The Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen started yesterday and will go on until 18 December.
Siemens AG has sponsored a study to rank the sustainability of 30 European cities developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Quite appropriately, Copenhagen was ranked highest – followed by Stockholm and Oslo, while ex-Soviet and eastern European cities ranked at the bottom, with Kiev last.
The various indexes and overall ranking here.
Copenhagen — the greenest major city in Europe
The study evaluates the 30 cities in eight categories: CO2 emissions; energy; buildings; transportation; water; air quality; waste and land use; and environmental governance. “We support the cities’ efforts to achieve efficient climate protection by providing them with comprehensive standardized data,” said Dr. Reinhold Achatz, head of Corporate Research and Technologies, the central research unit of Siemens AG. “Cities can use this study to prioritize their actions in reducing their carbon footprint.”
“Our analysis indicates that European cities are leaders in environmental performance. In particular, almost all of the 30 cities — which are home to a total of nearly 75 million inhabitants — average lower per capita CO2 emissions than EU countries,” said James Watson, managing editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit and the editor of the study. The best city in this category, Oslo, emits only 2.5 tons of CO2 per capita and per year, far less than the EU average of 8.5 tons. What’s more, almost all of the cities have already developed and partially implemented an environmental strategy.
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Scandinavian cities generally achieve high scores. Awareness of environmental protection in these cities has been strong for years, which is reflected in the cities’ ambitious climate targets. Copenhagen, for example, aims to be carbon free by 2025. In Scandinavian countries, GDP per capita income is above average, and these wealthy countries have invested substantially in environmental protection. So far, Eastern European cities generally rank lower. This is largely due to a comparatively low gross domestic product and historic burdens, including the lack of attention paid to environmental protection in previous decades.
An interesting analysis of the study on the site linked on top of this diary entry:
Green Flow
The COP 15 has had some problems today after it was leaked that the host government had worked on a back-up text for a treaty with some of the richest nations – an agreement favoring the industrialized countries.
Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak
Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN’s negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol
The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN’s role in all future climate change negotiations.
The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.
The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as “the circle of commitment” – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.
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