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The 2023 CDP disclosure period has marked a continued commitment to environmental transparency within the Union of the Baltic Cities. 14 cities stepped forward to publicly disclose their environmental data.

Mid-September is the perfect time to visit Turku, an ambitiously smart and sustainable city in Finland, working towards reaching carbon neutrality already in 2029. Turku is built around the river Aura – but what’s more important (at least where the international cooperation is concerned), it also stands on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Like in many other cities, for a long time Turku citizens have had a limited access to the sea due to different industries and port activities.

UBC members Turku, Lahti, and Malmö are taking three times as many mitigation and adaptation measures as other cities to become climate neutral before 2050 and have received the highest award from CDP for their efforts.

Last week, the list of 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 was announced, and 12 of them are members of the Union of the Baltic Cities!

The report of 2021 looks into another successful year of UBC-CDP cooperation, as we follow the paths of 21 UBC member cities to climate goals 2030.

While the EU’s policies over the years have led to significant progress in improving the environment, and in raising standards across the EU Member States, many environmental challenges still prevail. With more than 70% of the EU’s population currently living in urban areas, cities are critical to meeting the EU's environmental objectives and in helping the EU to become a more sustainable region.

CDP’s A List cities in 2021 take bold leadership on environmental action and transparency, despite the continued pressures of tackling the coronavirus pandemic on local and national economies and societies.

The the moderator of the event was Per-Arne Nilsson from the city of Malmö, the co-chair of the UBC Sustainable Cities Commission. He introduced the topic of circular economies and explained how the UBC SCC addresses resource efficiency in its activities. The introduction was followed by presentations from 3 cities.

During the disclosure period, the following cities had disclosed their environmental data and good practices to the CDP-ICLEI Unified Reporting System: Aarhus (Denmark), Tallinn* (Estonia), Espoo (Finland), Turku (Finland), Helsinki (Finland), Porvoo (Finland), Kemi (Finland), Lahti (Finland), Rostock (Germany), Riga (Latvia)

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,

New report on UBC cities’ environmental data disclosure to CDP highlights increased interest in resilience and growing ambition in climate mitigation and adaptation among the cities.

Back in 2016, UBC and CDP agreed upon collaboration between the two organizations with the first cooperation activities taking place in spring 2017. As a result, UBC doubled the number of cities reporting to CDP from 6 to 20. This year, the number of the cities disclosing to CDP grew to 28 in despite of the busiest holiday season.