An analysis has emerged that the world's major cities are achieving carbon reduction at a faster pace than national governments. While the per-capita greenhouse-gas emissions of major cities belonging to the "C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (hereafter C40)*" decreased by an average of 7.5% from 2015 to 2024, global emissions still show an increasing trend, so city-level climate policy is drawing attention as a new breakthrough.
*C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group: a council formed in 2005 at the proposal of London Mayor Ken Livingstone, in which 40 major cities worldwide actively respond to climate change; Seoul joined in 2006.
Three-Quarters of C40 Cities Show Faster Reduction Results Than Their National Governments
According to a report released on July 2 by the U.S. environmental media outlet "Grist," about three-quarters of the major cities that joined C40 are reducing greenhouse-gas emissions at a faster pace than their national governments. The population of cities belonging to C40—Seoul, as well as New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, and others—accounts for about 12% of the world's population, but they account for about 25% of greenhouse-gas emissions, so their reduction results can have a decisive impact on achieving global climate goals. New York City reduced its emissions by 22% compared with 2015, and London achieved a 35% reduction over the same period. Paris recorded a 10% decrease over the three years from 2019 to 2022, meaning it achieved a rapid reduction of more than 3% per year.
[The 2022 C40 World Mayors Summit ©Juan Pablo Barrientos/C40]
The Reason Cities' Results Are Faster Than Nations' Is "Rapid Policy Execution"
The reason cities achieve faster results than nations lies in the difference in policy-execution capacity. At the level of a nation's executive branch, one cannot but consider diverse stakeholders. Relatively, city politics is smaller in scale than the national unit. Therefore, cities can pursue execution after relatively rapid decision-making.
In fact, many cities are quickly pursuing policies aimed at immediate effects—improving building energy efficiency, expanding public transport, transitioning to renewable energy. For example, New York City set and enforced by law a cap on the carbon emissions of large buildings, and London introduced and regulated zero-carbon standards for new buildings. Innovative approaches are also possible in the transport sector: Paris greatly expanded bicycle lanes on the occasion of the 2024 Summer Olympics, and Los Angeles accelerated the introduction of electric buses. These policies directly affect citizens' daily lives while leading to visible reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions.
Seoul is also active as a C40 member, but its concrete reduction results are still inadequate compared with leading cities. There is much room for improvement in building energy efficiency and the renewable-energy transition. The key is the execution of the "2050 carbon-neutral city achievement" that Seoul has recently set as a goal. Not only Seoul but also Korea's major cities such as Busan, Incheon, and Daegu are establishing carbon-reduction strategies suited to their own characteristics. Attention is on whether Busan's "Green New Deal policy," Incheon's "RE100," and Daegu's "Smart-Green City project" can achieve substantial results by benchmarking the achievements of leading C40 cities.
A New Climate Governance Created by Inter-City Cooperation
In a situation where inter-national climate negotiations struggle to gain speed, the more cities accelerate climate action, the more the policy initiatives that C40 cities jointly pursue will become verified best practices and direct references for other cities' policy-making. Major cases that cities share across borders—eco-friendly building standards, circular-economy policies, low-carbon transport systems—are increasing. It is a point at which we must more actively use international cooperation and experience-sharing through the C40 network to actively create and share substantial carbon-reduction results.
[Cities faster than nations, the carbon-reduction leadership of global cities ©ESG.ONL/ESG Today]
by Editor N