The world entered the post-Paris era since the Paris Agreement came into force in November 2016. The agreement states that its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2℃ above pre-industrial levels” and purse efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels”. Keeping the temperature rise at 2℃ requires a 40-70% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 compared with 2010, while the 1.5℃ target means that by 2030, global annual GHG emissions need to be reduced by 45% from 2010, and achieve net zero by 2050.

Following the nationally determined contributions (NDCs), long-term low-emission development strategies (LT-LEDS) is another important document to frame the global long-term reduction efforts. Under the Paris Agreement, all parties are required to submit their respective LT-LEDS to the secretariat by 2020, with the objective to drive the global deep reduction and bridge the gap between the ambitious target set in the Agreement and the existing emission pathways. At present, 59 countries have signaled their intention to submit an enhanced climate action plan or NDC, and another 11 countries have already started the internal action process to boost ambition and have this reflected in their respective NDCs. 1. China will submit its LT-LEDS by 2020.

More cities around the world have joined the efforts to address the climate change and push for a low-carbon transition by target setting, planning development, and measure implementation. LT-LEDS at city-level can serve as the basis for promoting industrial upgrading, improving development quality, mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change, and realizing green growth ultimately. Timely tracking and evaluating the progress made by the cities in developing LT-LEDS helps policy-makers to better understand the cutting-edge practices in urban low-carbon transition and learn experiences from pilot cities. Innovative and tailored measures should be encouraged to make medium and long-term emission reduction plans. Systematic climate actions in cities could speed up the low-carbon transition in countries and regions.

This report reviews and summarizes the actions taken by worldwide cities to achieve medium and long-term emission reduction targets or zero-carbon emissions, from the perspectives of climate-related target setting, plan development 2 and policy measures to address climate change. It focuses on climate policies and actions that have reference significance for cities in China with regard to long-term actions. The report aims to provide detailed information and decision-making references for policy-makers and researchers who are interested in understanding of the medium and long-term deep emissions reduction in cities around the world.

This report studies 88 cities that have expressed their willingness to reduce GHG emissions by 2050 (hereafter referred as Willing Cities), among which 66 made explicit carbon-reduction pledges (Committed Cities), while 34 have developed planning documents (Planning Cities). The list of these cities is shown in the appendix. Considering the three categorized cities are progressive in the availability of public information, as well as in climate goals, roadmaps and policies, the report provides an overview of the basic situation of Willing Cities, reviews the targets of Committed Cities, and analyzes the detailed policy measures of Planning Cities.