Urban leadership for a thriving planet

Cities have the power to drive transformative change, but navigating the path toward a climate-resilient future can be complex. WWF created the One Planet City Challenge (OPCC) in 2011 to facilitate and accelerate this process.

Since then, the program has grown to be the largest and most impactful initiative of its kind. Nearly 900 cities from 70 countries have participated, creating a critical mass of ambitious local governments actively advancing the urban sustainability agenda.

Boost your city’s climate leadership with OPCC

1. Learn from Leaders: Gain insights from OPCC frontrunners and experts. 
2. Build Capacity: Use OPCC tools to strengthen your city’s climate strategies. 
3. Collaborate: Join a global network of cities working toward shared climate goals. 
4. Accelerate Action: Get inspired to advance your city’s climate journey. 
5. Inspire Others: Profile your city’s successes and lessons and be recognized for your work

View an infographic about the OPCC to learn more

The OPCC’s unique methodology for assessing cities starts with your city reporting transparently on the renowned CDP-ICLEI Track. This is where you input data about your city's emissions, goals, strategies, actions, etc. 

This data is then assessed and compared to the emission reduction trajectories recommended for their type of city to limit global warming to 1.5 °C.

The assessment also guides cities towards the most impactful actions to cut emissions and adapt to climate change.

WWF will recognize and reward top-scoring cities for their achievements and invite shortlisted cities to participate in a global public engagement campaign.

The OPCC Strategic Support Program (SSP) is designed to support participating cities by offering a structured process and arena for learning and enhancing their strategic climate work. It provides cities with overviews, transparency and inspiration on their climate journey, from the first commitment to participate through to the recurrent monitoring and strategic updating of climate action plans. 

The program builds competencies for evidence-based assessment and disclosure, guides cities on how to align with the 1.5°C objective of the Paris Agreement, and points them towards more ambitious and integrated climate actions that create co-benefits for people and nature.

What you'll get from the Strategic Support Program

Through a dynamic mix of webinars, guides, and coaching, cities will access tools and insights that support their development, communication and monitoring of ambitious climate action that aligns with science. This is what you'll get:

✅ Thematic Webinars: Step-by-step guidance tailored to the key stages of the OPCC cycle. 

✅ Interactive Tool: WWF is launching an online tool that helps cities evaluate their climate performance. The tool provides actionable insights, interactive data summaries, and an AI module that expands on OPCC assessment results and answers user inquiries.

✅ Group-based Coaching: interactive sessions for peer-to-peer learning and actionable feedback (availability may differ between countries and regions). 

✅ Strategic Feedback Report: tailor-made for your city, enabling you to better understand your climate risks and adaptation strategies, observe climate action gaps and improvement potential, benchmark your city based on vision, impact and recommended targets, communicate the status and progress of city climate action to decision makers and local stakeholders.

View an infographic about the Program to learn more