Capital recognised for its environmental reporting

EDINBURGH has been named among 95 cities around the world to have been awarded an ‘A’ rating this year for its reporting of its climate change-related activities.

The rating comes from the not-for-profit charity, CPD, which describes itself as the ‘gold standard of environmental reporting’.

Says CPD, here: “[We] provide the global platform for cities to measure, manage and disclose their environmental data.

“We work with over 1,000 cities measuring and disclosing environmental data each year to manage emissions, build resilience, protect themselves from climate impacts and create better places for people to live and work.”

Some 95 cities have been award ‘A’ rating for this year, including fellow UK cities Bristol, Leicester, Greater London, Greater Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sunderland.

Says Edinburgh’s city council (here), the A-list position recognises that Scotland’s capital has:

  • publicly disclosed a city-wide emissions inventory;
  • set an emissions reduction target – for Edinburgh, this is a target of net-zero emissions by 2030;
  • published a climate action plan, Edinburgh’s 2030 Climate Strategy, which sets the strategic direction for reducing the city’s emissions and becoming resilient to future climate change;
  • completed, and is in the process of updating, a climate risk and vulnerability assessment; and [completed]
  • a climate adaptation plan, showing how it plans to tackle the unavoidable impacts of climate change, which will be updated and extended to respond to the risk assessment.

Picture credit: Place Design Scotland