{"id":139198,"date":"2009-12-25T04:53:05","date_gmt":"2009-12-25T09:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.h2euro.org\/?p=2151"},"modified":"2009-12-25T04:53:05","modified_gmt":"2009-12-25T09:53:05","slug":"copenhagen-greenest-city-of-europe-according-to-a-siemens-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/139198","title":{"rendered":"Copenhagen greenest city of Europe according to a Siemens study"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the occasion of the COP 15, Siemens presented the European Green City Index,<\/em> a study on the environmental sustainability of 30 major cities in 30 European countries in which it emerges that Copenhagen is the \u201cgreenest\u201d major city in Europe, followed by Stockholm, Oslo, Vienna, and Amsterdam.<\/p>\n

The evaluation of the 30 cities\u2019 achievements and objectives in the area of environmental and climate protection focuses on eight categories: CO2 emissions; energy; buildings; transportation; water; air quality; waste and land use; and environmental governance.<\/p>\n

The eight categories are based on 30 individual indicators \u2014 16 of which are quantitative (e.g. consumption of water and energy per capita, recycling rate, and use of public transportation) and 14 qualitative (e.g. CO2<\/sub> reduction targets, efficiency standards for buildings, and support for environmental protection measures). \u201cAs far as possible, the research is based on data from official sources, such as municipal statistics departments and city governments<\/em>,\u201d said Watson. The study also includes in-depth city portraits that reveal the strengths and weaknesses of each urban center, while also highlighting initiatives and projects from which other cities can learn. \u201cA key element of the study is the comparability of the results from each city \u2014 within both the individual categories and in the overall evaluation<\/em>,\u201d added Watson.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur analysis indicates that European cities are leaders in environmental performance. In particular, almost all of the 30 cities \u2014 which are home to a total of nearly 75 million inhabitants \u2014 average lower per capita CO2<\/sub> emissions than EU countries,\u201d 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<\/sub> per capita and per year, far less than the EU average of 8.5 tons. What\u2019s more, almost all of the cities have already developed and partially implemented an environmental strategy. \u201cAll of the cities face formidable challenges, however. For example, renewable sources of energy currently account for only around seven percent of these cities\u2019 energy supply, which is significantly under the target of 20 percent set by the EU for 2020,\u201d said Watson. Furthermore, the average share of waste that is recycled is less than 20 percent, while one in four liters of water is wasted through leakage.<\/p>\n

Scandinavian cities generally achieve high scores. Awareness of environmental protection in these cities has been strong for years, which is reflected in the cities\u2019 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. In particular, high energy consumption in buildings and outdated infrastructures reflect this. In the area of public transportation, however, Eastern European cities often score above average: Kiev, which is ranked 30th overall, is estimated to have the highest percentage of people using public transportation to commute.<\/p>\n

The European Green City Index is the third Siemens study to date in the Sustainable Urban Infrastructures series \u2014 after sustainability reports on London and Munich. \u201cWith this analysis we are once again underscoring our commitment to helping cities with their climate protection measures,\u201d said Achatz. \u201cAfter all, they play a key role, given that they are responsible for 80 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions and that more than half of the world\u2019s population lives in cities today.\u201d Siemens\u2019 environmental portfolio makes it an ideal partner for the implementation of climate-friendly infrastructure solutions. In fiscal 2009, the company generated about \u20ac23 billion in revenue with the products and solutions of its environmental portfolio. That is approximately 30 percent of its total annual revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the occasion of the COP 15, Siemens presented the European Green City Index, a study on the environmental sustainability of 30 major cities in 30 European countries in which it emerges that Copenhagen is the \u201cgreenest\u201d major city in Europe, followed by Stockholm, Oslo, Vienna, and Amsterdam. The evaluation of the 30 cities\u2019 achievements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}