MANCHESTER NAMED CLIMATE ACTION LEADER ON CDP 2022 A LIST
Manchester is one of 122 cities to receive top score on climate action from environmental impact non-profit, CDP
A List cities build climate momentum, taking three times as many climate mitigation and adaptation measures as non-A Listers
Only 12% of cities that were scored in 2022 received an A score
Manchester has been recognized by CDP as one of 122 cities across the globe that is taking bold leadership on environmental action and transparency, despite the pressures of a challenging global economic situation.
Designed to encourage and support cities to ramp up their climate action and ambition, CDP’s Cities A List is based on environmental data disclosed by cities to CDP-ICLEI Track. A clear momentum in city climate disclosure and action is building – for the first time, over 1,000 cities (1,002 in total) received a rating for their climate action from CDP in 2022, a rise on the 965 cities scored in 2021. In 2022, just over one in ten cities scored by CDP (12% of such cities) received an A.
To score an A, among other actions, a city must disclose publicly through CDP-ICLEI Track, have a city-wide emissions inventory and have published a climate action plan. It must also complete a climate risk and vulnerability assessment and have a climate adaptation plan to demonstrate how it will tackle climate hazards. Many A List cities are also taking a variety of other leadership actions, including political commitment from a city’s Mayor to tackle climate change.
A List cities are demonstrating their climate leadership through concerted and effective action, just as national governments have been asked to do at COP27. They are taking twice as many mitigation and adaptation measures as non-A List cities.
Manchester, and the other 121 cities on this year’s A List, are also celebrated for showing that urgent and impactful climate action - from ambitious emissions reduction targets to building resilience against climate change - is achievable at a global level, and in cities with different climate realities and priorities. However, this action needs to go further and faster.
Key activities that have enabled Manchester to score an A this year include:
Updating the city’s Climate Change Framework, providing granular targets for the city,
Working to further understand the city’s climate risk and how we can adapt to the changing climate through Manchester Climate Ready and;
Strengthening Manchester’s Climate Change Partnership.
As COP27 has shown, environmental action has not a second to lose. The globe finds itself in the final decade for genuine, meaningful and impactful climate action to be taken in order to prevent the world tipping over the 1.5°C warming limit it set itself in the Paris Agreement of 2015. It is fundamental to that goal that action is accelerated, and that cities – home to 55% of the world’s population and accounting for 70% of global emissions – step up their actions immediately.
From droughts in Europe to the worst floods in Pakistan’s history, we are already seeing the devastating impacts of the climate crisis on a daily basis in 2022. And that is before we have even reached the tipping point of a 1.5°C warmer world.
We know that warming greater than 1.5°C will bring far worse damage and loss of life, livelihood and property than what we are currently witnessing. This is all the more important for cities, as by 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities.
But cities cannot keep the world within the narrow pathway to 1.5°C on their own - collaboration between cities and all levels of government and the private sector is pivotal to delivering effective climate action and to achieving this goal.
As the latest CDP data shows, cities must also put people at the heart of their climate action, from assessment to implementation, to deepen their climate action and realise additional benefits, such as improved public health, social inclusion and biodiversity.