When it comes to citizen participation, Copenhagen remains the challenge of citizen participation by testing and improving new paradox of our study. It is extremely clear that local democracy applications and services in pilot districts that serve as real- is well developed in Danish cities. However, publications, life laboratories. Social experimentation is a key instrument documents, and other materials posted publicly on the City for collecting feedback from potential users. For example, Council’s platforms do not emphasize citizen participation Copenhagen has innovated by developing an experimental as a priority. We suppose that, once citizen participation has approach to its open-data portal. become an intrinsic part of local democratic processes, there is little benefit in emphasizing its existence. Indeed, cities that Copenhagen has also well-known incubators such as the emphasize it as a priority may be the ones that have the most Copenhagen Solutions Lab and Energylab Nordhavn. They to do to make it a reality. fully focus on accelerating urban initiatives and engaging with either public or private partners. Moreover, Copenhagen’s City Overall, according to their means and objectives, citizens and Data Exchange, developed in partnership with Hitachi, makes communities can make thoughtful choices about the ways in which it possible for companies and inhabitants to upload additional they live and what they consume. The hidden difficulty involved data to publicly accessible datasets. The City Data Exchange in citizen participation concerns the extent to which citizens are also serves as a marketplace that has enabled the city to aligned with sustainable, climate-friendly values. City executives develop paid services and to monetize new apps. For example, are aiming to persuade a large proportion of citizens to engage in users can subscribe to databases and then make use of them new forms of participation. However, there is no guarantee that to develop innovative new services focused on the city. citizens will do so. A potential divorce can arise between long- term visions and citizens’ daily actions. A sustainable policy at In Vienna, some pilot applications for utilities are tested the city level requires a change in citizens’ behaviors concerning, in living-lab areas before they are scaled up. Overall, such for example, the energy services they use, mobility options, and municipal initiatives incubate many experiments with a view to the adoption of new technologies. Some citizens may support the turning some over to the private sector and developing a market energy transition, but others may resist it. based on services for which users are charged a fee. Generally, citizens should be involved in shaping the future of E- Carbon-neutral cities their cities. Even if a city reforms its democratic processes, putting people at the center of every decision does not make Copenhagen has set the clear and ambitious goal of becoming for an easy way of doing things. Municipal policies favoring the world’s first carbon-free capital by 2025. The city is the civic participation require the stage at which the city expects owner of large-scale energy generation systems. It has to consult people to be defined. Citizens need to know whether also developed high-speed broadband networks and mobile they will be involved from the beginning—that is, at the project- coverage. Investment in ICT has supported the City Data design phase—or will be consulted over an already well-defined Exchange by allowing the parallel growth of energy grids and project. Will citizen participation be the same whatever the smart energy meters. The insights yielded from data have projects, independently of their specificity or complexity? informed ideas about how the energy grid should be adapted Starting a consultation from the design phase can ensure that or expanded to make the overall system perform better. For the local community buys into a project. example, it is recognized that large-scale heat pumps operate better when connected to the distribution network. To fully Finally, each of our six smart cities has the potential to create achieve its carbon neutrality goal by 2025, Copenhagen must a new type of urban commons that is based on a shared pool of optimize both production and distribution of energy. Grids will digital resources and services. Many city departments maintain play a great role in this area. The city’s energy-saving efforts an active involvement in social networks. This habit would focus on complementary areas such as the link between utilities enhance social connectedness, even if the community size were and mobility. The aim is for this technological infrastructure to hard to quantify. Platforms, apps, and new ways for the public to play a role in other domains such as healthcare services. communicate with local officials all have the potential to make city governments more open minded and responsive. F- Energy savings and buildings D- City labs and experiments Singapore is aiming to scale up the role that smart technologies play in its buildings. In 2019, the Building and Construction Some smart cities, such as Copenhagen, are meeting the Authority (BCA) established a portal for monitoring energy use 226 Quélin and Smadja | HEC PARIS | SMART CITIES | The sustainable program of six leading cities | 2021