Top 10 Eco-Friendly Cities In The World

Do you ever wonder which are some of the best eco-friendly cities in the world which you can visit or explore? Well, in this post, I will cover the top 10 eco-friendly cities in the world briefing their initiatives to achieve that.

Nowadays, because of advancements in technology and increased pollution, we live our lives differently without caring about nature or our planet. Due to this, the sustainability of our planet Earth is at more serious risk than ever before. From the release of unsafe and harmful emissions to enormous levels of waste is getting intolerable.

Citizens are pressurizing their governmental authorities for this drastic environmental changes and also encouraging countries to find more sustainable ways to avoid this global issue. So, some of the cities from different countries in the world were able to attain the benchmark of “Eco-Friendly City”, which we will discuss below.

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Now, let us get started with the eco-friendly cities in the world.

Singapore:

Singapore is Asia’s greenest city (also an island nation). Some of the changes they have made in order to deal with environmental issues include:

  • In 1992, they created the Green Plan which has as an objective to deal with polluted water, land, and air.
  • Higher costs for vehicles.
  • Revolutionary public transport.
  • Free recycling containers for every family.
  • There’s a whole neighborhood called “Garden city” which is made from green buildings.

San Francisco:

San Francisco is the first city in America to ban plastic water bottles. Even though the population of the city is actually quite a lot San Francisco (California) remains one of the greenest cities in the world. Here are some examples of how they are keeping the good work:

  • Waste management as the city diverts 80 % of its garbage from landfills and plans to reach 100 % by 2020.
  • The authorities are also banning certain products like plastic bags and plastic water bottles.
  • The city supports farmers and helps them produce organic and healthy food.
  • It puts a lot of effort into water conservation.

Amsterdam:

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that the city is known for its biking alleys and “coffee shops” is among the greenest cities in the world. Of course, if you aren’t a fan of biking you can use electric vehicles. There are more than 300 charging stations across the city. The city fully supports and takes care of its farmers that produce homegrown and organic food. Nowadays, a big part of the homes in Amsterdam (Capital of Netherlands) has solar panels on their roofs or small gardens with food or flowers. The authorities are trying to help the bee populations in the area.

In the end, let’s not forget Amsterdam was one of the first cities to outline sustainability measures with an aim to achieve results by 2020.

Copenhagen:

Surprisingly this is the city where you can find more bikes than cars. Copenhagen takes pride in its title as “Green capital” of Europe and puts a lot of effort into maintaining it.

  • From 2010, Copenhagen (Capital of Denmark) has been integrating green roofs into its infrastructure.
  • They want to make all the public transport electric by the end of 2019. It holds the world’s stringiest quality assurance test for clean tap water on a daily basis.
  • Not only that but also 24% of the entire food sale in the city is organic produce as well as 88 % of the food serviced in public organizations.

All of this because of the city’s goal to become the first carbon-neutral city in the world by 2025.

Cape Town:

Cape Town is a city in South Africa where when it comes to green cities the results are fairly bad. Nevertheless, Cape Town has been putting a lot of effort into trying to come up with creative solutions that would change the situation. Nowadays, the city does several very effective things:

  • Waste management.
  • 10- 20 % of all energy comes from renewable sources.
  • It highly supports the outdoor activities and tries to make bicycling more attractive for citizens as it allows bikes on buses for free.

Curitiba:

Situated in Brazil, Curitiba is one of the eco-friendliest cities in the world as it has 14 forests and 16 parks in the urban area.

  • Curitiba recycles up to 70 % of the waste and the recycling programs are not something new, they exist since the 90s.
  • It has created a large public transport system that satisfies the needs of the citizens.
  • This city tries to plant as much as trees possible around each highway and road.
  • It started an incentive program that allows people to exchange recyclables for transport tickets, food, and money. This initiative alone helps more than 7000 people.

Stockholm:

Stockholm (Capital of Sweden) was the first European city to win the European Green Capital Award in 2010. The main way the city is trying to be green and less polluting is through its Grow Smarter Project. The Project includes the idea to use waste heat produced by data centers, shops, and stadiums in order to provide heating for the city’s residents. Another creative solution is the bio-fuel conversion plants that take sewage to produce biofuel. The city wants to be fossil fuel-free by 2050.

Ljubljana:

In 2016, Ljubljana (Capital of Slovenia)won the European Green Capital Award and this is not such a surprise. This is the capital of a country that’s actually 60% covered by nature. This makes its citizens quite responsible and caring for the nature around them. Some of the ways they managed to make the capital the greenest city in Europe are by closing Ljubljana’s center for motorized traffic and the authorities support electric means of transportation but the center is mostly for the bikers and the pedestrians.

Also, the authorities don’t support plastic water bottles and have created an app that shows where’s the nearest drinking water. There’s even the first certified green eco-hostel where visitors can see how much they are consuming and try to reduce it.

Reykjavik:

Reykjavic (Capital of Iceland) has some quite ambitious plans that would certainly make it even better for living.

  • The city is investing in cycling paths and a large public transport system of hydrogen buses in order to stimulate the use.
  • It also plans to offer its employees free parking and lower taxes.
  • All that so it would be able to eliminate its production of greenhouse gas emissions until 2040.
  • Another ambitious goal is eliminating fossil fuels by 2050. The surprising thing is that the country gets only 0.1 % of its energy from fossil fuels.

Vancouver:

This Canadian city is known to be the city emitting the least among greenhouse gases in North America. Some of the things that helped “Vancouver” to achieve this are:

  • The separation of cyclists and the building of cycling lanes that started in 2010.
  • Support for the use of electric vehicles.
  • Promoting and stimulating local farmers.
  • Several waste programs with the help of which the government hopes to make Vancouver the greenest city by 2020.

Conclusion:

So, these are some of the best eco-friendly cities in the world. Apart from these cities, there are many more cities and countries that are doing eco-friendly practices to stop harming nature and live a healthy and eco-friendly life.

Do let us know what you think about the cities and leave your comments below.

HAK

HAK

A passionate blogger. Loves Table Tennis, GOT, Guitar, Singing, PC Games, and the People around him.

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