Guidance for cities

You can find supporting materials that we've previously published for the 2023 disclosure cycle below. Alternatively, you can search for materials from previous cycles with our guidance search tool.

CDP cities

• Questionnaire
• Reporting guidance
• Scoring introduction and methodology

C40 cities

• Questionnaire
• Reporting guidance

GCoM

• Reporting guidance: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean

CDP-ICLEI Track

• Platform user guide

Through CDP-ICLEI Track, cities can measure, monitor, and manage their impact on their environment as well as access networks and shared information from cities all over the world.

Learn more about CDP's work with cities including why cities should report.

It's free to respond to the CDP Cities Questionnaire. CDP has charitable status and seeks to use its limited funds effectively. As such, responses must be prepared and submitted at the expense of responding cities.

There is no minimum amount of data that needs to be reported and the response is completely voluntary at all stages.

However, if your city is committed to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy or a C40 city, certain requirements should be met. In order to pass the lowest scoring band of ‘disclosure’ according to CDPs scoring methodology, you must provide a fairly complete response to the CDP Cities questionnaire.

For more information and initiative-specific guidance, please check the 2023 Cities scoring methodology until the 2024 version is available.

Yes, certain cities can submit a non-public response. Your data will still be used by CDP, ICLEI and our partners in aggregate format in our communications. The difference being that your city’s data will not be highlighted in our external communications, reports and CDPs Open Data Portal.

Please note that cities are not able to submit a non-public response if they are reporting to the:

• C40
• Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy
• WWF’s One Planet City Challenge
• Cities Race to Zero initiative
• Cities Race to Resilience initiative
• NetZeroCities initiative

The Terms and Conditions for the CDP Cities questionnaire provides a comprehensive list of information on what happens to your response after submission. You can read the 2022 Terms and Conditions until the 2024 version is available.

The CDP Cities questionnaire requests qualitative and quantitative environmental data for the following themes:

• Governance 
• Climate hazards, Adaptation 
• City-wide emissions 
• Emissions reduction, Opportunities 
• Local Government emissions 
• Energy, Buildings, Transport 
• Urban planning 
• Food, Waste 
• Water security 

For more details about each section and question, please check the 2023 Cities reporting guidance until the 2024 version is available.

If you previously reported, you will be able to access your previous response through your response dashboard within CDP-ICLEI Track. Local and regional governments are asked to submit their climate information every year but are able to use information reported the previous year as a basis. If your city submitted a response to the 2023 questionnaire through CDP-ICLEI Track, your answers have been auto-populated in to your 2024 questionnaire where applicable.

Please refer to the guide to the reporting platform for information on how to identify which questions have been auto-populated. Please note that attachments are not auto-populated into your response.

CDP offer all participating cities tools and detailed feedback on their score to urge them to improve year on year. Cities are expected to provide a reasonably complete response overall in order to be scored accurately and to submit it by the scoring deadline.

Based on the information the cities provide in their response, CDP assigns the city a score within one of four scoring bands:

• Disclosure – cities starting out in climate disclosure
• Awareness – cities with an understanding of climate impacts
• Management – cities taking climate action
• Leadership – cities demonstrating strategic best practice

For more information, please check the 2023 Cities scoring methodology until the 2024 version is available.

GCoM is the largest global alliance for city climate leadership, built on the commitment of over 12,600 cities and local governments who share a long-term vision of supporting voluntary action to combat climate change and moving towards a resilient and low-emission society.

Cities committed to the GCoM agree to make key data publicly available through regular reporting in order to track progress in achieving the aims of the alliance. CDP-ICLEI Track is one of the GCoM recognized reporting platforms. It is fully aligned with the GCoM Common Reporting Framework (CRF) which means that any data point required by the CRF can be reported through the system.

Cities participating in the Global Covenant of Mayors will be presented with all GCoM CRF-aligned questions and columns independently of the questionnaire pathway selected. For more information, please refer to the Questionnaire Pathway Map.

CRF mandatory data points are indicated with the “^” symbol. This improvement allows cities to easily identify mandatory indicators and avoid common mistakes. To achieve full compliance, cities must answer all mandatory data points (“^”) appropriately.

The Race to Zero is a global campaign led by the UN High-Level Climate Champions for Climate Action to rally non-state actors – businesses, cities, regions and investors – to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. It aims to achieve a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.

Race to Zero mobilizes a coalition of leading net zero initiatives, representing cities, regions, companies, universities and investors. These ‘real economy’ actors join 120 countries in the largest ever alliance committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest.

Cities Race to Zero is the official track for cities to join the Race to Zero campaign. It is especially designed to help cities meet the Race’s criteria and access the best available expertise along the way.

The Cities Race to Zero is organised by:

• C40 Cities
• CDP
• the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM)
• Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI)
• United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)
• the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
• the World Resources Institute (WRI)

Cities can join the Cities Race to Zero campaign on their website. Joining Race to Zero is a pledge to:

• reach net zero by 2050
• set a science-based interim target
• take immediate inclusive action to reduce emissions
• report progress annually

Selecting this option and completing the Cities questionnaire annually fulfils the reporting requirements of your pledge. Cities who have joined the campaign must report publicly. If your city has not yet joined the Race to Zero, but wishes to do so, select this option and submit your pledge on the Cities Race to Zero website.

Making a commitment to the Cities Race to Zero remains in line with the GCoM Common Reporting Framework (CRF) and is consistent with existing guidance on targets as part of the CRF and city reporting requirements.

A GCoM compliant mitigation commitment must be at least as ambitious as the relevant national government’s NDC. As the Race to Zero target is generally more ambitious, or in some cases equally ambitious, to current NDCs, this type of target meets the criteria for a GCoM mitigation commitment.

Currently the Race to Zero only relates to mitigation targets under the GCoM framework. Therefore, while a Race to Zero target may meet requirements for compliance under the mitigation pillar, cities will still need to establish adaptation and energy access commitments and strategies beyond the scope of the Race to Zero to achieve full GCoM compliance.

Furthermore, Race to Zero commitments will not be required for GCoM compliance but are a recommended option to meet the mitigation requirements under GCoM.

CDP-ICLEI Track is the progress tracker for the UNFCCC’s Race to Resilience. Race to Resilience is a global campaign catalyzing ambition for climate resilience, putting people and nature first and supporting frontline communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

To join the campaign, pledge to Cities Race to Resilience to indicate your interest. You can report your progress against your Race to Resilience pledges by completing the 2024 Cities questionnaire. Cities who have joined the campaign must report publicly.

If you are unsure if your city has already joined, please contact [email protected].

NetZeroCities is a consortium of 33 partners from 27 European countries that is currently managing the EU Cities Mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030” platform. It is coordinated by EIT Climate-KIC, Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on climate innovation to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

NetZeroCities supports the 112 European cities selected by the European Commission to join the EU Cities Mission in drastically reducing their greenhouse gas emissions in order to achieve climate neutrality. It works as a service-oriented platform supported by world-class practitioners to help cities overcome the current structural, institutional, and cultural barriers they face in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.

Cities invited to join the EU Cities Mission are invited to disclose to CDP-ICLEI Track.

Science-based targets are measurable and actionable targets that allow states and regions to align their actions with societal sustainability goals and the biophysical limits that define the safety and stability of earth systems.

Targets adopted to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are considered “science-based” if they are in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5 °C. As well as considering the latest science, a science-based target should account for equity and be comprehensive in the GHGs and emission sources included.

To get started, download the SBT guide for cities. Learn more about SBTs for subnational governments.

Giving jurisdictions the confidence that their targets are ambitious enough: The science is telling us that globally we need to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 but how does this target translate down to individual cities? What does this mean for a small town in Nepal versus a large city in the United States? A science-based target tells jurisdictions what their individual contribution should be to this global goal. It means jurisdictions can be confident that their planned emissions reductions are in line with what is needed globally to limit warming to 1.5°C, and confident that they are taking the appropriate action to combat climate change.

Ensuring that jurisdictions start making deep emissions cuts now: The IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C shows that to limit global warming to 1.5°C, we have an estimated remaining carbon budget of somewhere between 420 and 770 GtCO2 (although there are large uncertainties in these estimates). Currently, we are depleting that global budget by 42 GtCO2 per year. At that rate, we will use up our remaining carbon budget somewhere between 2030 and 2040, long before our target to be net zero by 2050. To ensure that we do not use up our remaining carbon budget in the next 10 to 20 years, we need to start making deep emissions cuts now. Setting a science-based mid-term target is critical for ensuring that subnational governments do the same. The more progress that can be made now, the easier it will be to reach their long-term net zero targets.

Enable tracking of their progress: Having a science-based target is important for enabling tracking of progress towards net zero. This is because they are measurable, connecting percentage reduction targets to jurisdictions’ actual measured emissions, and because they include mid-term target. The mid-term target ensures that cities start reducing their emissions early and that they stay on a pathway designed to reach net zero by 2050.

Meeting the Race to Zero requirements: Setting a science-based target it one of the requirements of the Cities Race to Zero campaign, the UNFCCC’s global movement of non-state actors committing to reach net zero by 2050.

The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) is one of the four elements of the Global Commons Alliance. SBTN brings together over 50 partner organisations, including NGOs, business associations and consultancies to collectively define what is necessary to do “enough” to stay within Earth’s limits and meet society’s needs.

SBTN develops methods, guidance and tools for subnational governments to set science-based targets, and for companies and cities to set science-based targets for nature.

CDP is one of SBTN’s core partners, working to support the setting of science-based targets for climate and nature.

The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) is the initiative for companies wanting to set science-based targets for climate.

The SBTI are part of, and the source of inspiration for, the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN).

The SBTN is building on the SBTI’s momentum with companies by extending that approach beyond climate to nature, and beyond companies to cities, states and regions as well.

CDP is a core city partner of the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) leading on the Science Based Climate Targets programme alongside WWF, ICLEI, C40 Cities, Global Covenant of Mayors, World Resources Institute and Climate Group.

Since 2018, the SBTN’s core partners have been developing the principles and technical basis of science-based targets for cities. This includes evaluating existing methodologies against core principles, producing a guide for cities and helping them identify which methodology best suits them.

The Science Based Targets Network’s core partners have evaluated a group of methodologies and produced a guide to help jurisdictions select the best approach for setting a science-based climate target.

Download the guide to get started. This guide gives an introduction to science-based climate targets and an understanding of the three different methodologies cities can use to develop your target. States and regions can set a Science-Based target by using the WWF One Planet City Challenge methodology – one of the three methodologies identified by the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN).

The Science Based Targets Network’s (SBTN) core cities partners evaluated existing methodologies against the three core principles of science-based targets for cities: comprehensiveness (covering city-wide, scope 1 and 2 emissions), alignment with the latest science (a 1.5°C global pathway), and equity. The methodologies were also tested for their usability by cities. For more information on the evaluation process, read the core city partner’s research paper titled: “Results of the assessment of GHG emission reduction target setting methodologies for cities”. You can also explore our technical research document underpinning the guide here: “Testing the applicability of science-based target setting methodologies: technical summary document”.

The partners will continue to evaluate the methods and may make updates to the guidance to ensure alignment with the latest science and policy developments.

Both base year absolute emissions targets and fixed level targets are absolute targets. An absolute target refers to the total amount of emissions being emitted.

A base year absolute emissions target refers to a target that aims to reduce GHG emissions by a set amount relative to a base year. For example, an emissions target aiming to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030 (target year) from 2018 (base year) levels.

A fixed level target represents a reduction in emissions to an absolute emissions level by a target year and is not expressed relative to a base year. For example, an emissions target aiming to reach 100,000 tonnes CO2e by 2030.

Net zero targets are a common type of fixed level goal. For example, to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

A base year emissions intensity target aims to reduce a jurisdiction’s emissions intensity (typically per GDP or per capita) by a set amount relative to a base year. For example, an emissions target aiming to reduce emissions per capita by 50% by 2030 from 2018 levels or a 50% reduction of emissions per GDP by 2030 from 2018 levels. This allows a jurisdiction to set emissions reduction targets while accounting for either economic or population growth.

A baseline scenario (business as usual) target is a commitment to reduce emissions by a specified quantity relative to a projected emissions baseline scenario, also referred to as a business as usual scenario. A baseline scenario is a reference case that represents future events or conditions most likely to occur in the absence of activities taken to meet the mitigation goal. For example, a 50% reduction from baseline scenario emissions in 2030. Baseline scenario targets are not recommended due to the inherent uncertainty associated with emissions forecasts.

Carbon neutrality or net zero carbon dioxide emissions: Net zero carbon dioxide emissions are achieved when anthropogenic CO2 emissions are balanced globally by anthropogenic CO2 removals over a specified period.

Net zero emissions: Net zero emissions are achieved when anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere are balanced by anthropogenic removals over a specified period. Where multiple greenhouse gases are involved, the quantification of net zero emissions depends on the climate metric chosen to compare emissions of different gases (such as global warming potential, global temperature change potential, and others, as well as the chosen time horizon).

Climate neutrality: Concept of a state in which human activities result in no net effect on the climate system. Achieving such a state would require balancing of residual emissions with emission (carbon dioxide) removal as well as accounting for regional or local biogeophysical effects of human activities that, for example, affect surface albedo or local climate.

One of the core principles of science-based targets is that they are comprehensive. This means the targets are robust, taking into account jurisdiction-wide emissions from a variety of sources (at least Scopes 1 and 2) and multiple GHGs.

Science-based targets should cover all Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions within a jurisdictional boundary this includes from the sectors; stationary energy, transportation, waste and if applicable and occurs within jurisdictional boundary emissions also from Industrial Processes and Product Use (IPPU), emissions and removals from Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU).

All three methodologies in the science-based targets for cities guide include both scope 1 and 2 emissions. Scope 3 emissions are not currently included in the science-based target methodologies or required for a jurisdiction to have a science-based target. The SBTN will continue to evaluate new science-based target methodologies as they emerge.

The Science Based Targets Network is developing methods, tools and guidance for cities and companies to set targets beyond climate, to include all earth’s systems: water, oceans, land and biodiversity. Development of Nature SBTs for Cities methods started in November 2023 and initial guidance for cities is expected in 2025.

Science-based targets for subnational governments is an exciting and emerging area of work with some areas still under development. CDP may support cities in checking the targets they have set or direct them to relevant sources.

Please report your target through CDP-ICLEI Track and CDP States and Regions.

Reducing emissions is not just about the date that you reach net zero emissions. It is also about knowing and understanding what the remaining carbon budget is and how quickly it is being depleted.

The IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C shows that to limit global warming to 1.5°C, we have an estimated remaining carbon budget of somewhere between 420 and 770 GtCO2 (although there are large uncertainties in these estimates). Currently, we are depleting that global budget by approximately 42 GtCO2 per year. At that rate, we will use up our remaining carbon budget somewhere between 2030 and 2040, long before our target to be net zero by 2050.

To ensure that we do not use up our remaining carbon budget in the next 10 to 20 years, we need to start making deep emissions cuts now. Setting a science-based mid-term target is critical for ensuring that cities do the same. The more progress that can be made now, the easier it will be to reach their long-term net zero targets.

Setting a science-based emission reduction target is a key element of the Cities Race to Zero pledge. Find out more on the Cities Race to Zero website.

The Under2 Coalition is a partner to the Race to Zero and supports individual states, regions, provinces, prefectures and other subnational 'actors' to join Race to Zero.

CDP may support jurisdictions to set, check and disclose science-based climate targets. To access this support, report your current or updated target to CDP-ICLEI Track and CDP States and Regions questionnaire.

For additional support:

• Read the Science Based Target Network’s Guide for Cities;
• Learn more about subnational governments;
• Watch our short video on science-based targets for cities and local governments;
• Join an upcoming webinar or watch a recording;
• Read our guidance on cities disclosure or states and regions disclosure;
• Build or improve your inventory with the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Tools & Datasets Guide for Cities from CDP; or
• Read the Integrity Matters for Cities, States and Regions report.

If you have any questions on reporting your targets, please contact the support team on the CDP Help Center.

Cities that are members of ICLEI and C40 Cities may receive target-setting support from these organizations.