The study follows on from the recent publication of a ‘European Green City Index', which rated the environmental performance of 30 major European cities and global CEO Peter Loescher indicated on Friday that the African derivative would be the first known attempt to analyse and compare the environmental performance of African cities and their efforts to improve sustainability.
The ranking will cover leading cities in Algeria, Angola, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Tunisia. South Africa's mega-cities of Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria would participate.
The cities would be assessed in eight environmental categories, including: energy supply and carbon dioxide emissions, transport, water, sanitation, and green governance.
Speaking in Kyalami, Gauteng province, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the group's formation in South Africa, Loescher said that the results should offer city administrators insight into how their urban infrastructure could be improved.
The study coincided with rapid urbanisation across Africa, where the number of people living in cities is expected to almost double by 2030 to more than 750-million people.
Speaking from the same platform, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said she was a strong "supporter" of the initiative, noting that Africa's cities were expanding at a rate of about one-million people a week.
She said this expansion was creating pressure on city infrastructure and also increasing the contribution of cities to climate change, owing to the fact that 75% of all energy was being consumed in urban centres, while 80% of all greenhouse gas emissions were arising from cities.
"It is clear that the battle against global warning will be decided in the cities," she said.
Tshwane executive mayor Dr Gwen Ramokgopa added that the peer review offered by the index should provide valuable insight into best practices and would compliment efforts already being made in Pretoria to advance green-development programmes.
