CAN contributes to a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the NWE urban areas which assists NWE to meet EU 2030/2050 targets. Currently, NWE urban low carbon plans fail to achieve sufficient results in existing residential building stock. This implies a major challenge for NWE with its strong urban dimension. CAN aims to increase the capacity of local public authorities in NWE cities to implement their low-carbon strategies more effectively using a “neighbourhood approach”. Individuals need to be empowered to act. New organisational (governance) modes for sharing public responsibilities with bottom-up action and innovative financing schemes will stimulate the process. Priority is given to deprived city areas with highest need for improvement. 1,100 households will benefit from CAN investments reducing CO2 emissions by 1,400 t annually. Enabling bottom-up initiatives calls for a paradigm change to deliver a city-wide low carbon strategy. The partners from 5 NWE countries will use synergies beyond their national administrative systems. Exemplary refurbishments, citizens’ investment schemes and behaviour change will deliver a tailored set of solutions. CAN will leverage >14 million Euro investment for energy-related improvements in partner regions. The partnership implies main types of NWE cities with different sizes and economic performance. This guarantees the effective transfer of outputs and solutions to NWE cities and regions. To ensure that increased institutional capacity will be transferred and expanded continuously, “Communities of Practice” will be set up involving relevant stakeholders within the partnership and beyond. The project’s solutions will be embedded into a coaching framework for European cities and municipalities. The lead partner Climate Alliance is a European city network with 350 members in NWE and 1,700 Europe and will secure, together with CAN partners, the roll-out of the solutions in the long term.