Smart cities are about creating a better place to live for people. They use Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to optimize and adapt their resources and services to the evolving needs of their citizens. This chapter gives an overview of the challenges facing their development and how global standards can provide the foundation for the creation of interoperable, sustainable and accessible people-centric smart cities. As a provider of world-class standards for ICT, ETSI has been involved in developing standards for smart cities for over 10 years now, involving a variety of stakeholders of the ecosystem into the development of these standards.