European Green City Index - Siemens

European Green City Index | Executive summary
Executive summary
Why cities matter: More than one-half of the
world’s population now lives in urban areas, but
they are blamed for producing as much as 80%
of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore,
increasing urbanisation can negatively
impact everything from the availability of
arable land and vital green spaces to potable
water and sanitary waste disposal facilities. Living
in such close proximity tends to intensify
thedemands that urban settlements impose on
their surrounding environments.
It is clear, then, that cities must be part of the
solution if an urbanising world is to grapple successfully
with ecological challenges such as climate
change. In concentrated urban areas, it is
possible for environmental economies of scale
to reduce the impact of human beings on the
earth. This has already started to happen in
Europe. According to the UN Population Division,
72% of the continent’s population is urban
but the European Environment Agency (EEA)
says that its cities and towns account for just
69% of energy use. This is achieved in a range of
ways, from increased use of public transport due
to greater population density to smaller city
dwellings that require less heating and lighting.
Many European cities have demonstrated their
commitment to reducing their environmental
impact by joining the Covenant of Mayors, a
European Commission initiative launched in
January 2008 that asks mayors to commit to cutting
carbon emissions by at least 20% by 2020.
This is encouraging the creation — often for the
very first time — of a formal plan for how cities
can go about reducing their carbon impact,
which bodes well for the future.
Of course, environmental performance
inevitably varies from city to city, but some
encouraging trends are emerging. Of the 30
diverse European cities covered by this study,
nearly all had lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
per head than the overall EU27 average of
8.46 tonnes 1 . Part of this success comes from
several advantages which European urban areas
share. Compared to other regions of the world,
the continent has enjoyed remarkable political
stability, with only the Balkan wars breaking the
general peace of recent decades. Moreover, citizen
awareness of the importance of protecting
the environment and of green objectives has
markedly increased in recent years. This is boosted
in part by a growing body of environmentally
focussed EU legislation.
But even in environmentally conscious
Europe, problems abound. Across the cities
profiled in this report, an average of one in
three residents drive to work, contributing to
increased CO2 emissions and general air pollution.
The average proportion of renewable energy
consumed is just 7.3%, a long way short of
the EU’s stated goal of increasing the share of
renewable energy usage to 20% by 2020. Nearly
one in four litres of water consumed by cities is
lost through leakage. And less than one fifth of
overall waste is currently recycled. Moreover,
encouraging environmentally helpful behavioural
change is not a straightforward matter:
cities often have little leverage to induce citizens,
companies, or even other levels of gov-
ernment to modify their actions or policies. In
particular, increased costs or taxes are usually
met with scepticism, if not hostility. In the current
financial situation, this difficulty may well
grow. Although many green technologies help
to reduce costs in the long run, immediate financial
concerns may impede the greater upfront
investment which they also frequently require.
How the study was conducted: To aid efforts
and understanding in this field, the European
Green City Index seeks to measure and rate the
environmental performance of 30 leading European
cities both overall and across a range of
specific areas. In so doing, it offers a tool to
enhance the understanding and decision-making
abilities of all those interested in environmental
performance, from individual citizens
through to leading urban policymakers. The
methodology was developed by the Economist
Intelligence Unit in co-operation with Siemens.
An independent panel of urban sustainability
experts provided important insights and feed-
back on the methodology. This study is not the
first comparison of the environmental impact of
European cities, nor does it seek to supplant
other worthwhile initiatives, such as the European
Urban Ecosystem Survey or the European
Green Capital Award. Instead, its value lies in the
breadth of information provided and in the form
in which it is presented. The index takes into
account 30 individual indicators per city that
touch on a wide range of environmental areas
— from environmental governance and water
consumption to waste management and greenhouse
gas emissions — and ranks cities using a
transparent, consistent and replicable scoring
process. The relative scores assigned to individual
cities (for performance in specific categories,
as well as overall) is also unique to the index and
allows for direct comparison between cities.
Of course, numbers alone only give part of
the picture. To complement the core data within
the index, this study also seeks to provide context,
with in-depth city portraits that not only
explain the challenges, strengths and weakness-
6 1) Based on the most recently available data, the majority of which was for 2006-07.
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