AFRICA
Green City Index
North African Index cities score strongly
for providing access for most of their
­residents to electricity, drinking water,
and sanitation systems.
Continent of Contrasts
No other continent has greater urban growth rates than Africa,
where the number of city dwellers has doubled over the last 20 years.
The African Green City Index shows how African metropolises meet
the challenges of urbanization.
Text: Karen Stelzner
The sub-Saharan cities suffer from the high
share of people living in informal settlements.
More than half of the residents are living in
slums. Governments therefore tend to focus on
the so-called brown agenda and ignore environmental topics.
Photos: Siemens
South African cities are among the leading cities in the Index
mainly for their ambitious environmental policies. They suffer,
however, from high CO2 emissions.
52 Living Energy · No. 7 | November 2012
Living Energy · No. 7 | November 2012 53
Green City Index
Tunis, Tunisia
Casablanca, Morocco
A
n estimated 40 percent of Africa’s
citizens currently live in c­ ities
and is expected to reach 50 percent by as early as 2035. One of the
world’s ten fastest-growing cities is Dar
es Salaam in Tanzania, already a metropolis of 3 million inhabitants – a population that is set to double by 2020.
Even affluent cities in the industrialized world would quickly reach the
limits of their capacities, if faced with
such a steep population growth. In
­African cities, where financial resources and skilled staff are frequently in
short supply, providing all inhabitants with sufficient electricity, water,
and living space poses an enormous
challenge. As a result, two-thirds of
the populations of Dar es Salaam, Maputo, Lagos, and Luanda live in informal ­settlements. In this context, issues such as environmental protection
and sustainability continue to be seen
as rather insignificant, though they
are not. According to Nicholas You, former adviser at UN Habitat and expert
for sustainable urban development,
green policies in Africa “are far from
being a ‘nice-to-have option.’ These
policies will ultimately determine Africa’s ­capacity to ensure sustainable
­development for society as a whole.”
The African Green City Index pinpoints
both the specific challenges and the
sustainability-related strengths of
major African cities. The Economist
Intelligence Unit analyzed 15 of the
continent’s metropolises in cooperation with Siemens, comparing them
in the following categories: energy
and CO2, land use, transport, water
and sanitation, waste, air quality, and
environmental governance. The South
African cities (Durban, Johannesburg,
Cape Town, and Pretoria) perform
particularly well, chiefly as a result of
their comparatively rigorous environmental policies. North African metropolises (Alexandria, Casablanca, Cairo
and ­Tunis) show similarly good overall results, scoring well primarily for
their high access rates to electricity,
drinking water, and sanitation systems.
By contrast, sub-Saharan cities (Accra,
Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Lagos,
­Luanda, Maputo, and Nairobi) face considerable challenges. Their struggle
to provide basic facilities for the population precludes a long-term strategic approach that could include regulations on environmental protection.
Power supply, which constitutes a
­significant prerequisite for economic
growth, medical care, education, and
quality of life, is a particularly sensitive subject for African cities. Although
official figures state that 84 percent
of all households in the 15 African
metropolises analyzed have access to
electricity, this does not mean that
all inhabitants can actually use this
resource around the clock. Power outages are the order of the day, and the
­statistics fail to include the many
slums, which are a particularly prevalent problem in sub-­Saharan cities.
Here, annual per capita electricity consumption amounts to just 2.3 gigajoules, a quarter of the amount used
in the remaining cities in North and
South Africa (9.9 gigajoules per capita).
In addition, strategies designed to
foster a more sustainable energy policy
remain inadequate in almost all African metropolises. Only four cities in
the Index score full points for promoting renewable energies or generating
electricity from waste, while just two
cities support comprehensive energy
efficiency measures.
However, selected initiatives demonstrate that alternatives are available.
Take Cape Town, for example. The South
African city has drawn up detailed
­action plans for energy and ­climate
change and has already launched­u­
­
Alexandria, Egypt
Addressing the Energy Challenge
Cairo, Egypt
Providing access to electricity for all residents
and ensuring a reliable power supply constitute
significant challenges for most African cities.
However, selected initiatives demonstrate the
variety of policies and projects cities can put to
work to improve energy services and reduce
CO2 emissions.
Accra, Ghana
Lagos, Nigeria
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Nairobi, Kenya
Tunis: In 2005, the government here
­adopted the PROSOL solar energy promotion program. The program provides loans
and subsidies to offset the cost of solar
water heaters. More than 50,000 households benefited in the first two years,
­saving an estimated 240,000 tons of CO2
emissions.
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Luanda,
Angola
Maputo,
Mozambique
Pretoria, South Africa
Johannesburg,
South Africa
Durban, South
Africa
Cape Town, South Africa
Cairo is by far the most densely populated city in Africa, with 19,000 residents per square kilometer, compared
with an average of 3,500 in the other African cities. A high population density is a critical lever for efficient infrastructure
development, especially of public transport networks.
54 Living Energy · No. 7 | November 2012
Photos: Siemens, Graphic: independent
Nairobi generates 62 percent of its
electricity from renewable sources,
mostly hydropower. In addition to this,
the city constructed six wind turbines
in 2010.
Lagos has been proactive to
­capitalize on the Kyoto ­Protocol’s
Global Carbon Credits Trading
Scheme. The Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency has
­established a Carbon Credit Centre
to deal with credits trading and
to ­promote clean-energy deals.
Cape Town has the strongest
clean-energy policies in Africa.
It was the first city to develop a
commercial wind farm and has
plans to install 300,000 solar hot
water systems for residential
­properties.
Maputo has greatly improved its residents’ access to electricity
in ­informal settlements by implementing a prepaid system similar
to prepaid phones. Slum dwellers purchase a specific amount of
electricity in advance, which reduces electricity theft and ­accidents.
Green City Index
Accra performs above average overall in
the African Index, despite its low income.
The city’s standout category is environmental governance, practicing environmental monitoring and good policies
for public participation.
130 individual projects designed to
help reduce electricity consumption.
Approximately 300,000 solar water
heaters are due to be installed in the
coming years, and a wind farm has
been supplying the national grid with
clean energy since 2008. So far, electricity generation in South Africa has
been dominated by coal, and this is
reflected in the very high CO2 emissions. Pretoria, Johannesburg, and
Durban have also initiated similar energy programs.
Nonetheless, promising examples can
also be found in the other regions.
­Kenya’s first wind park, located near
the country’s capital Nairobi, was
opened in 2010. In the coming years,
its capacity is expected to increase
to 11 megawatts, enough to supply
around 2,000 households with electricity. In Tunis, the capital of Tunisia,
the government has launched the
PROSOL program for the promotion
of solar energy. Six years ago, the city
of Maputo in Mozambique decided
to introduce a prepaid system for electricity. A system similar to prepaid
cell phone cards – inhabitants of slum
areas purchase a specific amount of
electricity in advance, thereby reducing electricity theft and accidents
and facilitating lasting improvements
to electricity access in informal settlements. Finally, Lagos in Nigeria is participating in the global CO2 emission
trade, tackling its energy problems
with the proceeds.
Although these initiatives are encouraging, they are just a start as far as
dealing with the continent’s energy
and environmental problems in the
long term is concerned. In many places, the strategies pursued by decision
makers are directed rather sporadically towards the most urgent problems
of the day. “We must be proactive and
take action today – this is the only
way to exploit the opportunities that
urbanization offers and thereby ensure a sustainable future for Africa,”
urges Edna Molewa, South Africa’s
Minister of Water and Environmental
Affairs. She believes that change must
start at local government level – and
cities are the best starting points.
However, they should always be viewed
in their full complexity and treated
like the living organisms they are. p
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Electricity
consumption
in gigajoules per person
6.4
2.6
1.8
5.7
8
13.9
5
2.5
11.3
5.6
0.8
1
0.8
6.5
12
18.1
42
18
31
31
17
15
68
22
19
66
69
70
50
27
25
440
160
209
457
573
474
462
519
401
276
292
294
318
1,070
173
121
57
351
237
225
89
187
253
349
90
20
99
112
320
299
11,700
5,200
1,900
19,100
1,500
3,300
2,200
1,500
2,400
3,000
2,600
4,100
4,500
1,100
4,700
Population living in
informal
settlements
in percent
38
Waste
generated
in kilos per person
per year
408
Water
consumption
in liters per person
per day
187
Population
density
Karen Stelzner is responsible for the
Green City Index at Siemens.
per square kilometer,
one dot
represents
250 persons
4,600
Green City Index
The Green City Index is a unique research project that to date
has assessed the environmental sustainability of more than
120
The infographic displays the strengths
and weaknesses, for selected indicators,
of the 15 African Index cities.
cities
worldwide.
Green City Indices are available for
siemens.com/greencityindex
56 Living Energy · No. 7 | November 2012
• Europe
• Latin America
• Asia
• Germany
• USA and Canada
• Africa
Photos/Graphic: Siemens
The study is conducted by the independent research
­organization Economist Intelligence Unit in cooperation
with Siemens. •Electricity: Electricity consumption
and economic development are closely
linked. Electricity consumption is highest in North and South African cities,
with average annual per capita use of
9.9 gigajoules. In the sub-Saharan cities,
where comparatively fewer individuals
are connected to the electricity grid,
this figure is just 2.3 gigajoules.
•Water: The daily per capita water consumption in the African cities analyzed
amounts to around 187 liters. This
­figure is significantly lower than those
recorded in previous Green City Indices:
264 liters in Latin America and 278
l­iters in Asia, for example. The reason
for this is that many people have no
­direct access to drinking water, and
prices are high.
•Waste: The cities generate between
160 kilos (Addis Ababa) and over
1,000 kilos (Pretoria) of waste per capita per day. It is difficult to draw international comparisons, as it is often
­unclear whether the statistics include
informal settlements.
•Informal settlements: Over a third
of African city dwellers live in informal
settlements. In sub-Saharan cities, this
proportion is higher than in other parts
of Africa, and correlates closely with
the overall performance in the Index.
This is to say that cities with a low share
of people living in informal settlements
show better ­results.
•Population density: Urban sprawl
is a key problem in Africa. Cairo, where
approximately 19,100 people inhabit
a single square kilometer, is the most
densely populated city. If the Egyptian
capital is disregarded, the average density for the remaining cities falls from
4,600 to 3,500 people per square kilometer. By comparison, this figure is more
than double in Asia with 8,200 people
per square ­kilometer.
Living Energy · No. 7 | November 2012 57