SMART CITIES051Below right: TheLillgrund offshore windfarm provides greenenergy to Malmö in SwedenBelow left: Siemens AGCEO and President of theManaging Board, Peter LöscherThe country's GDP has been strengthened andemployment boosted thanks in large part to companiesinvolved with the environment. Intensive research anddevelopment has been conducted by industry over thepast decades. Early on, companies sought ways toharmonise environmental protection, resourceefficiency and economic growth with the ideal of alivable world. Highly innovative companies like Siemens havefocused their measures on where they have thegreatest impact - in the cities that consume around 75per cent of the world's energy and account for 80 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2007,over half of humanity lives in cities. By 2050, the totalis expected to reach 70 per cent. This will meanroughly three billion urban dwellers more than atpresent - an increase that will almost exclusively takeplace in developing and emerging countries. In Asiaalone, urban populations are currently growing by100,000 people a day. We can expect the dramatic consequences of thisgrowth to be chaotic traffic conditions, environmentalpollution, uncontrolled exploitation of land and failingenergy supplies in many places. The greatestchallenge of our time, then, is to transform our urbancentres into smart, sustainable cities - intointelligently managed, sustainably run cities that arelivable for all people. The keys for achieving this are technologicalinnovations that provide resource-sparing powergeneration, energy-efficient buildings, industrialfacilities and transportation systems as well ascomprehensive healthcare solutions tailored todemographic trends.Outstanding performance in this regard is alreadydemonstrated today by top-ranked cities in the GreenCity Indices. These indices, compiled for Siemens bythe independent consultant Economist IntelligenceUnit, give a picture of the current ecological status of

all major regions in the world. The European Green CityIndex, for example, ranked Copenhagen, Stockholmand Oslo as the greenest cities in Europe. SanFrancisco leads the list in the US, and Brazil's Curitibais one of the greenest cities in Latin America. In Asia, Singapore achieved high ratings. A ranking for Africa will be presented during the COP17conference in Durban.The top cities and other progressive urban centres inthe Green City Indices show they had the courage toinnovate in the most diverse areas. One of their mostimportant tasks is to save their communities fromtraffic chaos. This is best done by convincing as manypeople as possible to use public, low-emissiontransportation systems and organise individual trafficas carbon-neutral as possible. Today, efficient metro and bus systems in many majorcities reduce individual traffic. Modern hybrid drivesalso ensure a substantial reduction of traffic-relatedemissions. London's municipal transport company, forexample, uses double-decker buses operated withhybrid drives. In these systems, the diesel engine isAbove: With electric carsyou can drive CO2-free,store green electricity andsell any surplus back tothe power grid052SMART CITIES