FoodCLIC as a Bridge to Aarhus’ Climate Action Plan

FoodCLIC has created a unique opportunity to work strategically with the food system in Aarhus Municipality’s new Climate Action Plan 2025–2030. By aligning goals with the climate plan’s priorities, FoodCLIC has provided time, resources, and expertise to address the food system in a structured way, while also building capacity to engage relevant stakeholders. This process ultimately led to the city council’s approval of a new, dedicated theme on the food system in the municipality’s new climate action plan.

Bringing Food Policy into the Climate Action Plan

Launched in autumn 2022 under the Horizon Europe programme, FoodCLIC supports the sustainable transformation of food systems in eight European cities, including Aarhus. From the start, the project offered the tools and structure to explore the local food system through stakeholder mapping, knowledge gathering, and engagement processes throughout 2023.

Thanks to this coordination, insights from FoodCLIC formed the foundation for the food system theme in the new climate action plan. Project coordinators contributed background analyses, facilitated workshops, and supported the drafting of policy recommendations. In 2024, these recommendations were refined through co-creation processes and translated into decision-making materials for the city council.

From EU Project to Local Climate Action Plan

On April 30, 2024, the City Council formally approved the inclusion of the food system theme in the Climate Action Plan. It was anchored in a clear policy direction: more plant-based food and less meat to reduce consumption-based CO₂ emissions. With this political mandate, an action plan for the food system theme has been developed leading to the final approval of the full Climate Plan in June 2025.

Overall, FoodCLIC has played a crucial role in bringing the food system theme into Aarhus Municipality’s climate plan. Flexibility and the strong coordination between EU project resources and local conditions have been essential. From the municipality’s perspective, the project contributed professional capacity and a solid foundation for embedding a new climate theme. From FoodCLIC’s perspective, the process shows how EU-funded initiatives can effectively influence and integrate with local policymaking.

- Written by our guest author and consortium member Louise Kaad-Hansen (City of Aarhus)

More information about FoodCLIC's Aarhus Living Lab

• Dan K. Kristensen, Project Manager, dakk [at] aarhus [dot] dkclass="link--inherit" link-type="link-underlined"
• Louise Kaad-Hansen, Development Consultant, kalou [at] aarhus [dot] dk

You can also visit the website Klimaplan 2025-2030 for further information about Aarhus’ new climate plan (page in Danish).

Publishing date: 11 August 2025