For this year’s entry, National Capital Region’s Muntinlupa City is taking a holistic approach in reducing carbon emissions by offering climate-responsive agriculture training for urban farmers to promote sustainable food systems, as well as providing first aid safety training for all city employees to assist citizens in the event of extremely hot weather conditions. As a frontrunner in terms of providing a high quality of life for its residents, Muntinlupa has been referred as the Emerald City of the Philippines with its steady growth as a leading investment hub that has preserved its lush greenery through the years.

Batangas City, on the other hand, has developed a comprehensive climate mitigation and adaptation plan that addresses the specific climate vulnerabilities of the city and is investing in methods to harvest rainwater from rooftops, constructing seawalls, and exploring ways to make the city more self-sufficient in terms of food supply. The city, which bagged this year’s OPCC National Winner title, is also aiming to be the first carbon-neutral city in the country by 2030.

Santa Rosa City, which prides itself with a long-standing commitment to environmental protection, signed a voluntary agreement with the international organization SE4ALL's Building Efficiency Accelerator Partnership to raise the energy efficiency of buildings across the city. Santa Rosa is combating climate vulnerabilities by undertaking fundamental mitigation and adaptation work to understand its emissions profile. With a clean environment included in the city’s pillars for development, the local government unit ensures that the environment is still a top priority despite being a key industrial region in the province of Laguna.

Atty. Angela Ibay, WWF-Philippines’ Climate and Energy Program Head, expressed her appreciation for the country’s local qualifiers this year as they participate in this campaign to promote sustainable urban development.  “Even at a time when cities are addressing the effects of the pandemic, our finalist cities are showing that getting its residents involved in this campaign would enable the cities to further share and strengthen their actions towards sustainable development and hopefully inspire and empower others to do so.”

This year’s We Love Cities Campaign was launched last September 14, and is set to run until October 11. The city who will receive the most number of website votes, social media posts, and suggestion submissions by the end of the campaign period will be declared as the We Love Cities 2020 global campaign winner.

Campaign for your favorite Philippine city on your social media platforms by using the hashtag #WeLoveMuntinlupaCityPH, #WeLoveSantaRosaCityPH, or #WeLoveBatangasCityPH. For more information and updates about the We Love Cities 2020 campaign, log on to https://welovecities.org/.