Giant map reveals thousands of cities worldwide with successful green policies

"But now, an assessment of 2,475 of the world's biggest cities has found that in 80% of them, economic growth is no longer dependent on an increase in fossil-fuel-related emissions. The study, published today in Nature Cities, used satellite data to measure levels of the greenhouse gas nitrogen dioxide (NO 2) emitted from cities, and compared these data with information on gross domestic product (GDP). The findings indicate that almost 2,000 cities worldwide have implemented green policies that generated economic prosperity while reducing dependencies on fossil fuels."

"In their study, Daniel Moran, an environmental economist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research in Kjeller and his colleagues used satellite data from the European Union's Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite mission to measure NO 2 levels in the troposphere above cities between January 2019 and December 2024. NO 2 is produced when fuel is burnt in vehicles, power plants and industrial facilities. The team combined this emissions data with local GDP information per capita for the same period to create an indicator of economic activity linked with fossil-fuel use. This allowed Moran to "see the green development trajectory over time of cities globally"."

""This research is revealing the importance of cities in addressing twenty-first-century sustainability challenges," says Michail Fragkias, an applied economist at Boise State University in Idaho, who was not involved in the work."

Economic growth has historically relied on fossil fuels, contributing to ecological degradation, air pollution, and greenhouse-gas emissions as urban populations expanded. An assessment of 2,475 major cities found that in 80% of them, economic growth no longer depended on increases in fossil-fuel-related emissions. Satellite measurements of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from 2019 to 2024 were used to track emissions associated with fuel burning in vehicles, power plants, and industrial facilities. These NO2 levels were compared with local GDP per capita to evaluate economic activity linked to fossil-fuel use over time. Nearly 2,000 cities showed green development trajectories where economic prosperity increased while fossil-fuel dependency decreased.

Read at Nature