Asian green city index: assessing the environmental performance of Asia's major cities

This Asian Green City Index, commissioned by German firm Siemens is an analysis of the environmental sustainability of 22 major cities in Asia with respect to environmental and climate protection.

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 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.