Two Canadian cities have been recognized as leading the way in sustainability. According to a recent report by Compare the Market, an online insurance comparison platform, Montreal and Vancouver were ranked in the top five of the most sustainable cities in the world.
The top 25 most sustainable cities on the list all have action plans currently in place to help reduce emissions, resulting in them scoring so highly. It’s expected that over the next 30 years, the global human population is expected to increase by an additional two billion, with 68% of the total population expected to live in urban areas by 2050. This means we’ll see an increase in greenhouse gas emissions if nothing is done to combat the issue.
Montreal took the top spot on the ranking, with 99% of its energy coming from renewable sources. The city has released numerous sustainability plans since 2005. The most recent was the Sustainable Montreal Plan 2016-2020, a collaborative effort from over 200 organizations who all looked at ways for the city to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, provide access to sustainable neighbourhoods and build out green public transport options.
Montreal also boasts impressive green spaces, with 65 parks spread across the city. It also has the fourth-best cycling infrastructure in the world, making it an ideal place to live if you plan on leaving your car at home for your commute.
Vancouver took the fourth spot on the list, with 98% of its energy coming from renewable sources. The city’s Greenest City Action Plan has mapped out ways to increase this to 100% by 2050. Vancouver has increased the number of green jobs in the city by 87% in 2010, as well as creating more than 4,700 cleantech jobs, with the aim to improve the environment in the long term. Vancouver has 77 green spaces spread across the city.
It’s promising to see initiatives from numerous major cities worldwide committed to becoming more sustainable and environmentally friendly. With the population expected to continue to increase and urban areas becoming more populated, cities implementing sustainable measures will help reduce our ecological footprint and work towards a more sustainable future.
Here’s the complete list of the top 25 most sustainable cities in the world:
- Montreal
- Paris
- Auckland
- Vancouver
- Reykjavik
- Oslo
- Malmo
- Nice
- Wellington
- Copenhagen
- Seattle
- Stockholm
- Helsinki
- Barcelona
- San Francisco
- Brussels
- Bristol
- Edinburgh
- Portland
- Madrid
- Tokyo
- Melbourne
- Bogota
- Sao Paulo
- Los Angeles
Compare the Market analyzed 50 cities across the globe and ranked them based on a methodology that used five factors: air quality, use of renewable energy sources, number of parks, the average distance people walk to work and bike infrastructure. The data for the factors was collected and then normalized to provide each factor with a score between 0 and 1. The normalized values were then summed to give each city a total score out of 5. The cities were then ranked based on their total scores, with the top 25 most sustainable cities identified.
The methodology used by Compare the Course provides a comprehensive and objective approach to assessing sustainability in different cities, which allows us to understand better which cities are leading the way toward a more sustainable future.