An updated public report on cities signed up to the Green City Accord shows more local authorities are now submitting environmental data, rising to 54 out of 126 signatories.
The Green City Accord, launched in 2020, brings together mayors who commit to improving environmental conditions in their cities and to reporting progress against benchmarks, the European Commission said in a release on Tuesday.
It tracks five areas — air quality, water management, nature and biodiversity, the circular economy and waste, and noise pollution.
Across those areas, the report records “steady improvement”, with the largest gains noted in waste management and the circular economy.
In air quality, 96% of reporting cities meet current EU standards, but only 8% meet the stricter World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, which are due to apply in the EU from 2030.
The WHO guidelines are international health-based limits for pollutants such as fine particles.
For water, cities set a target to cut average daily household use from 133 litres per person to 119 litres by 2030, and 28 signatory cities have fully met EU wastewater treatment standards.
Waste, nature and noise targets
On nature and biodiversity, 38 cities pledged to expand green spaces and protected areas, including increasing average tree canopy cover to 32.7% — a 4.1% rise from current levels, according to the report.
In waste and the circular economy, 43 cities reported generating less than 0.5 tonnes of waste per person, below the EU average, with that figure projected to fall to 0.4 tonnes per person by 2030.
On noise, cities set a target to reduce the share of residents chronically disturbed by transport noise to 30%, with 18 cities meeting that level so far, while 12 still report harmful noise exposure rates of 50% or higher.
The report also lists examples of city measures, including air quality action plans in Florence and noise-prevention plans in Lyon.
