural heritage, natural-based solutions (NBSs), and green mobility.

Mission Cities declare creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their transition plans. Some of them mention their designation as UNESCO Creative City (Florence, Guimarães, and Valencia) or EU capital (Espoo) as a strengthening opportunity. Apart from Valencia, Guimarães, and Espoo [in the Creating Actionable Future (CrAFt) project],¹⁹ the CCCs do not explicitly cite the NEB.

Barcelona CCC is the only one, in the analyzed sample, to indicate “culture” as a lever for climate neutrality and smartness, having a dedicated strategy for integrating sustainability/climate policies and cultural and educational ones.²⁰ It is to be noted that 2018–2030 Barcelona Climate Plan (Barcelona Climate Plan, 2018) acknowledges the role of culture for the city transition.²¹ Barcelona adopts specific indicators: “Arts events by climate” (number, number of artists, and number of people who have participated), “City cultural events and festivals that have incorporated sustainability and climate criteria” (number and people attending), and “Cultural facilities participating in the sustainability culture offer” (number and types). Some CCCs (Valencia, Florence, and Leuven), present non-specific indicators: “start-up attractiveness” (if applied to CCIs) that may measure the economic development impact and “fragile population safe from heat islands effects or drought,” “perceived quality of,” and “accessible green spaces” that may quantify the effect of natural heritage protection on quality of life. Other CCCs only adopt mandatory indicators measuring direct impacts on energy and GHG emissions. Culture-related actions, linked to behaviors, do not contribute to the mandatory CCC assessment. Co-benefits indicators of these actions are mostly disused.

Digitalization is rarely addressed in culture- and heritage-related actions; from the very short action descriptions, interpreting how citizens' feedback and digital analytics are managed is difficult. Digitalization is generally related to communication or local economic development actions, in the form of

As for Governance, CCIs (libraries, museums, civic centers, youth centers, and youth spaces) are engaged, for example, in Barcelona and Valencia, education programmes. In Valencia, CCIs are part of the Urban Forum, bringing together the entire social, economic, institutional, and cultural fabric of the city. In Kalamata, the Federation of Commercial Handicraft is committed to energy savings and economic development connected to typical local products. In Florence, museum managers are part of the consultation table on energy efficiency measures in historic buildings. Creative start-ups are often engaged for the creation of innovation hubs and districts.