Toward a KPI-Based Method for Evaluating Citizens’ Contribution to Climate Neutrality—A Tool for City Decision Makers

Achieving the EU’s ambitious climate neutrality targets requires the participation of Member States, cities, and citizens. This paper presents a key performance indicator (KPI)-based framework that allows cities to evaluate their contributions to climate neutrality. While the framework is centered on the social dimension, it is also adaptable to other domains. The framework consists of three phases: first, defining the city’s goals, targets, and actions; second, identifying citizens’ contributions to these actions and selecting appropriate KPIs; and third, evaluating the KPIs and conducting an impact assessment. We applied this framework to a target city, sharing lessons learned regarding its use and identifying shortcomings and development targets. The results offer city decision-makers valuable insights into the development of citizens’ consumption behavior and its alignment with the city’s climate actions. Key findings indicate that standardization of KPIs is necessary; however, many social KPIs are context-dependent, making information about their usage environment essential. Comparing results against the city baseline and benchmarking with peer cities are critical for scaling and interpreting outcomes. Overall, our study demonstrates that this framework provides a systematic approach for cities to measure, understand, and enhance the role of citizen behavior in achieving climate neutrality.