Global index aims to measure sustainability of cities
Copenhagen, 4 September: An initiative to help cities around the world to become more sustainable – the Low-carbon City Index – was launched yesterday by WWF and a group of city representatives from China, India and Denmark.

The index is intended to become “a global standard for sustainable city planning”, its backers say. The emphasis will be on monitoring and encouraging innovation rather than simply measuring emissions, said John Kornerup Bang, head of WWF’s globalisation programme. "We are interested in cities that make profound transformational change," he told an audience at the Copenmind exhibition of research, technology and innovation in Copenhagen.
  
Although the precise details of the index remain to be clarified, a key feature will be the analysis of three aspects of a city’s carbon dioxide emissions:

• the direct emissions from its industry, transport and residential sectors;
• its carbon footprint arising from the impact of  products and services exported from the city and consumed elsewhere; and
• the carbon impact of the city’s activities on carbon emissions at the place of origin of ‘imported’ goods and services.

Because of the complexity of these issues, it may not be possible to combine data from the three areas into one single number, Bang conceded.

There are already several indexes at a national level that attempt to measure cities’ progress towards a low-carbon future, but none include export and import factors and there is none at a global level, the supporters say. One example is the Low Carbon City Initiative in China, launched by WWF in January. A founding partner in this initiative – Baoding, a major centre for renewable energy technology in China  – is also backing the global index.

Other signatories of the 'Copenhagen declaration for a low-carbon city development index' include representatives from: the Civic Exchange Hong Kong; Copenhagen City; Tiruvallur district in India; several academic institutions; and the Carbon Disclosure Project. Many other cities will be approached to participate, Bang said.