Capetonians are committed to making a positive change in the world, and their efforts are being well acknowledged. Once again, the Mother City has been ranked among the best for our efforts toward climate change.
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an international non-profit organisation focused on encouraging investors, companies and cities to take action to build a more sustainable economy by measuring and understanding their environmental impact.
The CDP’s list of best performing global cities acknowledges cities for their transparency and action on climate change, considering data like their emissions, climate-related vulnerabilities, and actions to reduce emissions and adapt to risks. Scores are provided on an ‘A’ to ‘D’ scale based on completeness and quality of their data, and the level of action taken.
An ‘A’ ranking requires a city to have a city-wide emissions inventory, have set an emissions reduction target, published a climate action plan and have completed a climate adaptation plan climate to demonstrate how it will tackle climate hazards now and in the future, among other actions.
850 cities were evaluated of which only 105 were given A’s. For the second time, Cape Town has made it onto the list. Last year, Cape Town was the only African country to make it on the list and this year is joined by eThekwini.
“We are committed to building a future that is more energy secure, resource efficient and resilient to climate change impacts,” says the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change, Councillor Phindile Maxiti. “This is in line with the global drive to ramp up climate action and to ensure that the City’s actions are compatible with the requirements of the Paris Climate Agreement: keeping global warming increase to within 1,5 ºC. This requires cities to be carbon neutral by 2050. The City is in fact developing a new Climate Action Plan to align with the urgent global action that is required to prevent a climate catastrophe among others.
“We are pleased to again make the A-List but we need Cape Town as a community to come on board and to see how Cape Town and its people can limit global warming and become more resilient as it adapts to new climate realities.”
Picture: Pixabay
