The evaluation of the 30 cities’ 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.

The eight categories are based on 30 individual indicators — 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 reduction targets, efficiency standards for buildings, and support for environmental protection measures). “As far as possible, the research is based on data from official sources, such as municipal statistics departments and city governments,” 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. “A key element of the study is the comparability of the results from each city — within both the individual categories and in the overall evaluation,” added Watson.

“Our analysis indicates that European cities are leaders in environmental performance. In particular, almost all of the 30 cities — which are home to a total of nearly 75 million inhabitants — average lower per capita CO₂ emissions than EU countries,” 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 per capita and per year, far less than the EU average of 8.5 tons. What’s more, almost all of the cities have already developed and partially implemented an environmental strategy. “All of the cities face formidable challenges, however. For example, renewable sources of energy currently account for only around seven percent of these cities’ energy supply, which is significantly under the target of 20 percent set by the EU for 2020,” 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.

Scandinavian cities generally achieve high scores. Awareness of environmental protection in these cities has been strong for years, which is reflected in the cities’ 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.

The European Green City Index is the third Siemens study to date in the Sustainable Urban Infrastructures series — after sustainability reports on London and Munich. “With this analysis we are once again underscoring our commitment to helping cities with their climate protection measures,” said Achatz. “After 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’s population lives in cities today.” Siemens’ environmental portfolio makes it an ideal partner for the implementation of climate-friendly infrastructure solutions. In fiscal 2009, the company generated about €23 billion in revenue with the products and solutions of its environmental portfolio. That is approximately 30 percent of its total annual revenue.

Responding to sustained interest in and controversial discussion of the prospects of hydrogen, this book highlights the opportunities and the challenges of introducing hydrogen as alternative fuel in the transport sector from an economic, technical and environmental point of view, and with a global geographic scope. Through its multi-disciplinary approach the book provides a broad range of researchers, decision makers and policy makers with a solid and wide-ranging knowledge base concerning the hydrogen economy.

Particular highlights include:  assessment of the benefits and downsides of hydrogen compared to other alternative fuels, strategies and scenarios for a hydrogen infrastructure build-up,  interactions between hydrogen production and the electricity sector, long-term global hydrogen supply scenarios and their impact on resource availability, the potential of hydrogen for decarbonising the transport sector,  macro-economic impacts of introducing hydrogen, assesses the virtues and downsides of hydrogen compared to alternative fuels in the transport sector, enabling readers to have an informed opinion on this controversial issue, discusses long-term global hydrogen supply scenarios and contribution to CO2 emissions reduction, increasing awareness of the consequences of the hydrogen economy, comprehensive literature review and overview provides a road-map for more detailed reading

More about the Hydrogen Economy book on Cambridge University Press website

The EU overview describes the activities directly undertaken by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in these areas. Each project is summarised, listing the objectives of the project, the challenges faced, the approach taken, the exploitation and impact of the work and the results that have been achieved to date. Some of the projects described have only just started, some are ongoing and some are nearing completion. Each synopsis contains an information section where specific details can be found, including the contact point for further information.