Clean Cities 2025 Impact report

Changing our world, one street at a time

We have a vision of creating cities that are liveable and healthy – and where people are at the centre of a zero-emission
transport system. This is how we’re getting it done.

2025 was a breakthrough year for Clean Cities. We launched bold new campaigns, influenced city and national policies and mobilised tens of thousands of people.

With our growing team of campaigners, and a partnership of more than 140 NGOs and grassroots organisations across Europe, we’re securing practical, rapid change. And thanks to our research and policy experts, we have established ourselves at the forefront of today’s thinking on city transport.

We’re proud of our achievements. The report below contains more about our highlights, or you can scroll down for a summary!

What we're campaigning for

HOW WE'RE DOING IT

ACCELERATING THE ELECTRIFICATION OF ROAD TRANSPORT

We’re working with cities and companies to accelerate the electrification of transport at the city level. Our vision is for everyone to benefit from the transition - so we’re working with small and large businesses, not-for-profit organisations and communities of colour as well as major corporations.

CHILD FRIENDLY CITIES & SPACE FOR PEOPLE

We’re harnessing the transformational power of parents and children in cities across Europe. Children’s safety and health is genuinely uncontroversial, so we tap into a reservoir of empathy with easy-to-understand demands to mobilise people that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach beyond the climate community.

our partners

We work with grassroots, environment, health and other civil society groups across Europe to campaign for cleaner, healthier, more liveable cities — from Central and Eastern Europe to the Mediterranean to Scandinavia.

Together, we champion active, shared and electric mobility, and policies to support the shift to cleaner transport, such as low and zero-emission zones and School Streets.

Campaign highlights

Our campaigning has delivered real change for city residents, with big climate and health impacts.

ZERO-EMISSION ZONES

Working with our Dutch partner, we supported the introduction of Europe’s first zero-emission zones for freight. There are now 18 Dutch cities with their own zones. This shows what partnerships between public authorities and private companies can achieve.

CHAMPIONING E-CARGO BIKES

In Milan, we launched Italy’s first Cargo Bike Day, engaging over 500 participants. The work frames freight not only as a technical issue, but as a cultural and public one, making zero-emission delivery both visible and desirable.

STREETS FOR KIDS

Our Streets for Kids Spring Days of Action saw more than 570 events in 20 countries. That takes the total events across Europe since we started to 2,800 with 350,000 parents, teachers and children joining in across 300 cities!

CHILD-FRIENDLY CITY RANKING

Streets for Kids was supported by our landmark Child-Friendly Cities Ranking. It assessed 36 European cities on school street implementation, protected cycling infrastructure and safe speed limits, with coverage in The Guardian, La Repubblica, Le Figaro and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

URBAN REALM AND PARKING INTERVENTIONS

Our UK Carspreading campaign has stirred up public opinion, tackling oversized SUVs. We helped pass a London Assembly motion calling for SUV parking fees. This was on the heels of Paris’ referendum hiking oversized vehicle parking charges which prompted Bordeaux to do the same.