Of the large cities or metropolitan areas throughout the country, such as the Valley of Mexico, Monterrey, León, Tijuana and Puebla, none managed to rank in the top 10 of the best cities in the 2021 Sustainable Cities Index (ICS), which It also implies that they are increasingly moving away from the goal of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
According to the ICS 2021, which measures the degree of progress of the metropolitan areas of Mexico towards compliance with the SDGs approved by the United Nations in September 2015, the general average was 56.1 points, 2.9 points more than in 2018.
This result indicates that Mexican cities have not made great progress since the SDG goal was set in 2015; in that first year the average was 53.18.
“This pace of progress, if maintained, will not be enough to reach the goals proposed for the indicators by 2030,” said the report prepared by Citibanamex, the National Laboratory of Public Policies of the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE), as well as the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (Imco) and the Mario Molina Center (CMM).
The ICS evaluates 63 metropolitan areas through 92 indicators of sustainable, environmental, social and economic development. The results are reflected in 17 sub-indices and each one represents an SDG.
The ICS rating is on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being the lowest and 100 being the highest a metropolitan area could achieve.
The sub-indices with the lowest average results were 13, Climate action, (40.75 points): 15, Life of terrestrial ecosystems, (43.99) and 12, Responsible production and consumption, (44.95).
Regarding the general results of the index, it stands out that large cities such as Valle de México, Monterrey, León, Tijuana and Puebla are not in the Top 10 of the best cities, as they achieved ratings of 62, 61.2, 59.4, 57.5 and 55.5 points, respectively.
In addition, there are 26 cities (41% of the 63 cities evaluated) whose rating is below the national average of the ICS 2021, of which Ensenada, Puebla, Veracruz, Orizaba, Acapulco and Chilpancingo stand out.
The best
In the top 10 of the best cities in the general evaluation of the ICS 2021, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Culiacán, Querétaro, Aguascalientes, Mazatlán, Durango, Chihuahua, Mexicali and Toluca stand out.
Although Guadalajara is a city that belongs to a large metropolitan area, the first place is explained by its good performance in SDG 13, Climate Action; 7, Affordable and clean energy, and 17, Alliances to achieve the goals.
In the group of the 10 cities with the lowest ratings are Orizaba, Zamora, Acapulco, Chilpancingo, Río Verde, La Piedad-Pénjamo, Tecomán, Tapachula, Tehuantepec and Poza Rica.