Reading Borough Council has again been named as one of only 19 UK councils, and one of just 122 across the world, to make a coveted ‘A’ list on environmental action. It is the second year in a row it has received the accolade.
The accolade, announced today, is awarded for bold leadership on environmental action and transparency. Reading and the other towns and cities on this year’s ‘A’ List are celebrated for showing that urgent and impactful climate action - from ambitious emissions reduction targets, to building resilience against climate change - is achievable at a local level despite the pressures of a challenging global economic situation.
The annual assessment, designed to encourage cities to ramp up climate action, is run by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a global non-profit which holds the world’s richest and most comprehensive dataset on how companies, cities, states and regions measure, understand and address their environmental impacts. It is widely recognised as the ‘gold standard’ of environmental reporting.
Out of more than 1,000 entries from cities worldwide, just 12% made CDP’s ‘A List’ and Reading joins 19 UK local authorities to make the grade.
To score an ‘A’, a local authority must disclose publicly and have a city-wide emissions inventory and have published a climate action plan. It must also complete a climate risk and vulnerability assessment and have a climate adaptation plan to demonstrate how it intends to tackle climate hazards.
According to CDP, ‘A’ list cities demonstrate their climate leadership through concerted and effective action and are taking twice as many mitigation and adaptation measures as non-‘A’ List cities, and also identify more than twice as many opportunities, such as the development of sustainable transport sectors and clean technology businesses.
The CDP ‘A’ List rating comes during the Council’s November Climate Awareness campaign to remind everyone what they can do to tackle climate change. It also comes as Reading is making good progress towards net zero. Latest figures show Reading Borough Council made significant cuts in its carbon footprint last year, bringing the total reduction to an impressive 71.3% in just 13 years. Reading borough is also responding well with a 55% cut in the borough’s carbon emissions since 2005, the 4th highest reduction out of all 374 local authority areas in the UK.
The full 2022 CDP ‘A’ list of cities can be accessed on the CDP website.