HONG KONG, Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- The top performers on the Zero Carbon Index as a whole are Norway, Brazil and the UK, followed by China and Australia in joint fourth out of 34 countries, says the RICS Zero Carbon Capacity Index 2009 released today.
RICS initiated its first Zero Carbon Capacity Index in 2008 with an objective to highlight which countries are developing the capacity to make progress towards the goal of a zero-carbon built environment. The latest results of the Index in 2009 reveal that Norway has retained top place from the 2008 run but the UK’s position is an improvement of one place. Brazil has moved up from 6th place last year and Australia from 7th place.
The Index is based on three performance indicators:
As expected, both USA and China were the largest consumer of energy and emissions of CO2. Although China has exceeded those of the USA in emissions for the first time, it performed well on the ZC2 Index by ranking 4th among 34 countries. In the energy consumption category, China is one of the five countries with the lowest residential energy consumption per capita along with Brazil (best performer), India, Mexico and Turkey.
On the other side, China once again is one of the five countries with the lowest energy consumption in the tertiary sector along with Mexico (best performer), Luxembourg, India and Brazil. In terms of policy frameworks, Australia and UK were the top two performers, followed equally in place by China, Germany, Ireland and USA. Overall the coverage of the identified policy measures is not good among the countries as a whole and a more comprehensive policy framework is clearly needed in order to create the built environment for sustainable buildings and other property assets at the international and national scale.
Overall, China is ranked 3rd place in two out of three performance indicators: energy consumption for residential, tertiary & transport sectors and government policy. On the field of share of renewable energy in total energy supply, China is ranked 12th place, Japan at 27th place and Korea is the worst performer in this sector.
Please refer below for ten top performers in the list of overall Zero Carbon Index scores for 2009:
2009 Rank (2008) Country Score
1 (1) Norway 106
2 (6) Brazil 72
3 (4) UK 70
4 (2) China (PR) 68
4 (7) Australia 68
6 (5) New Zealand 58
7 (3) India 52
8 (8) Austria 39
9 15) Germany 33
10(14) Sweden 24
Since 2007 RICS has been undertaking a number of sustainability initiatives in order to reduce its carbon emissions. Energy monitoring and carbon footprint have been at the core of these efforts. The topic of sustainability is important to RICS as this is high on political agendas of governments worldwide and also increasingly becoming part of property investor companies’ corporate social responsibility strategies by demonstrated their “green” credentials through investing in or occupying sustainable buildings.
Margaret Brooke, FRICS, CEO of Professional Property Services Group, commented on the current trend of construction and building industry during the Panel Discussion of RICS Hong Kong Forum on 29 July:
“Sustainability, while requiring country and regional support, is best driven at city level. We need more than just green buildings, but to reduce carbon footprint which can also be a good business tool. Sustainability is an attitude of mind and a way of life and requires long-term, integrated strategic planning and management.”
To download RICS Zero Carbon Capacity Index 2009, please visit http://www.ricsasia.org/newsDetail.php?id=235
For more information on latest news and RICS report on sustainability, please visit www.rics.org/sustainability and www.rics.org/research.
About RICS Zero Carbon Capacity Index 2009
To capture the progress that is being made towards a decarbonised built environment at the national level, RICS commissioned the Environment Institute at University College London to develop a new index: the Global Zero Carbon Capacity Index also known as the ZC2 Index. The purpose of this Index is to highlight which countries are developing the capacity to make progress towards the aspirational goal of a zero-carbon built environment.
The Index was piloted in 2008 with a first version launched in February 2009. The Index covers 34 countries which divided into three income groups: high, upper middle and lower middle. High income countries are Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA. Upper middle income countries are Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa and Turkey. Lower middle incomes are China and India.
About RICS & RICS Asia
RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) is the mark of property professionalism worldwide. It covers all aspects of property, construction and associated environmental issues. RICS has 140,000 members globally and represents, regulates and promotes the work of property professionals throughout 122 countries.
The RICS Asia supports a network of over 11,000 individual professionals across the Asia Pacific region with an objective to help develop the property and construction markets in these countries, by introducing professional standards, best practice and international experience. It promotes RICS and its members as the natural advisors on all property matters. It also ensures that services and career development opportunities are provided to members.
The RICS Asia region covers national associations and local groups locating in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, The People’s Republic of China and the SAR Hong Kong. It also has members working across the region such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Laos PDR, Macao, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, The Maldives, The Philippines, Timor East and Vietnam. For more information, please visit: www.ricsasia.org.
Media enquiry, please contact:
RICS Asia Public Relations Representative
Ms Belinda Chan / Ms Ava Lau
Tel: +852-2372-0090
Fax: +852-2372-0490
Mobile: +852-9379-3045 / +852-9829-2913
Email: belinda@creativegp.com / ava@creativegp.com