ectopias of the world

We all like lists, right? Here is a compilation of places vying for the title of "greenest community" - some built, some still on the drawing board. I guess a bit of rivalry is good for innovation. Courtesy of Wired:

• Costa Rica: plans to become the first carbon neutral country by 2021.
• Dockside Green in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: will promote bicycle use and carsharing, and build structures out of trees that were submerged by reservoirs.
• Dongtan, Chongming Island, China: to be powered from renewable sources, fuel-cell-powered transport and organic farming.
• Green Mountain, Libya: luxury hotels to be powered by wind turbines and solar farms.
• Guangtang Chuangye Park, Liuzhou, China: biogas from human waste to generate electricity, and filtered rainwater for bathing.
• Masdar, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: wind turbines, photovoltaics, grey water recycling, transport by light rail and walking only.
• Northstowe, Cambridge, England: brownfield development on an old airfield, with water recycling, photovoltaics, wind power and buildings insulated with recycled paper.
• Norway: plans to cut emissions by 30% by 2020, and become carbon neutral by 2050.
• Treasure Island, San Francisco, USA: brownfield development on a former naval base, to grow food and use congestion charging to discourage car use.
• Vauban, Freiburg, Germany: passive houses designed to minimise energy consumption, carshare service, and 40% of residents pledge to live car-free.
• Växjö, Sweden: already one of the world's greenest cities, with half its power from renewable sources, and one of the lowest per-capita carbon output rates in Europe, aiming to be fossil-fuel free by 2050.

There are a few others missing from the Wired list. Iceland and New Zealand have also pledged to achieve carbon neutrality as countries. They have joined the UN's Carbon Neutral Network, announced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at its special session in Monaco last week. Costa Rica and Norway are also part of CN Net, as well as Sweden's Växjö and three other cities: Vancouver in Canada, Arendal in Norway, and Rizhao in the northern China province of Shandong. There are five corporate members, one being South Africa's Nedbank.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP executive director, says of CN Net:

This new initiative supports the formal negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Here governments need to navigate the Bali Road Map to a successful conclusion in Copenhagen in 2009.

The CN Net can assist in building confidence through demonstrable action at the national and local level on the art of the possible.

Comments

[Duncan Drennan]

It would be great to see Cape Town on that list. There seem to be enough environmentally aware people in CT to ensure that the correct policies could work.