Wellington has been recognised as one of 122 cities across the globe taking bold leadership on environmental action and transparency.
To score an ‘A’ from CDP – a global non-profit that runs the world’s environmental disclosure system for companies, cities, states and region – a city must have a city-wide emissions inventory and a published climate action plan. It must also complete a climate risk and vulnerability assessment and demonstrate how it will tackle climate hazards.
Wellington Mayor, Tory Whanau welcomed the global recognition, saying she has been given a mandate by Wellingtonians to create a more sustainable City of Impact.
“This Council has already done a lot of hard mahi in terms of climate action, and we’ve still got so much to do and a long way to go, but this acknowledgement indicates we’re on the right track,” she said.
“From the implementation of the Paneke Pōneke bike network, to investing in environmental groups and organisations, building resilience, greening our city, and delivering on our climate change action plan, we will continue to show our commitment to Te Atakura – First to Zero, the goal of becoming a net zero carbon capital by 2050.
“We will create a City of Impact focused on people where communities and the environment thrive together.”
Chair of the Kōrau Tūāpapa | Environment and Infrastructure Committee, Councillor Tamatha Paul said he was proud of Council’s strong track record on climate action.
“But we must continue to work hard to ensure that climate-friendly lifestyles are easy, affordable and accessible for everybody,” he said.
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 10 cities scored by CDP (12 percent of such cities) received an ‘A’.
Nearly 20,000 organisations around the world disclosed data through CDP in 2022, including more than 18,700 companies worth 50% of global market capitalisation, and over 1,100 cities, states and regions. CDP is a founding member of the Science Based Targets initiative, We Mean Business Coalition, The Investor Agenda and the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative.
