Will your city be the next to join the impressive group of global winners?

Email us at opcc@wwf.se for instructions on how to participate in the OPCC.

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The Makings of a Winner

The OPCC has grown steadily since its inception in 2011. To date, over 700 cities from nearly 70 countries on 6 continents have participated at least once in the OPCC. Of these eight global winners have been identified and rewarded for their commitment to creating cleaner, greener and more sustainable places for us to live, work and thrive in. WWF is now on the look out for the next city to join these ranks. Will your city be the next global winner of the One Planet City Challenge? Cities join the OPCC through the standardized international platform - the CDP-ICLEI Track.

Lund, Sweden & Bogotá, Colombia

The 2021-22 jury was particularly impressed by Bogotá’s ambitious climate action plan, including halving their business-as-usual emissions by 2030, and reaching net zero emissions by 2050. This plan includes actions in sectors that are difficult to impact. Lund was the highest scoring entry among the 280 cities reporting. It had a comprehensive and holistic approach to climate action planning and the city’s plan demonstrates strong political leadership, vision and impact. Its planned mitigation actions are effective, covering the most important sectors and its adaptation actions are both diverse and based on a strong climate change risk assessment.

Mexico City, Mexico

2020's global winner was Mexico's capital city. The OPCC jury was particularly impressed by Mexico City's demonstration of political ambition on climate change, including commitments and actions in line with the 1.5 ^oC target, and its continual progress in adaptation actions. 

Uppsala, Sweden

The global winner in 2018 was Uppsala. The jury particularly liked the fact that Uppsala had far reaching goals of becoming climate positive by 2050, and also managed to put a strong budget behind their actions and targets. Read more about Uppsala here. 

Paris, France

The global winner 2016 was the city of Paris - a unanimous favorite among jury members in 2016. Paris showed innovative and robust climate leadership worthy of recognition and replication. The city’s comprehensive long term vision supported by a revision process that occurs with regular intervals was found to be of particular interest.

Seoul, South Korea

Seoul is also a city worthy of recognition, and was crowned the global winner in 2015. The city was rewarded for its ambitious program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 million tons by 2020. And for dedicating a solid budget to the expanding the use of solar power among citizens, and reducing transport emissions through greener fuels, increasing the numbers of bus lanes and the creation of car sharing programs.

Cape Town, South Africa

The global winner in 2014 was Cape Town. The city impressed the international jury of experts by demonstrating how low carbon development and climate change mitigation can be accomplished even in a city with many important development priorities. The city showed great progress in energy efficiency, and was very successful in engaging citizens in its climate work. 

Vancouver, Canada

Vancouver, the first global winner in 2013, was recognized for its leadership and commitment to sustainable urban development in spite of low national ambitions in Canada at the time. Vancouver was proclaimed to be a role model for holistic and strategic urban planning. The city aims to engage all sectors of society, and puts particular effort into public engagement.