Focusing on consumption potentially doubles the impact of city policy. New data for 79 city members of C40 reveals that about two thirds of their consumption emissions, or 2.2GtCO2e, are from imported goods and services. This is roughly the same as the emissions produced within their borders.
Our analysis shows that cities working together to lower emissions in global supply chains can be much more effective than acting alone. We have shown that seemingly unrelated cities have similar patterns of consumption-based emissions: for example, Stockholm has consumption patterns more like Tokyo than its neighbour Oslo. These similarities can form the basis of joint action designed to influence global supply chains.
In the case of beef, responsible for almost 10% of global emissions, the study shows that collaboration between groups of cities across the world could lower the climate impact of their beef consumption by over 60%. Our infographic visualises the scale of this opportunity.
