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City one of 122 communities across the globe named to A List on CDP 2022
The City of St. Catharines is being recognized for its leadership on environmental action and transparency, earning a top score on climate action from CDP, an international environmental impact non-profit.
The City joins a prestigious list of just 122 municipalities from across the globe to receive recognition on the CDP 2022 A List. To score an A, among other actions, a local government must not only publicly disclose their data, but also have a community-wide greenhouse gas 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 will tackle climate hazards.
Many A List communities are also taking a variety of other leadership actions, such as political commitment from City Council to tackle climate change, and according to CDP are taking three times as many mitigation and adaptation measures as non A-List communities.
“Being included on this List – one of just 122 communities across the entire globe – is prestigious recognition that the City of St. Catharines is taking climate change seriously,” said Mayor Mat Siscoe. “I’m proud of the leadership role we’ve taken under the leadership of former Mayor Walter Sendzik, not only in reducing emissions, but also in becoming a more resilient community in the face of climate change.”
St. Catharines has actively taken steps to address the concerns of local impacts of climate change. In 2019, Council unanimously declared a Climate Emergency. The dual purposes of the declaration were to recognize the urgent need to take action to mitigate the effects of climate change and to deepen the City's commitment to protecting its economy, ecosystems, and community from climate change. In 2021, the City also signed on to the Cities Race to Zero which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
The City’s Climate Adaptation Plan, approved last year, deepened the understanding of local impacts due to climate change. By evaluating local risks and vulnerabilities this has helped the city to be proactive in addressing impacts such as high lake levels experienced along the Lake Ontario shoreline, extreme precipitation events effects to city infrastructure and preparing for more extreme events.
St. Catharines has also implemented various projects that support greenhouse gas reductions within the City such as the LED-streetlight conversion project, adding in more than 20 electric vehicle charging stations, increasing the bike lane network and undertaking many City building retrofits to reduce energy consumption. The City will continue to consider a balanced approach for adaptation as well as mitigation practices that can make our community more climate resilient.
“The work doesn’t end here. The City’s Climate Adaptation Plan is a great example of our efforts to mitigate, and prevent, climate change – but we know we need to continue to do more to protect the planet, our residents and the infrastructure we rely on,” added Mayor Siscoe.
With more than 1,000 local governments disclosing environmental data to CDP, the City joins just 12 per cent of those communities in receiving an A rating for its actions.
“Congratulations to the City of St. Catharines for earning a spot on the CDP Cities A List — one of 49 cities and counties in North America to make the list in 2022,” said Katie Walsh, CDP North America’s Head of Cities, States, Regions and Public Authorities. “From mitigating carbon emissions in line with science, to building resilience against floods, drought and other climate hazards, to centering marginalized and vulnerable communities in their response, A List local governments are demonstrating best-practice environmental action. St. Catharines is in the vanguard of cities and counties leading the way toward a climate-safe future.”
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