Laura Cummings: Capital's green machine dropping off the pace

PLANS for climate change, available allotment space and the use of public transport are just a few of the areas in which the Capital is trailing behind other cities in the UK.

The result - Edinburgh is dangerously close to losing its position as one of the UK's top 10 green cities.

Since 2007, the city has fallen seven places to number nine in the Sustainable Cities Index, run by sustainable development organisation Forum for the Future, which shows Britain's top 20 green cities.

After three successive drops down the green league, several improvements will now have to be made if the city is to retain - or improve on - its number two ranking back in 2007.

The index tracks progress on sustainability in Britain's 20 largest cities, ranking them across three areas including environmental performance, quality of life and future-proofing - how well the city is addressing issues such as climate change, recycling and biodiversity.

Lead author of the report and senior sustainability advisor for Forum for the Future, Ben Ross, says: "Edinburgh slipping down the table is as much because other cities are increasing their game, rather than Edinburgh getting worse than it was before.

"For example, Edinburgh is actually recycling a greater proportion of waste compared with last year, but it's not keeping up with the other cities."

While the Capital improved its environmental performance - air quality and biodiversity in particular - on last year, moving from 16th to 7th place, it slipped from 9th to 12th place in the future proofing category, which includes the number of available allotments and the city's plans for climate change. Furthermore, it fell from 5th to 6th place in the quality of life category, ranking at the bottom of the table for time spent by the average person to reach public services without a car - a total of 223.6 minutes per month.

The study also highlighted that Edinburgh has the second largest ecological footprint, which measures residents' impact on the environment and is particularly influenced by car and air travel.

Chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, Duncan McLaren, believes it's not too late for the city to climb back up the table, which Newcastle topped for the second consecutive year.

"In order to improve, the priority would be to try and address traffic congestion by traffic management, and also improve the availability of bus services so people feel they can use the bus instead of a car," he said. "We also need to be renewing bus stock with electric hybrid vehicles, and our dependency on air travel has to be reduced. Edinburgh also needs to keep improving recycling rates."

But it's not all doom and gloom for the Capital, as the study ranked Edinburgh top for employment, with just 3.1 per cent of the population claiming Jobseeker's Allowance.

"The city also boasts one of the most highly skilled city populations in the UK and a high rate of business start-ups.

Head of policy for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Scotland, Dan Barlow, comments: "I don't see this as Edinburgh going backwards but rather Edinburgh not keeping pace with a number of other very progressive cities who are doing more. My call would be for Edinburgh not to continue falling behind other cities.

"There's much more it can do to cut emissions from transport and to improve recycling rates, for example."

Meanwhile, the city council's environmental leader, Robert Aldridge, admitted the survey results were "disappointing" but underlined that creating a greener Edinburgh was not just down to the council.

He says: "There is a lot of good work going on in Edinburgh and for the council's part we are working hard to reduce our environmental footprint, such as improving our energy efficiency and our impact from travel.

"But we have to recognise that these issues are complex and that it takes co-ordinated steps, by organisations and communities, to create a green city.

"The challenge is there for us all, not just the council, to do our bit to create a cleaner and greener Edinburgh for the future."

Councillor Aldridge also pointed out that the introduction of the trams will "help the city's environmental sustainability well into the future."

The city's new climate change framework which sets new targets and actions, including the vision of achieving a zero-carbon Edinburgh economy by 2050, is to be published by the end of the year.

However, with Edinburgh also producing above average household waste - almost 460kg of household waste is collected per resident every year, and facing mounting pressure to replace original windows in its listed buildings with double glazing to improve thermal insulation, it is difficult to predict if the city will be able to move back up the green rankings.

Perhaps only time will tell.