Of the 22 ranked cities, Hanoi, three cities in India (Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai) and Manila of the Philippines are in this group. This group is only above Pakistan’s Karachi, the city at the bottom of the rankings.

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 particularly for its ambitious environmental targets and its efficient approach to achieving them. In addition to Singapore City, in other Asian cities 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.

Overall results:

Well above average: Singapore

Above average: Hong Kong, Osaka, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, Yokohama

Average: Bangkok, Beijing, Delhi, Ghuangzhou, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan

Below average: Bengaluru, Hanoi, Kolkata, Manila, Mumbai

Well below average: Karachi