A+CLASS – Alliance for Climate Leadership

Guimarães leads the consortium, represented by the Municipality of Guimarães and the Laboratório da Paisagem. Porto is represented by the Municipality of Porto, Porto Ambiente, Porto Digital and the Porto Energy Agency, while Lisbon participates through the Municipality of Lisbon and the project’s technical partner, Instituto Superior Técnico.

At the heart of A+CLASS lies the development of a digital monitoring and decision-support platform designed to track the climate transition of the three cities and the implementation of their City Climate Contracts (CCC).

The platform will:

• Quantify greenhouse-gas emissions resulting from implemented actions;
• Assess the social, economic and environmental co-benefits of those actions;
• Monitor each city’s real progress towards climate-neutral targets;
• Estimate the cost–benefit of mitigation and adaptation measures, helping to prioritise investment.

By consolidating key data in a single access point, the platform will enhance transparency, effectiveness and efficiency in local climate action, enabling policymakers, municipal technicians and other stakeholders to quickly identify the strategies with the greatest impact and return.

More than a digital tool, the platform will be co-created to ensure its relevance to both the public and private sectors. It will be a space for active collaboration where best practices are showcased, strategies are jointly designed and decision-making becomes more informed, participatory and effective.

Additional project outputs will include:

• A methodological protocol for monitoring CCCs, with standardised emission-calculation methods, co-benefit assessment and city-level indicators;
• Technical and training modules to strengthen institutional and technical capacity;
• A Practical Manual for Implementing Climate-Action Policies.

The three cities will work alongside the Portuguese Climate Cities Network to promote collaborative action with other municipalities and national institutions under a shared vision: act for the climate.

Drawing on its extensive experience in sustainability and environmental education, the Laboratório da Paisagem will coordinate national activities, foster partner collaboration and ensure broad dissemination of results, playing a pivotal role in delivering the A+CLASS project.