Brazilian cities improve sustainable development index in 2025
The 2025 Sustainable Development Index for Cities (IDSC-BR) – which measures progress and challenges faced by Brazilian municipalities in eradicating poverty and protecting the planet – revealed an improvement in the nation’s average, which this year rose to 49.9 points on a scale of zero to 100.
The figure leaves Brazil with a still low ranking, but shows an improvement over 2024’s 46.7.
“This is great news for the country. Where 90 percent of the Brazilian population lives, we are managing to turn things around for the first time in ten years,” Jorge Abrahão, CEO of the Sustainable Cities Institute, said during the release of the index in Brasília on Wednesday (Oct. 15).
The score is based on 100 indicators that gauge progress toward the United Nations’ (UN) 17 sustainable development goals. Based on this measurement, municipalities are classified into five levels – very low, low, medium, high, and very high.
An improvement was seen in 2025, with more cities moving to medium (47%) compared to 45.7 percent of cities that remained low. In 2024, 51.3 percent of the 5,570 cities surveyed were rated low.
This year, no Brazilian city reached the very high level, but three percent of cities received a high rating, and 3.8 percent appear as very low.
According to Abrahão, the figures still point to significant territorial inequality in Brazil. “We see that the North and the Northeast of the country face major challenges,” he noted.
Among the largest Brazilian cities, São Paulo (57.9) and São José dos Campos (58.3) – in São Paulo state – and Brasília (57.6), the national capital, have the highest levels of sustainable development. The worst are Belém, Maceió, and São Luís, with 40.1, 41.7, and 42.2 respectively.
The 2030 Agenda
The 17 sustainable development goals are part of a UN action plan with targets that seek to eradicate poverty, protect the environment, and ensure climate security in an agenda for 2030.
At the launch of IDSC-BR 2025, during the Sustainable Cities Development Forum in Brasília, the executive secretary of the National Commission for Sustainable Development Goals, Lavito Bacarissa, recalled that the 2030 Agenda is the result of a consensus reached by 193 countries in 2015.
“When we talk to municipal and local managers and territorial leaders, we talk about the 2030 Agenda as a key tool for the territory development, with a logic of objectives, goals, and indicators,” he stated.
Declaration
Following the presentation of the IDSC-BR, the National Front of Mayors launched a call to address the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, and social inequalities in Brazil.
The Cities for Climate Declaration at COP30 – the 30th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – lists actions needed in the territories to address the global challenge: care for air, water, and soil; climate risk prevention and management; increasing green areas; sustainable public procurement and solid waste treatment, as well as promoting environmental education, local agriculture, and climate justice.
The document will be open for voluntary adherence by municipalities until COP30, to be held in the Amazon city of Belém in November this year.
