Porto, Braga among 95 world cities on ‘A-list’ of environmental leaders

The international non-profit organization CDP announced on Thursday that Porto and Braga are among the 95 world cities that lead the way in environmental action and transparency in 2021, where 26 European cities appear.

The two are the only Portuguese cities to appear in the “A-list” created by CDP, an international organization funded by the European Union that evaluates the environmental action of companies, cities, states and regions.

Last year, these two cities had already been distinguished, as well as Águeda in Aveiro, which is not mentioned this year, while in 2019 the Portuguese “A-list” cities were Lisbon, Sintra and Guimarães.

According to the statement sent out by CDP, the 95 selected cities “received the top score for their transparency and ambitious action to mitigate or adapt to climate change”.

“To secure an A score, a city must disclose its environmental data publicly and have a city-wide emissions inventory, have an ambitious emissions reduction target and a future target for renewable energy, and have published a climate action plan”.

To obtain a good ranking, it must also have “a climate risk and vulnerability assessment and have a climate adaptation plan to demonstrate how they will react to bad weather”.

Another 26 European cities appear on the list, including Athens, Greece, Berlin, Germany, Copenhagen, Denmark, Paris, France, Stockholm, Sweden, the Italian city of Padua and Zurich, Switzerland.

The CDP notes the absence of mainland China, India and Russia from the list, “the three largest emitters, with the exception of the United States”.

According to the organisation, the combined population of these 95 cities is 108 million, “a tiny fraction (2.6%) of the 4.2 billion people living in cities”, which “highlights the urgent need for more cities to raise their climate ambition for those who live and work there”.

This year 956 cities were assessed, “a substantial increase from the 591 cities assessed in 2020”, which is the result of an effort to increase transparency.

“For the first time, more than a thousand cities are releasing their environmental impact data” through the CDP system.

Those that reach the “A-list” take “twice as many climate measures as other cities, and also identify more than twice as many climate-related opportunities, such as the development of sustainable transport and clean technology sectors”.

This selection is now in its fourth year and, in this edition, the criteria have been tightened “to reflect the level of ambition needed to achieve the goals” of limiting global warming to 1.5º Celsius.

Thus, this year 95 cities were selected, 9.8% of the 965 that were considered, compared to last year’s 88, which represented 14.9% of the total 591.