On October 29, 2025, the state capital Dresden brought together stakeholders from science, business, culture and urban society for the innovation forum "Dresden - the smarte climate-neutral city". The focus was on exchanging ideas and learning together about ecological sustainability strategies and proven examples and projects.

The city of Dresden is part of the EU city mission "100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030" and uses this framework to strengthen exchange and networking between European, national and local stakeholders and to jointly develop forward-looking solutions.

Mayor Dirk Hilbert welcomed the participants and thanked the commitment of many stakeholders in Dresden. In an online greeting, Patrick Child, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for the Environment, praised the commitment of the state capital Dresden to European projects and the EU City Mission.

Representatives from culture, science, industry and sport presented inspiring examples:

• Dr. Iris Edenheiser, Director of the German Hygiene Museum, presented her museum's sustainability strategy, highlights of implemented measures, climate accounting with the E-Tool Culture and the greening of the inner courtyard.
• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Krzywinski, Professor of Technical Design & Co-Director of the Speculative Transformation Department at the TU Dresden, also spoke about the assessment and presented his faculty's approach, measures and project examples.
• Franziska Lindner from Infineon Technologies AG reported from an industry perspective and presented Infineon's climate targets and the planning and construction of the new Smart Power Fab.
• Sebastian Schmidt, Board Officer at SG Dynamo Dresden, reported on Dynamo's new sustainability strategy Dresden and the published 2023/2024 emissions report.
• The topic of sustainability and financing was examined in more detail in a presentation by Heiko Lachmann, Member of the Board of Ostsächsische Sparkasse Dresden.

The state capital Dresden also presented innovative (European) projects that combine digitalization and climate: Among other things, the Cleema app and the environmental monitoring measures of the model project Smart City as well as the EU-funded projects MOBILITIES for EU and NeutralPath were presented. Interested visitors were also able to get an idea of the new working environments of Dresden's city administration with guided tours of the new city forum.

Background:

Dresden dresden is regarded throughout Germany as a model city for Smart cities and is already implementing pioneering measures - from intelligently networked mobility with car sharing, e-bikes, cargo bikes and charging infrastructure to digital parking tickets and smarte traffic lights to modern environmental monitoring such as the 3D heavy rain portal. Digital administrative services, citizen labs, hackathons, innovation challenges and apps such as Cleema actively involve the public and stakeholders.

Dresden is also taking on a pioneering role at European level: the city is involved in projects on plus-energy districts, smarten heat transition approaches and autonomous driving. It has been part of the EU city mission "100 climate neutral and smart cities by 2030" since 2022 and has carried the EU mission label since spring 2025, which recognizes previous participation and is intended to open up access to further funding. as part of the mission, 38 urban stakeholders have made a climate protection commitment.