A person wants to live in a clean, comfortable and well-maintained city. In Russia, the ecological situation still leaves much to be desired, but a lot is being done in this direction. The next step towards improving the environmental situation in the country was the compilation of a rating of environmentally friendly cities.
Rating of environmentally friendly cities in Russia
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, by presidential decree, has been annually presenting an environmental rating of large cities of the Russian Federation since 2011. It is believed that the openness of this rating for the population allows residents of the country to monitor the activities of local governments and mayors of cities and, thereby, monitor their fulfillment of obligations.
The rating is based on several indicators that are taken into account when assessing the environmental situation in other developed countries: air, transport, energy consumption, water consumption and water quality, land use, waste management and environmental impact management.
2012 ranking
The last ranking for 2012 was presented on September 6, 2013 and contains the following data:
- The first places in the overall rating were taken by: Kursk, Moscow, Saransk, Kaluga, Izhevsk and St. Petersburg.
- According to the “air environment” criterion, Makhachkala, Vologda, Tambov, Penza, St. Petersburg and Tula are on the first lines.
- According to the criterion "water consumption and water quality", the rating was headed by: Anadyr, Orel, Kursk, Ulan-Ude, Naryan-Mar, Moscow.
- According to the criterion “waste management”, the first places were taken by: Yaroslavl, Perm, Veliky Novgorod, Izhevsk, Murmansk, Cheboksary.
- According to the criterion "use of territories" at the top of the rating were: Vladikavkaz, Vladivostok, Belgorod, Abakan, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl.
- According to the criterion "transport" the rating was headed by: Veliky Novgorod, Kemerovo, Moscow, Kursk, Ivanovo, Volgograd.
- According to the criterion "energy consumption" the best were: Izhevsk, Arkhangelsk, Moscow, Magas, Tyumen, Tambov.
- According to the criterion "environmental impact management" the first places were taken by Saransk, Naryan-Mar, Togliatti, Chita, Grozny, Abakan.
Some cities were ranked outsiders for biased reasons. Some cities were unable to provide the necessary statistical data or did not provide complete information on some indicators in the field of environmental protection. In the future, it is planned to annually conduct the necessary studies to compile a rating, so that it is possible to compare not only the dynamics of development of certain cities in the field of ecology, but also to compare indicators with data on large cities in other countries.
