Top 14 cities in Asia Pacific Sustainable Cities Index
Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore top the Asia Pacific ranking of the inaugural Sustainable Cities Index from global natural and built asset design consultancy firm Arcadis. The three are also on the top 10 of the international cities that make up the global ranking of 50 cities. The other cities in the top ten global ranking are Frankfurt (first place), London and Berlin. Asian cities — Jakarta, Manila, Mumbai, Wuhan and New Delhi — make up the last few places in the global ranking.
While Singapore is placed in the top ten in the Sustainable Cities Index, it ranks lower than Hong Kong and Seoul largely due to lower scores for indicators like work-life balance, expensive property prices, low use of renewable energy and a high cost of doing business. However, Singapore is the only country in Asia Pacific which made it into the top 10 of the Planet sub-index, which looks at city energy consumption and renewable energy share, recycling rates, greenhouse gas emissions, natural catastrophe risk, drinking water, sanitation and air pollution.
The Index, which was conducted by the Center for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) explores social, environmental and economic demands to develop an indicative ranking. The 2015 report finds that no utopian city exists, with city leaders having to manage a complex balancing act between these three key pillars of sustainability.
