Thursday, August 05, 2010

Green the world's top 20 cities

Negotiations for a global treaty on reduction in greenhouse gas emissions have stalled. So perhaps more targeted initiatives are needed. In my Green ICT course I teach how to reduce CO2 emissions using computer and telecommunications. These techniques include measures such as smart transport and smart grids, which are particularly relevant to large cities. It would be interesting to see what impact this would have on global emissions if applied to the world's top 100 cities or perhaps just the world's top 20 cities would be sufficient. These cities have a high concentration of wealth making carbon pollution reduction measures more affordable and I suspect they also have high energy use.

Trying to work out what to do for the whole world is difficult to conceive let alone do, action for 20 to 100 cities sounds manageable. There would be fewer governments to deal with (about half the top 20 cities are in the USA). To this perhaps should be added capital cities, such as Canberra.

City Country/Territory GDP est.($BN) GDP per capita est. PWC Rank Official data year Other estimate Est. year
Tokyo Japan$ 1479113,0001

$1457[13]

2005

Osaka Japan$ 417112,7007



Helsinki Finland$ 58100,00096



San Francisco United States$ 30192,00018

$ 268.300[2]2005
Boston United States$ 36390,00012

$ 261.086[2]2005
Seattle United States$ 23587,00024

$ 182.170[2]2005
Atlanta United States$ 30486,80017

$ 242.383[2]2005
New York City United States$ 140681,0002

$ 1,056.381[2]2005
Houston United States$ 29777,70019

$ 316.332[2]2005
London United States$ 37575,00011

$ 347.631[2]2005
OsloNorway$ 4372,8007



San Diego United States$ 19166,70033

$ 146.341[2]2005
Chicago United States$ 57465,5004

$ 461.374[2]2005
Fukuoka Japan$ 8862,90073



TaipeiTaiwan$ 16061,50049


2007
Stockholm United States$ 79253,8003

$ 632.407[2]2005
Toronto France$ 56448,0006



Sydney Hong Kong$ 32045,70016

$ 307.3[3]2008
Tampa United States$ 12345,50049

$ 100.952[2]2005
St. Louis United States$ 12645,50048

$ 116.215[2]2005
Singapore Singapore$ 21537,20027$ 257.4185[11]2008$ 237.9[12]2008
Moscow Russia$ 32132,00015$ 459[5][6]2008

Seoul South Korea$ 29129,00021



Mexico City Mexico$ 39022,0008



Budapest China$ 13320,60044



Saint Petersburg Russia$ 9120,00071



Bangkok Thailand$ 11913,00054



Shanghai China$ 23312,30025$ 200 approx.[9]2009$ 200.0[10]2008
Bangalore India$ 6911,90084


2008
Beijing China$ 1669,50038



East Rand South Africa$ 54
99



Auckland China$ 57
97



Ankara Turkey$ 58
94


2008
Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam$ 58
95



Leeds India$ 60
93



Belo Horizonte Brazil$ 61
90



Dublin Germany$ 64
89



Chennai India$ 66
87



Porto Alegre Brazil$ 66
88



Warsaw Italy$ 68
86



Lyon France$ 69
83



Jeddah Saudi Arabia$ 72
81



Hamburg Germany$ 74
79



Tianjin China$ 74
80



Dhaka Bangladesh$ 78
77



Karachi Pakistan$ 78
78



Guadalajara Mexico$ 81
76



Brussels Belgium$ 83
75



Manchester Indonesia$ 92
70



Vancouver Germany$ 95
69



Athens Greece$ 96
67


2008
Lisbon Portugal$ 98
66



Pittsburgh United States$ 99
65

$ 102.053[2]2005
Bogotá Colombia$ 100
64



Monterrey Mexico$ 102
63



Cape Town South Africa$ 103
62



Kolkata India$ 104
61



Riyadh Saudi Arabia$ 107
60



Lima Peru$ 109
59



Brasilia Brazil$ 110
56



Portland United States$ 110
57

$ 95.573[2]2005
Johannesburg South Africa$ 110
58



Cleveland United States$ 112
55

$ 99.338[2]2005
Santiago Chile$ 120
53



Busan South Korea$ 121
52



Vienna Austria$ 122
50



Tel Aviv Iran$ 127
47



Milan Italy$ 136
46



Baltimore United States$ 137
45

$ 118.063[2]2005
Rome Italy$ 144
43

$ 121.5 [8]2005
Cairo Egypt$ 145
42



Montreal United States$ 165
39

$ 131.551[2]2005
Delhi India$ 167
37



Melbourne Spain$ 177
35



Istanbul Turkey$ 182
34



Minneapolis United States$ 194
32

$ 171.61[2]2005
Phoenix United States$ 200
31

$ 160.028[2]2005
Rio de Janeiro Brazil$ 201
30



Mumbai India$ 209
29$ 74.16[7]


Madrid Spain$ 230
26



Detroit United States$ 253
23

$ 198.630[2]2005
Miami United States$ 292
20

$ 231.806[2]2005
Dallas United States$ 338
14

$ 315.544[2]2005
Buenos AiresArgentina$ 362
13



Philadelphia United States$ 388
9

$ 295.236[2]2005
São Paulo Brazil$ 388
10




Table adapted from List of cities by GDP, Wikipedia, 2010.

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