The cities that you’ll find on this list are not all covered with nature, but those which have made the best efforts for achieving their high environmental goals. Here are ten of them.
1. Reykjavik, Iceland
Iceland is the world’s greenest country and it’s no surprise that its capital is the greenest city on the planet. Reykjavik’s government has expressed its desire to become Europe’s cleanest cities and has taken very impressive measure in order to achieve that. Currently, the city is run entirely on green power, including geothermal and hydroelectricity, while the transport system in the city uses entirely hydrogen. Very impressive!
2. Malmo, Sweden
It’s amazing to see how people want to go green in some cities! Several neighborhoods in Malmo, Sweden, are transformed in eco-friendly areas already, using an innovative eco design, making Sweden’s third largest city real green urban development model. Of course, they have generous support by city government.
3. Copenhagen, Denmark
When people have decided to go green, the city can turn to green heaven. Copenhagen is a city where citizens are very aware for the environmental issues and they use bike rather than car. If I mention the offshore wind farm just beyond the coastline and the new metro system from 2000, then it’s clear why Copenhagen is one of the greenest cities in the world.
4. Vancouver, Canada
Unlike other North American cities, the largest city in British Columbia has done much in order to go green. Even 90% of the energy comes from renewable sources, such as wind, tidal, solar and wave energy, but the city has also developed a 100-years plan for sustainability in order to keep going green, although the city already has more than 200 parks.
5. Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador
Bahia de Caraquez is heaven for eco tourists. The city suffered severe damages from natural disasters in 90’s and after that the local government and NGOs decided to make the city sustainable. They developed number of programs for keeping biodiversity and control erosion, but also begun composting organic waste from public markets and households and supporting organic agriculture.
6. Sydney, Australia
Sydney is the city that should take the credits for the recent Earth hour, because it was the first city that started this, but also the first one that “sent off” the old bulbs removing them with the new eco friendly light bulbs. The city of the Green Square has also developed an efficient food-waste disposal program, so it’s clear why Sydney is one of the world’s greenest cities.
7. Bogota, Colombia
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The city that is widely known for crime is going green since the governing by the mayor Enrique Penalosa. He managed to reconstruct all the sidewalks for pedestrians; he created efficient bus transit system and revitalized over 1200 city green spaces. The mayor also raised tha gas tax in order to decrease its use and started an annual car-free day.
8. Curitiba, Brazil
If 99% of the citizens in Curitiba are happy with their city, then it must be something special. Some of the reasons are the facts that over 70% of the people there rely on the very efficient public transport and that there are more than 580 square feet of green space per inhabitant. Curitiba is an incredible model for bigger metropolises.
9. London, England
London government came out with Climate Change Action Plan that made the city on of the world’s greenest. Reducing the CO2 emissions for 60% and generating 25%of the energy locally in next 20 years, as well as incentives for citizens who make efforts to improve the energy efficiency in their homes are just some of the measures that make the next host of the summer Olympics a green city.
10. Portland, Oregon, USA
Maybe you will be surprised that a city from the world’s second biggest polluter is on the list, but this city was the first in US that made plan for reducing CO2 emissions and created a lot of green building initiatives. Also, the local government tries hard to keep the cars off the streets as much as possible with building bike lanes and light rails.
