Friday 5 August 2016

Global cities disclosing climate action up by 70%

The number of cities that are disclosing their climate actions has gone up by 70% from 2015.

A total of 533 cities globally are now measuring and disclosing environmental data in order to manage emissions, build resilience and protect themselves from the impacts of climate change, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Those cities represent 621 million citizens and more than two gigatonnes of carbon emissions.

That's because there has been a nearly four-fold increase in the number of cities in Africa disclosing climate information after COP21, including cities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Uganda.

The Asia-Pacific region has seen a rise of nearly a third since 2015 and includes cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Guangzhou.

The number of European cities that disclose their climate data has risen by 83% while those in North America and Latin America have increased by 72% and 66% respectively.

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC said: "This is welcome and encouraging news as governments continue to ratify the Paris Climate Change Agreement and work to implement it in full.

"When cities measure their climate footprint and seek a sustainable path to green growth powered by clean energy, they take us all further towards the global transition to low emissions and resilient development."