A lesson from the greenest city in the making for cities ready to show the way

As 2025 draws to a close, it is time to reflect on Vilnius’s role as European Green Capital 2025. With the baton soon passing to Guimarães for 2026, the city can now pull together the threads of an intense year built on decades of work to make Vilnius “the greenest city in the making”.

A Covenant signatory since 2012, the Lithuanian capital has been working hard to become climate-neutral by 2050. Thanks to an ambitious Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP), Vilnius adopted an integrated approach to fulfil its climate targets while placing its citizens at the heart of policy.

Vilnius is active in many areas to make the city—already one of the greenest in Europe, according to the Husqvarna Index HUGSI, which classifies 61 % of its territory as green (forests, parks, grass meadows)—even greener. From improving public transport and upgrading cycling infrastructure to planting more trees and creating community gardens and decarbonising its heating system, the city has been fully committed to its decarbonisation agenda.

Read the full article here: https://eu-mayors.ec.europa.eu/en/node/1702/