Swedish city of Uppsala global winner 2018

The Swedish City of Uppsala was named global winner of WWF’s 2018 One Planet City Challenge. This year, 132 cities representing 23 countries participated in the Challenge. Jakarta, Indonesia was given a special mention for its work in the We Love Cities campaign, which supports participants of the One Planet City Challenge, through citizen engagement.

Uppsala impressed the jury with its strong, all-around performance in key competition categories. In particular, the jury appreciated Uppsala’s sophisticated cross-sector sustainability interventions, as well as its strong leadership in the surrounding region.The global winner as well as 21 national winners and the We Love Cities campaign winner, was announced on September 12, during the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. Read more.

National winners of WWFs City Challenge 2018

• Brazil – Belo Horizonte
• Canada – Vancouver
• Chile – Santiago
• Colombia - Monteria
• Ecuador - Quito
• Guatemala – Pachalum
• India –Rajkot
• Indonesia – Jakarta
• Japan -Yokohama
• Malaysia - Melaka
• Mexico - Guadalajar
• Pakistan –Karachi
• Peru - Magdalena Del Mar
• Philippines -Pasig
• South Africa – eThekwini (Durban)  
• Sweden - Uppsala
• Tanzania - Dar Es Salaam
• Thailand -Yasothon
• Turkey –Izmir
• Uganda - Kampala
• United States – Cleveland
• Vietnam - Da Nang

50 finalists, representing 100 million citizens from 5 continents, took part of the We Love Cities campaign to engage citizens in expressing support for their cities, as well as sharing ideas for improvement. Simultaneously, an international expert jury reviewed all finalist cities, selecting both national and a global winner of One Planet City Challenge 2018. 

Let Your City Inspire the World​

In cities, everything is closely connected. As cities and urban populations expand across the globe, the problems in cities also tend to multiply. The good news is that solutions can also multiply. And fortunately, solutions already exist today that have the potential to meet the demands of urban lifestyles, without exhausting the planet’s ecological capacity.

So WWF created the One Planet City Challenge (OPCC) to highlight these solutions, and to recognize and reward cities that are busy putting them to use. These are cities that aim to provide sustainable housing, transportation, and energy for their residents while simultaneously engaging their citizens and acting as inspirational role models for other cities around the globe.

The One Planet City Challenge invities cities in participating countries to report ambitious and innovative climate actions, and to demonstrate how they are delivering on the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. Data is entered on the carbonn® Climate Registry, and outreach and support is provided to cities in collaboration with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. Final plans and data are then reviewed by an international jury of experts tasked with identifying the most outstanding cities. After a process involving a thorough scrutiny of submissions and jury deliberations, national and global winners are selected and awarded at a global prize ceremony. 

Since the inception of the Challenge in 2011, WWF has engaged over 400 cities across 5 continents. In the 2017-2018 round the City Challenge had a thematic focus on sustainable transport and mobility as a major challenge facing cities everywhere. For more info, please contact us at opcc@wwf.se.