Over 100 cities globally now powered by renewable energy
27 Feb 2018
The number of cities that reported being predominantly powered by clean energy has more than doubled since 2015, as more cities around the world switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources.
According to data published today by the not-for-profit environmental impact researcher CDP, 101 of the over 570 cities on its books drew at least 70 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources in 2017, as against 42 in 2015.
According to Nicolette Bartlett, the director of climate change at CDP, the increase came both from more cities reporting to CDP as also a global shift towards renewable energy.
She told Guardian Cities that the data was a ''comprehensive picture of what cities are doing with regards to renewable energy.''
That large urban centres such as Auckland, Nairobi, Oslo and BrasÃlia were successfully moving away from fossil fuels was held up as evidence of a changing tide by Kyra Appleby, CDP's director of cities.
''Reassuringly, our data shows much commitment and ambition,'' she said in a statement. ''Cities not only want to shift to renewable energy, but, most importantly – they can.''
Climate action efforts at city level in the past year have mostly drawn inspiration from the global covenant of over 7,400 mayors that formed in the wake of Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris accord.
According to CDP over 40 of those cities are now powered entirely by renewables, including Burlington, Vermont, which generates electricity from a combination of wind, solar, hydro and biomass.
More companies will go the Burlington way within the next 20 years - 58 US cities, including Atlanta and San Diego, having announced plans to walk the same path.
Four US cities made the list of those getting at least 70 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources - Seattle; Eugene, Oregon; and Aspen, Colorado, along with Burlington. Also on the list are five Canadian cities, Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg, North Vancouver and Prince George, British Columbia.
