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Two new projects have begun in our Secretariat, where we look into achieving climate-neutrality: green mobility and climate budgeting process in the municipalities.

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.

Viable Cities is a strategic innovation programme focusing on the transition to climate-neutral and sustainable cities. Get to know how they support the Cities Mission among 23 Swedish municipalities!

Interreg Baltic Sea Region launched the new programme to shape the future of the Baltic Sea Region. In 2021–2027, transnational cooperation is particularly targeted at cities in the region – and we take a moment to recognize active project cooperation by UBC member 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.

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.

First, Erik Tellgren, vice president of Växjö Energi AB, shared Växjö’s ambitious efforts to reach climate neutrality by 2030 and eventually, climate positivity. Located in the middle of Southern Sweden, Växjö is known for its wooden buildings as the city is surrounded by forest. Because of this, bioenergy makes up a large part of the city’s energy production and the company Växjö Energi itself is already completely fossil free.

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)

By striving for excellence, Växjö has succeeded to build an international reputation for its environmental performance, starting with the BBC recognizing Växjö as the Greenest City in Europe in a broadcast in 2007. This led to a substantial international interest with hundreds of international visitor groups and report stories in international press.

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.