Achieving Carbon Neutrality in Cities

Cities, which account for two-thirds of energy consumption and generate 70% of greenhouse gas emissions, play a critical role in global decarbonisation. Since 2020, 733 cities participated in the Race to Zero, a global campaign to commit zero carbon emissions by 2050, and more cities are setting the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 even before the national governments set the zero-carbon target.

At regional and national level, initiatives to encourage and support forerunner cities have been launched/planned, such as European Union’s “100 climate neutral cities by 2030” and “100 leading decarbonisation regions” in the Roadmap for Local Decarbonisation of Japan formulated in June 2021. On the other hand, cities have to make rapid and far-reaching transitions in various aspects to achieve zero-carbon goal, and the task is not easy for many cities.

This webinar organised as a part of the International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) aims to share how cities try to transform themselves to zero-carbon and discuss how city and regional cooperation can help to help cities to achieve the ambitious goal.

Agenda

Read the highlights here.