The third Asian Green City Index, a research project conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), sponsored by Siemens examines the environmental performance of 22 major Asian cities in eight categories: energy and CO2 emissions, 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 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and Asia's regional network of local authorities, CITYNET. The study revealed one thing very clearly: higher income does not necessarily mean higher resource consumption. In the prosperous Asian cities, environmental awareness is greater and infrastructure is more efficient. These cities are actively cutting their consumption of natural resources and are thus developing more sustainably. According to the study, the biggest challenges facing Asia's cities are in the following areas: first, air pollution levels are relatively high in all the cities studied, regardless of income. The average values for all the cities substantially exceed WHO standards; second, Asia's metropolises have much catching up to do in the area of renewable energies, which on average account for 11 percent of the total electricity generated in the 22 cities.
The Asian Green City Index supports cities in their efforts to expand their infrastructure on a sustainable basis. Barbara Kux, Member of the Managing Board, Chief Sustainability Officer, Siemens AG said: 'We want to enable Asia's up-and-coming urban centers to achieve healthy growth rates coupled with a high quality of life'.
Singapore City stands out in particular for its ambitious environmental targets and its efficient approach. Singapore is Asia's greenest metropolis, and it has been especially successful in pursuing ambitious environmental targets, effectively implementing environmental policies and integrating these into the city's master planning.
Hanoi is listed in the group of below average cities. The city's best results are in the energy and CO2, air quality, and waste categories, where it ranks average. Hanoi's particular strengths in these categories include relatively low estimated CO2 emissions, a high rate of electricity generated from hydropower, and its efforts to set and monitor standards for air pollution. More effort should be made in the fields of transport and water, land use and buildings, sanitation and environment governance.
"Although Hanoi ranks below average in the Asian Green City Index, its involvement in the study will help Hanoi authority leaders understand the city's current status against other Asian cities and problems that need to be addressed so that they will make right decisions for the city's development in the future" said Erdal Elver
He added that Siemens pledges to support highly growing cities in Vietnam such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to develop on a sustainable basis and to become major global cities in the future. Siemens will be an ideal partner of Hanoi because it has a series of comprehensive friendly green technology products in the fields of clean energy and efficiency, transportation and waste water treatment.
Viet Anh