The Burrow
Feb 24, 2023
According to UN data, in 2022, the global human population reached 8 billion – three times the size of the population back in 1950. Over the next 30 years, it’s expected to increase by an additional 2 billion.1
With 68% of the total population expected to live in urban areas by 2050, that means we’ll see an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, if, as a world, we don’t act fast.2
That being said, there are hundreds of cities that have followed – and still are following – sustainable measures put in place, to reduce their ecological footprint.
As experts in energy comparison, Compare the Market has analysed several factors including the use of renewable energy sources, air quality, the number of parks and more, to determine the most – and least! – sustainable cities in the world. Read on to find out if your home features.
All of the most sustainable cities on our list have action plans currently in place to help reduce emissions, which has resulted in them scoring so highly.
Coming in first place is Montreal, with 99.95% of energy used in the city coming from renewable sources.
Montreal has released numerous sustainability plans since 2005, with their Sustainable Montreal Plan 2016-2020 a collaborative effort from over 200 organisations, who all looked at a way for the city to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, whilst providing access to sustainable neighbourhoods, and building out green public transport options3 – and given that it’s come top of our list, the evidence has shown that it’s successful.
France’s capital comes in second place, with the city boasting the fourth-highest number of parks on our list, at an impressive total of 302.
Paris has worked hard to reach its sustainable goals, with the city’s aim to create a greener environment for its citizens by promoting environmentally responsible urban planning, and projects that have a positive social impact.4
With 205 parks scattered throughout the city, and it having the joint second-best air quality (tying with Seattle), Auckland comes in a very respectable third place.
In 2022, the city invested NZD$1.7 million across 17 various projects, all with the aim of saving energy, including educating residents on how to heat their homes more efficiently and working with building companies to help with minor repairs on poor quality housing.5
The second Canadian city to feature on our list, Vancouver comes in joint fifth place for renewable energy sources, at 98%; and their Greenest City Action Plan has mapped out ways to increase this to 100% by 2050.6
Not only that, but it’s also worked hard to increase the number of green jobs in the city by 87% in 2010, as well as creating more than 4,700 cleantech jobs, which aims to improve the environment in the long-term.6
Rounding up our top five is Reykjavik, which is the only city on our list to have 100% of their energy come from renewable sources.
With Greater Reykjavik home to over 60% of Iceland’s total population, the Reykjavik Municipal Plan 2010-2030 focuses on various factors, including how to make public transport even more sustainable, as well as making buildings greener, and ways to further reduce pollution.7
Europe leads the way in our top 25, and specifically Scandinavia, with Oslo in sixth place, Malmö in seventh, Copenhagen in 10th, Stockholm in 12th, and Helsinki in 13th. Many of these places have short commute lengths, with Oslo and Helsinki’s average both under 5km.
Seattle leads the way for the USA, in 11th place, with 99% of the city’s energy sourced from renewables, followed by San Francisco and Portland.
The first Australian city to feature on the list is Melbourne in 22nd place, with Sydney next in 26th; and for the UK, Bristol and Edinburgh lead the way in 17th and 18th place. These cities all have the best air quality, with Wellington and Bristol joint first, with a score of 4.
Even cities in South America feature in the top 25, with Bogota and Sao Paulo in positions 23 and 24, showing that worldwide, there are promising initiatives coming from numerous major cities that are committed to becoming more sustainable and environmentally-friendly.
On the flipside, there are several cities that need to work harder to become more sustainable.
Coming bottom of our list, 0% of the city’s energy comes from renewable energy sources, with only two other cities scoring so low – Jakarta and Tokyo.
Mexico city is facing a huge water problem, with so much water being pumped from the aquifer that the city’s actually sinking, and is at risk of running out of water.8
With just 0.7% of the city’s energy coming from renewable sources, Johannesburg places second last on our list. Not only that, but the city only has 25 parks, which is the fourth-lowest on our list, alongside a long average commute length, at 22.72km.
With that being said, in 2017, Johannesburg was named as the most environmentally-friendly metropolitan area in South Africa, which shows just how much work the country has as a whole, to do, to be on a par with the likes of Europe, North America, and Australasia.9
Indonesia’s capital comes third last, with 0% of the city using renewable energy, and the sixth-longest average commute length on our list at 25.22km.
Many of Jakarta’s environmental issues stem from its high population density, alongside industrialisation, and the fact that the city’s air has been polluted for a long time, due to household emissions, and coal-fired powerplants. With that being said, the city is trying to reverse this through the creation of their National Strategic Policy, which has a target of managing 100% of their waste by 2025.10
With the longest average commute length, at a staggering 60km, and the second-least number of parks at just 17, Ljubljana places fourth last on our list. Despite this, the city has a lot of sustainable initiatives in place – for instance, the city has been closed to motorised traffic since 2008, a lot of the buses run on methane, and there’s an electric car sharing scheme for Slovenian citizens.11
Rounding off our bottom five is Michigan’s Detroit, with its long history of car manufacturing perhaps making this result unsurprising.
Just 30.63% of the city’s energy comes from renewable sources, it only has 24 parks, making it the third-lowest on our list, and average commute lengths are the third-longest, at 36.26km.
The city is working hard to turn this around, with initiatives in place to achieve four key outcomes: to have a healthy population, to build affordable, quality homes, to have clean, connected neighbourhoods, and to make Detroit green.12
Looking at the rest of the cities that fall in the bottom 10, Berlin and Lisbon are the only two European cities to feature, in 41st and 42nd place. Boston comes in 43rd, Santiago 44th, and Bangkok 45th. Berlin ranks low due to the fact that only 3% of the city’s energy comes from renewable sources. Lisbon has the second-longest commute length at 38.5km, and Santiago has the worst air quality of any city featured in the list.
One thing’s for sure: everyone needs to be on-board with making the world more sustainable. One way that individuals can help is by incorporate more sustainable living into their home. Things such as installing and utilising solar panels can not only reduce your carbon footprint but can also have a significant impact on the cost of your electricity bills. Hanging clothes up to dry, as opposed to using a dryer, is another great way to do this.
Another way to do your bit is by choosing an energy plan from a responsible provider, who’s committed to using renewable sources. You can compare energy deals in minutes with Compare the Market to look for a plan that may suit your circumstances.
This dataset ranks 50 different cities, based on how sustainable they are. To do this, 5 different factors were used. Once the data for the factors was collected, the factors were then normalised, to provide each factor with a score between 0 and 1. The normalised values were then summed, to give each city a total score out of 5. The countries were then ranked from highest to lowest, based on their total scores. The factors used are as follows:
The factors were indexed as follows:
Data gathered is correct as of 09/02/23.
Index scores sourced from:
References