Will climate mitigation ambitions lead to carbon neutrality? An analysis of the local-level plans of 327 cities in the EU
Salvia, Monica | Reckien, Diana | Pietrapertosa, Filomena | Eckersley, Peter | Spyridaki, Niki-Artemis | Krook-Riekkola, Anna | Olazabal, Marta | de Gregorio Hurtado, Sonia | Simoes, Sofia, G. | Geneletti, Davide | Viguie, Vincent | Fokaides, Paris, A. | Ioannou, Byron, I. | Flamos, Alexandros | Csete, Maria Szalmane | Buzasi, Attila | Orru, Hans | de Boer, Cheryl | Foley, Aoife | Rižnar, Klavdija | Matosović, Marko | Balzan, Mario V. | Smigaj, Magdalena | Baštáková, Viera | Streberova, Eva | Šel, Nataša Belšak | Coste, Lana | Tardieu, Léa | Altenburg, Corinna | Lorencová, Eliska Krkoška | Orru, Kati | Wejs, Anja | Feliu, Efren | Church, Jon Marco | Grafakos, Stelios | Vasilie, Sergiu | Paspaldzhiev, Ivan | Heidrich, Oliver | Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis of the National Research Council [Italy] (IMAA) ; National Research Council of Italy | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) | University of Twente | Nottingham Trent University | Leibniz Association = Leibniz Gemeinschaft = Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (LG / WGL) | University of Piraeus | Luleå University of Technology = Luleå Tekniska Universitet (LUT) | Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) | Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) | Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG) | Università degli Studi di Trento = University of Trento (UNITN) | Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement (CIRED) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-AgroParisTech-École nationale des ponts et chaussées (ENPC)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Frederick University | Budapest University of Technology and Economics [Budapest] (BME) | Tartu University Hospital | Umeå University = Umeå Universitet | Queen's University [Belfast] (QUB) | Trinity College Dublin | Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts [Ljubljana] (ZRC SAZU) | PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) | Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology [Valletta] (MCAST) | Kyushu University | Slovak Academy of Sciences [Bratislava] (SAS) | Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (STU) | Auteur indépendant | Czech Academy of Sciences [Prague] (CAS) | Aalborg University (AAU) | Tecnalia [Derio] | Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA) | Erasmus University Rotterdam | Newcastle University [Newcastle] | MO's work is funded by AXA Research Fund (No. 4771), by the Spanish Government (IJCI-2016-28,835 and MDM-2017-0714) and by the Basque Government (BERC 2018-2021 program). OH was funded by the EC project RAMSES Reconciling Adaptation, Mitigation and Sustainable Development for Cities (contract Ref 308,497) and the EPSRC project LC Transforms: Low Carbon Transitions of Fleet Operations in Metropolitan Sites Project (EP/N010612/1).
International audience
Показать больше [+] Меньше [-]Английский. Cities across the globe recognise their role in climate mitigation and are acting to reduce carbon emissions. Knowing whether cities set ambitious climate and energy targets is critical for determining their contribution towards the global 1.5 °C target, partly because it helps to identify areas where further action is necessary. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the mitigation targets of 327 European cities, as declared in their local climate plans. The sample encompasses over 25% of the EU population and includes cities of all sizes across all Member States, plus the UK. The study analyses whether the type of plan, city size, membership of climate networks, and its regional location are associated with different levels of mitigation ambition. Results reveal that 78% of the cities have a GHG emissions reduction target. However, with an average target of 47%, European cities are not on track to reach the Paris Agreement: they need to roughly double their ambitions and efforts. Some cities are ambitious, e.g. 25% of our sample (81) aim to reach carbon neutrality, with the earliest target date being 2020.90% of these cities are members of the Climate Alliance and 75% of the Covenant of Mayors. City size is the strongest predictor for carbon neutrality, whilst climate network(s) membership, combining adaptation and mitigation into a single strategy, and local motivation also play a role. The methods, data, results and analysis of this study can serve as a reference and baseline for tracking climate mitigation ambitions across European and global cities.
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