CDP: Ann Arbor is a top city for environmental leadership

Tree Town named 1 of 122 leading cities around the world

Hundreds of hungry eaters descend on downtown Tree Town for Taste of Ann Arbor 2022. (Sarah Parlette, WDIV)

ANN ARBOR – Tree Town has once again been named a global leader in environmental action and transparency on CDP’s Cities A List.

The international non-profit organization recognized Ann Arbor as one of 122 cities and counties worldwide taking progressive steps toward tackling climate change.

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To get on the Cities A List, counties and cities have published a climate action plan, have an emissions inventory and have registered and reported environmental activities and data to the CDP-ICLEI Track.

A-List cities have high-level climate goals and practices, including a science-based target to limit the impacts of climate change. In 2022, leading cities must have a climate action plan with either a 2050 net-zero goal or a mid-term goal helping to limit global warming to 1.5˚C, according to CDP methodology.

CDP collected data from 1,0002 cities, some of which included environmental commitments from local governmental officials.

Ann Arbor was first named on the list in 2021. Its carbon neutrality plan, A2ZERO, aims to achieve community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030 and was introduced in June 2020.

The plan includes actions for increases in public transportation use, decarbonizing buildings, utilizing 100% renewable energy, changing how materials are used and disposed of, and improving energy efficiency.

Other A-List cities are Cape Town, Montreal, Paris, Florence, Quito, Mumbai, Seoul, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid.

See the full A2ZERO plan here and find CDP’s full Cities A List here.


About the Author

Sarah has worked for WDIV since June 2018. She covers community events, good eats and small businesses in Ann Arbor and has a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics from Grand Valley State University.

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