UBC cities are ramping up their efforts on the way towards climate neutrality

UBC cities are ramping up their efforts on the way towards climate neutrality
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The year 2020 was marked by the fourth year of the fruitful cooperation with CDP. The disclosure campaign was in many ways unusual and exceptional, ranging from completely online events to the extension of the disclosure term until the end of August. This year an extensive promotional campaign was organized to draw attention to climate action. We would like to thank everyone who supported us during this campaign.

In the meantime, despite the uncertainty brought by COVID-19, we cannot say enough how happy we are to see 23 UBC cities disclosing and staying committed to their climate change mitigation efforts. In 2020 we saw 3 newcomers (Bergen, Porvoo, Tallinn) whom we would like to congratulate joining the disclosure and climate action for the better future.

The UBC cities disclosing their data in 2020 were,

Pärnu, Tartu and Tallinn from Estonia
Espoo, Helsinki, Kemi, Lahti, Porvoo and Turku from Finland; 
Greifswald and Rostock from Germany; 
Riga from Latvia; 
Taurage and Klaipeda from Lithuania; 
Arendal and Bergen from Norway; 
Gdynia from Poland and 
Malmö, Trelleborg, Växjö, Västervik, Umeå and Örebro from Sweden.

In 2020 7 UBC cities (2 more compared to 2019) made their way to CDP A-List that names the world's cities leading on environmental action to reduce emissions, adapt to climate risks and manage water resources.

Infographic on UBC Cities

The new UBC - CDP report is now published

The report based on the data disclosed by UBC member cities in 2020 sought to uncover some of the most ambitious goals, insights and plans to scale-up climate related work in the cities on the way to climate neutrality. To make the cities heard, we have published a new report called: “Scaling up for the next decade – UBC cities leading the way to climate neutrality”. The report among other things contains insights into how city-wide emissions changed and what factors affected the change.

The report collects some of the best practices from the disclosing cities, including for example:

  • Emission reduction through coordination of good deliveries
  • Shared mobility piloting
  • Transition to the bio-based industry
  • Renovation of the buildings
  • Shift to alternative fuels in transport

In 2020 out of 23 disclosing cities, 19 have stated to have emission reduction targets. And more than half of those cities have an ambitious goal of becoming climate neutral before the all-European timetable. We wish the cities success to reach these goals and boost their actions towards a climate neutral future.

CDP Cities - Europe team offers all the disclosing cities an oportunity to have one-on-one feedback call to benefit the city's next year's disclosure and discuss the possibilities to enhance the responses for the coming disclosure years, if you are interested please contact CDP Cities - Europe team through: citiesEMEA@cdp.net . Don't miss this great opportunity.

Stay tuned to find out the information about the 2021 disclosure period.

News related content

Related topics

Climate change

Member Cities involved

Gdynia
Greifswald
Klaipėda
Pärnu
Riga
Rostock
Tallinn
Tartu
Tauragé
Trelleborg
Espoo
Helsinki
Kemi
Lahti
Porvoo
Turku
Arendal
Malmö
Örebro
Umeå
Växjö

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"These days, consequences of climate change are already evident to the naked eye. Most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years, with the six warmest years on record taking place since 2014. At the same time cities are growing bigger in size.  Today more than half of the world’s population live in cities, growing economies and population are causing more emissions and hence air pollution. Cities are struggling to catch up with increasing demand for climate resilience and this year perpetual challenges of the adaptation measures have been even more perplexed by the uncertainty of the future.

UBC cities are proving to be on the cutting edge of future climate actions and initiatives, pledging to reach the ambitious climate goal of becoming climate neutral, among the first cities in the world. In this report we share some of the best practices and actions UBC cities are taking towards climate neutrality and resilience.

We see consistency in the actions of the reporting cities towards climate change mitigation and would like to embrace the good work and encourage other cities to join the common efforts."

– says Björn Grönholm Head of UBC Sustainable Cities Commission.

Download your own copy of UBC-CDP 2020 report