The city of Rio de Janeiro has stood out for the fourth time as a reference in environmental management, consolidating its global leadership position in climate action and transparency, earning an A rating from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a non-profit English organization. The entity evaluates the policies implemented by cities and companies around the world and, in 2023, only 119 cities reached the top of the ranking. Projects such as Refloresta Rio and the Rio-NASA Cooperation Agreement, developed by the City Hall, helped the city remain on the so-called A List.
The Carbon Disclosure Project, responsible for the award, operates a global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. To earn an A rating, a city must have climate risk and vulnerability assessments, have climate adaptation and mitigation plans and targets, and maintain community-wide greenhouse gas inventories. In addition, it is essential to provide transparency and publicity for the data on its actions. In Rio, the Pereira Passos Institute (IPP), part of the city government, compiles, manages and reports the city's information to the CDP.
– This is the fourth year that we have achieved the highest score in this assessment. We are very proud of our report produced in 2023, of the excellence with which we treat data and information on climate action and our city, and of the public policies that the current administration has developed on the subject – celebrated the president of IPP, Carlos Krykhtine.
The Refloresta Rio program, one of the longest-running programs of the Department of Environment and Climate (37 years old), includes reforestation and preservation of hillsides. Over this time, more than three thousand hectares have been restored. More than 10 million seedlings have been planted in hillsides, sandbanks and mangroves in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The seedlings used by Refloresta Rio are produced in five nurseries, which together are capable of producing 1 million seedlings per year.
– Refloresta Rio, thanks to the hard work of volunteers and the entire active and dedicated team of this program, carries out one of the activities that I consider to be extremely important for a city with urban forests like Rio de Janeiro. In 2022, we planted more than 95 thousand seedlings. This year, up to September, we have already planted more than 101 thousand seedlings – highlighted the Secretary of Environment and Climate, Tainá de Paula.
The City of Rio also has, through the IPP, a cooperation agreement with NASA, the American space agency, to better monitor and respond to climate events, natural disasters and other impacts that affect the city. The collaboration leverages the unique attributes of NASA's satellite data and global models to implement environmental hazard models in the city. Rio, for example, was the first local and operational implementation of NASA's global landslide model, with LHASA Rio (Landslide Hazard Assessment for Situational Awareness). Also in 2023, a new model, the Rio Flood Model, a tool for predicting floods in the city, will begin to be tested. The partnership also includes projects in the area of mapping the impacts of climate change and predicting air quality.
In addition to mitigation actions, Rio de Janeiro has been a pioneer in Latin America in establishing a historical series of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories, conducted by an internal team of the municipal government. Since 2012, the Pereira Passos Institute has been regularly conducting inventories every two years, adopting the most comprehensive approach known as Basic+ of the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC).
– This initiative not only highlights Rio de Janeiro’s ongoing commitment to transparency and climate action, but also demonstrates the application of cutting-edge methodological practices to monitor and manage not only greenhouse gas emissions at the municipal level, but also the data produced by the city. We compile and disclose information from city agencies openly via CDP and also through the Data.Rio portal, which is essential to keeping the city on the A-List – explained Felipe Mandarino, IPP’s City Information Coordinator.
