This article is written by Tomer Shalit, founder and CEO of ClimateView.

“All cities want to become climate neutral, but no one knows how.”

I have lost count of how many times I have heard statements like these — sometimes even from policymakers and climate professionals themselves.

It seems that there is a general lack of confidence in the ability of nations and cities to execute on their commitment to reach net-zero emissions within a generation.

This sentiment is understandable, but is it true?

It depends what we mean by “how.”

On one level, it’s definitely not true: we_do_know how. The solutions are known, it’s just a matter of implementing them.

On another level, we definitely don’t know how. No society has ever gone through such a transformation, shifting all parts of the economy and society from a high-carbon state to a low-carbon state — managing a complex and ever-changing system of citizens, enterprises and stakeholders with diverging interests.

What we lack is a systematic way to approach and execute the high-level commitment of climate neutrality.

The goal is clear — net zero within a generation. But where do we start, and how do we even begin to approach this huge task?

Consider a moonshot

Let’s take an example from outside the world of climate. Sixty years ago, in 1961, President John F. Kennedy set an extremely bold goal: The United States will put a man on the moon within 10 years and bring him safely back.

Did they know how they would do it? No. They didn’t even have a basic design of the lunar landing module.

Did they know that it was physically possible? Yes, but they also knew that it would be incredibly difficult.

This goal seemed impossible to many, but setting the goal and making the speech was actually the easy part.

The first step is to recognise that the climate transition is not one big process. It actually consists of many individual shifts

The hard part was to split this big goal into many different deliverables. To succeed with the big goal, each and every deliverable needed to have the same quality as the big goal. In the end, almost every little component on that Lunar Module represented a breakthrough of its own. These individual breakthroughs were all necessary to reach the big goal (and eventually led to real-world applications ranging from solar panels to vacuum cleaners.)

That was the hard part. But not the hardest.

The hardest part was to manage all those deliverables with their own targets — many of which depended on each other, involving a complex web of partners and suppliers — while simultaneously not losing sight of the big goal and its timelines. That is what makes it a truly impressive feat.

How on earth is the moon landing connected to the climate?

The climate world is full of bold goals. The Paris Agreement itself is very ambitious, and many cities have chosen to go beyond that: committing to climate neutrality by 2030 or even 2025.

So the goals have been set. Now those goals have to be broken down to actionable targets.

But how can we set targets for the climate — in everything from the agriculture and energy sectors to transportation and industry? And can we make sure that these targets add up?

The first step is to recognise that the climate transition is not one big process. It actually consists of many individual shifts: the way we transport people and goods, the way we construct and heat our homes and the way we manage and harvest our soils. In all these cases, we want to shift from a high-carbon state to a low-carbon state.

The climate challenge is too vast to be solved by one actor, we need to work together and use our common drive and purpose

These are the shifts we have to manage and track. They all need targets that are just as ambitious as the overall goal because if they don’t happen, the transition doesn’t happen. An ambitious climate goal but a not-so-ambitious sustainable transport target isn’t a recipe for success.

Reaching net-zero requires that cities set targets that share the same quality as the big goal. If a city aims to be carbon neutral by 2030, every target needs to be just as ambitious.

These targets — and the shifts they represent — will be the core of the city’s climate transition. They need to be managed and measured carefully, with full support from all relevant stakeholders in the city.

To help cities in this process, ClimateView recently launched Transition targets — an open data initiative to help cities go from ambitious goals to clear targets - and ultimately impactful action. The climate challenge is too vast to be solved by one actor, we need to work together and use our common drive and purpose. That is why our transitions targets are an open data initiative. Learn more at www.transitiontargets.org — Tomer Shalit

(Picture credit: Unsplash)

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