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| Megacity Singapore is Asia’s greenest city Singapore is Asia's greenest metropolis. This is the conclusion of the Asian Green City Index – a study commissioned by Siemens and performed by the independent Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). For the study, which was carried out over the past few months, the EIU analyzed the aims and achievements of 22 major Asian cities with respect to environmental and climate protection. Singapore City stands out in particular for its ambitious environmental targets and its efficient approach to achieving them. In other Asian cities as well, however, environmental awareness and climate protection guidelines are playing an increasingly important role. The Asian Green City Index examines the environmental performance of 22 major Asian cities in eight categories: energy and CO2, land use and buildings, transport, waste, water, sanitation, air quality and environmental governance. The EIU developed the methodology in cooperation with leading urban experts around the world, including representatives of the OECD, the World Bank and Asia's regional network of local authorities, CITYNET. "The study of Asian cities shows one thing very clearly: higher income does not necessarily mean higher resource consumption. While resource consumption increases substantially up to an annual gross domestic product (GDP) of about €15,000 per capita, it drops again when income rises beyond this, " said Jan Friederich, research head of the EIU study. Why? In the prosperous Asian cities, environmental awareness is greater and infrastructures are more efficient. These cities are actively cutting their consumption of natural resources and are thus developing more sustainably. "In addition, cities that performed well in the Index are characterized by their ability to successfully implement environmental projects and consistently enforce regulations, " explained Friederich. The progressive rural exodus in Asia is unprecedented in human history. According to the United Nations Population Division, the proportion of Asia's population living in cities has grown in the last 20 years by around a third to over 40 percent. In the last five years alone, the number of inhabitants in Asian cities has been increasing by about 100, 000 a day. And this development will continue in the years to come. In China alone, experts predict that by 2025 there will be well over 200 cities with a population of over a million. 2011 there are just under 90, while Europe currently has 25 cities of that size. The increasing urbanization is having an enormous impact on the infrastructure: with the additional number of inhabitants, correspondingly more energy, clean water, transportation and energy-efficient homes are required. The Asian Development Bank estimates that to cope with the influx, the Asian cities must for example build 20,000 new homes and 250 kilometers of road and provide transportation infrastructure and an extra six million liters of drinking water, all on a daily basis. In addition, the cities are the main emitters of harmful greenhouse gases: Cities are the growth engines of the future, but they are also responsible for 75 percent of worldwide energy consumption and for around 80 percent of the human CO2 emissions. write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Construction News :: home page |