What will Istanbul look like in the year 2023? A megacity on the verge of collapse? A sustainable, modern city, offering efficient infrastructure to its citizens? A conference on the future of sustainability, held by Siemens in Istanbul on Tuesday, attempted to answer these tough questions.
The European Green City Index 2009, based on a study carried out by Siemens in collaboration with the Economist Intelligence Unit to evaluate cities across 30 different indicators, ranked Istanbul at 25 among the 30 top European cities examined. Copenhagen was first place in the list.
The index measured cities on aspects ranging from environmental governance and water consumption to waste management and greenhouse emissions.
With increasing urbanization, cities are responsible for 75 percent of the world’s energy use and produce more than 80 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, mostly carbon dioxide.
It has been estimated that redesigning cities could positively influence up to 70 percent of humanity’s ecological footprint, which is calculated by comparing humans’ consumption of resources and generation of waste with nature’s capacity to generate new resources and absorb our waste.
London, one of the world’s largest cities, has an economic footprint of 3.05 planets, meaning that more than three planet earths would be needed to support the world’s population if everyone lived like a Londoner. Given that London was still ranked at No. 11 in the European Green City Index, it is likely that residents of Istanbul exert an even greater footprint.
Many agree that technology could pave the way toward sustainability. “We are seeing a green technology boom of $40 billion,” Patrick Dixon, the founder and chairman of Global Change, said in his keynote speech.
Dixon said he believes that for green technology to become more widespread, oil prices are a crucial factor, as well as people’s goodwill to save the environment. “If the oil price stays above $80 a barrel, it is commercially worthwhile to develop green technology.”
Making better buildings
Speaking of possible solutions, The Global Change chairman said 40 percent of global energy consumption was used to construct and tear down buildings. If buildings were made to last longer, more energy would be saved. He also advocated the use of polymer concrete to replace cement, as well as using heat pumps in buildings.
Some countries are already making advances in building designs, with 30 percent of all new buildings in Switzerland now using heat pumps.
He said balancing air conditioning could also save energy by 30-50 percent, as would using energy-efficient street lights. Cities could also upgrade their system by using smart grids that could help facilitate power transmissions.
“We could power Moscow from the Sahara or power Istanbul from Denmark’s wind farms,” he said.
Siemens, which recently showcased its leading Osram lighting technology at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, aims to be at the forefront of developing energy efficient solutions and products. The technology ensures that lighting fixtures can last 15 times longer and are 80 percent more efficient than conventional bulbs.
The company is also helping cities upgrade their electricity grids, particularly in Turkey, which is seeing a huge increase in energy consumption, said Dr. Jan Mrosik, chief executive of Siemens AG Energy Automation.
Predicting that energy consumption would grow 118 percent in Turkey between 2009 and 2020, Mrosik said the rise would make power outages more frequent.
“The new grids would be more complex than the old ones, but they would increase the capacity, which can also allow renewable energy generated in the future to be transmitted,” he said.
If Turkey does everything correctly, the country would have “wind power from the west, solar power from the south, and hydropower from the mountainous center of the country” by 2023, according to Mrosik.
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