Track: | Energy & Environment |

Mediterranean cities increasingly face the impacts of climate change, from extreme heat and water stress to growing pressure on infrastructure and public spaces. The session explores how cities can scale adaptation through nature-based solutions, innovative governance approaches and new financing mechanisms. Drawing on concrete experiences from the Mediterranean, speakers will share practical pathways to more resilient urban environments.

Can youth ideas help shape the future of our cities? This inspiring session brings together global city leaders and brilliant youth voices from the C40's Students Reinventing Cities competition. Through a dynamic roundtable, discover practical, groundbreaking approaches to tackling urban climate challenges and innovation. Join us to unlock powerful collaboration strategies that translate youth-led ideas into real-world urban transformation.

This interactive event will help cities move from inspiration to implementation. As they tackle smart city challenges like climate adaptation, energy resilience, public wellbeing and digital transformation, participants will share practical experience on how smart lighting supports broader urban goals. Guided discussions and peer exchange will help explore concrete solutions and lessons learned for smarter and more sustainable cities at night.

Five finalists. One winner. Twenty minutes that could change what gets built in your city next. The QBE AcceliCITY Resilience Challenge Top 5 take the stage for a live fireside panel — introducing their solutions, unpacking the urban challenges they're solving, and sharing what they need to scale. The session closes with the live winner announcement.

A space where projects, corporates, and investors can have smooth conversations about solutions and innovative technologies that can help drive the world toward sustainability goals on the 2050 agenda.

What if startups didn't have to pitch first? Hosted by Choose Paris Region, Reverse Pitch flips the traditional format. Instead of startups pitching to corporates, seven innovation leaders from major companies, public institutions and the Paris Region innovation ecosystem pitch their open innovation opportunities directly to startups and scale-ups.

What does, and should, smart lighting serve ultimately? Urban lighting is evolving into a strategic service supporting energy efficiency, sustainability, resilience and smarter city management. With industry experts, cities will explore how to move beyond technology-driven approaches to offer more human-centred lighting strategies through connected systems, digital twins, integrating green spaces for sustainable nighttime environments for all.

The session aims to bring together city representatives and technical partners/tool providers to accelerate the adoption of digital twin applications at the city level, filling the gap between the potential of what is offered and the actual uptake by local administrations and decision-makers. The session will leverage the engagement of municipalities within city networks and other initiatives with the support and expertise of technical partners.

Cities today stand at a turning point, where climate change, rapid urban growth, and environmental shifts are reshaping how urban areas function and evolve. These changes go beyond daily experience, influencing the very foundations and systems that support urban life. As cities adapt to increasing uncertainty and more complex challenges, the need for innovative, adaptive and resilient solutions becomes more urgent. This session brings together cutting-edge and practical solutions that help cities adapt, transform, and stay ahead of emerging challenges, paving the way toward more resilient, sustainable, and livable urban futures.

Connecting AI and sustainability can help create greener, more livable cities, but scaling impact responsibly remains a challenge. The session explores how cities can use AI sustainably and equitably by addressing topics such as governance, partnerships, business models, data, carbon footprint, and accountability, while identifying the enabling conditions needed to build resilient, carbon-neutral and inclusive cities by 2030.

With increasingly complex shocks and stresses, cities must strengthen their capacity not only to respond and adapt to disruption, but to anticipate them. This session questions how urban areas are preparing for extreme weather events, infrastructure stress, and growing social vulnerability through more resilient planning, risk management, and coordinated emergency response. The discussion also explores how urban environments can mitigate negative effects of climate change, build resilience amid uncertainty, enhance coordinated emergency response and protect long-term urban prosperity.

How cities are anticipating, preparing for and absorbing escalating climate impacts: from extreme weather events to infrastructure stress and social vulnerability.

As cities and regions confront rising demand, rapidly changing global contexts, and decarbonization goals, energy sovereignty has become a defining urban priority. This conversation explores what are the different possibilities when designing an efficient energy mix through renewables, decentralized systems, and context-specific strategies shaped by geography, resources, and long-term resilience. With a focus on energy security, new energy models, investment, and the clean transition, the conversation shows why there is no single path forward, but rather a need for diversified, reliable, and future-ready solutions.

Renewables, decentralization, geography and long-term resilience: how cities and regions are making the defining energy choices of our time.

Building resilient cities requires new approaches that connect infrastructure investment, energy systems, and long-term urban development strategies. This session will explore how cities and industry leaders can collaborate to accelerate the delivery of future-ready infrastructure while balancing economic growth, sustainability, and operational efficiency. From investment models and energy transition pathways to public–private partnerships that enable scalable solutions. Strengthening coordination across sectors will be essential to creating resilient, investable, and economically sustainable urban ecosystems.

Welcome to our 2026 edition – the global stage where urban innovation comes to life. This opening session sets the tone for an exciting journey ahead, with a warm welcome from Smart City Expo director Ugo Valenti and Tomorrow.Mobility president Marc Rozendal. Joining them are high-level representatives who will share how territories around the world are becoming better places to live and thrive. Get ready for three action-packed days of bold ideas and groundbreaking strategies from around the globe.

By 2030, data centers will account for 8.6% of global energy demand. As capacity triples in Europe and sprawl accelerates in North America, cities face unprecedented pressure on land and resources. This session addresses how strategic land-use policy and zoning can transition these facilities from isolated, resource-heavy sites into integrated, dense, and climate-aligned urban infrastructure.

The meetings aims to bring together civil society organizations, grassroots organizations, the public sector and private sector, to share practical experiences on cross-sector partnerships and identify what makes them work in addressing complex urban challenges, strengthening collaboration, innovation and sustainable urban development.

A relaxed moment to have a drink and mingle with other attendees at the venue’s main entrance after the World Smart City Awards gala.

How can cities use data to act on interconnected risks? This session explores how science, advanced analytics, Digital Twins and UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Interactive Profiling Tool (CRPiT) can support resilience diagnosis, scenario planning and prioritization, with concrete applications from UN-Habitat, Aretian and the Barcelona Metropolitan Region.

Turning clean energy goals into everyday urban reality requires a new generation of technologies capable of making energy systems smarter, more flexible, and more efficient. This session showcases the innovations supporting that shift, from smart grids to electrification, AI, digital tools, and integrated management platforms. By bringing together practical perspectives from different solutions and areas of expertise, the discussion highlights how more adaptive, intelligent, and efficient energy systems are reshaping the way cities manage energy and accelerate the transition.

Smart grids, storage systems, electrification and integrated management platforms – the tools that turn energy ambition into operational reality.

Discover how plug-and-play AI and digital solutions can help create thriving, future-ready communities. This session highlights affordable, open-source innovations that empower small and medium size municipalities and cities in the Global South alike. By focusing on flexible interoperability, we will explore how cities can adopt affordable, sustainable technology, collaborate across platforms, and build resilient urban futures on their own terms.

Urban lighting is a strategic service that shapes how cities function after dark. This session unveils how next-generation lighting systems, from energy-efficient street lighting to connected and integrated infrastructure, are improving public space, reducing emissions, supporting safer urban environments. How cities can use light more intelligently to enhance urban experience, optimize operations, and deliver more responsive, sustainable, and people-centered services?

As cities grow and diversify, the quality of urban life after dark is becoming a key challenge for city leaders. Drawing on the experience of Montpellier, this session explores how lighting can go beyond safety and visibility to shape more livable, inclusive and sustainable public spaces. From energy transition and smart control systems to biodiversity protection and “dark infrastructures”, it will showcase how integrated lighting strategies can enhance urban identity, improve wellbeing and create better nighttime environments.

Next-generation lighting, from energy-efficient street lighting to smart integrated infrastructures, is quietly transforming safety, emissions and the experience of public space.

Water and waste management are no longer just basic urban services, but essential pillars of environmental stewardship, urban quality of life, and public health. This session explores how cities are managing these systems through more circular, efficient, and integrated approaches that reduce waste, protect water resources, and improve service delivery. Highlighting innovative models and practical strategies that help turn resource management into a driver of resilience, livability, and urban sustainability.

Accelerating the clean energy transition demands a radical leap in urban innovation. This highly interactive, gamified session empowers city officials, urban planners, and stakeholders by testing their understanding of current climate challenges and emerging smart city innovations and showcasing proven, ready-to-use innovations.

Terra50 is a global initiative led by Smart City Expo World Congress and Tomorrow.City to identify, validate and showcase 50 urban climate solutions with proven impact and strong replication potential. Through expert review, research and AI-supported analysis, Terra50 highlights innovative projects that help cities reduce emissions, strengthen resilience and improve quality of life, inspiring adoption and scaling worldwide.

Across cities, the push to reduce emissions is reshaping how buildings and infrastructure are designed, upgraded, and managed. What was once a series of isolated interventions is becoming a more coordinated effort, bringing together buildings, energy systems, and urban infrastructure. Retrofitting existing assets, improving energy performance, and adopting low-carbon materials are now central strategies, alongside the integration of renewables and smarter energy management. At the same time, resilience is moving up the agenda, influencing how infrastructure is designed and maintained. Delivering on these ambitions requires new approaches to financing, governance, and collaboration across the entire urban ecosystem.

The Tijuana Clean City Program is advancing a more efficient, safer and more livable urban environment through improvements in lighting, waste management, roads and public safety. Aligned with the 2025–2027 Municipal Development Plan, the initiative brings together government, the private sector, academia and civil society to strengthen infrastructure, improve public spaces and deliver cleaner, safer streets.

Rethinking water and waste management as a critical asset for public health, environmental protection and the quality of urban life.

Designing greener cities is not simply an environmental ambition, but a practical urban priority tied to resilience, public health, and quality of life. This session explores how cities are moving from vision to implementation through parks, urban forests, green corridors, and other nature-based solutions, while addressing the governance, financing, and delivery challenges that often shape their impact. Bringing together case-based experiences, the discussion will look at what is working, how cities are embedding green infrastructure into broader urban strategies, and what it takes to scale these interventions in ways that deliver tangible benefits for both people and the urban environment.

Parks, urban forests, green corridors and regenerative design are not only amenities – they are climate tools, health assets and biodiversity engine.

An exploration of how the electric mobility transition is reshaping urban space allocation and transforming approaches to public and private fleet management in cities.

Digital innovation is redefining how cities and organizations address growing urban challenges, creating new models for planning, service delivery, and day-to-day operations. Technologies such as AI, digital twins, and intelligent data platforms are enabling more predictive, efficient, and data-driven ways of managing urban environments. This session will examine how these capabilities are transforming operational efficiency, reduce emissions, and strengthen urban resilience. Successfully embedding these technologies into existing systems will be critical to building more agile, responsive, and future-ready cities.