More than 100 major cities around the world are now mostly powered by renewable energy sources, according to a newly published study. Data from 2017 showed that urban centres as disparate as Auckland in New Zealand and Oslo in Norway have become green.
CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, has some good news: More than 100 cities were powered mostly by renewable energy in 2017. It is particularly important that several cities in developing countries made it to the list as well as those from developed countries. To be included in the list, a city must get at least 70 percent of its electricity from renewable energy.
According to data from 2017, Auckland in New Zealand, Oslo in Norway, Nairobi in Kenya and Vancouver in Canada all made it to the list. The list includes a total of 57 cities in Latin America, 21 in Europe, 9 in Africa, 5 in Canada and only four in the U.S. Interestingly, one Australian and one South Korean city are included as well.
There is a definite increase since 2015, when the list was made up of a total of 47 cities instead of the 101 today. However, CDP stressed that the increase could be partly attributed to the growing number of cities reporting data to the organisation compared to three years ago.
Out of a total of exactly 101 cities, only 43 are running on 100 percent renewable energy, including wind, solar, hydropower, biomass and geothermal energy.