Dubai Ranks 4th in New Environmental Report
MasterCard Worldwide Launches a New Report on the Impact of Key Environmental Factors on Major Cities in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa
MasterCard Worldwide recently announced the results of the inaugural MasterCard Worldwide Insights Report - Urbanization and Environmental Challenges in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa with Dubai ranking at fourth position. Melbourne took the first place, Johannesburg second and Singapore third.
The report features data drawn from the 21 key centers of commerce in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region as identified in last year's MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index™ and reviews these cities' relative vulnerability and degrees of protection from key environmental challenges such as air pollution, infectious disease and natural disasters. The report's observations make clear what impact environmental factors are already having on a city and what challenges further urbanization might present in this context. This makes the report an invaluable tool for any city leader planning for their city's future.
Looking at indicators considered being under government control such as water potability, water availability or waste removal, Dubai comes in at fifth place after Sydney. This illustrates the presence of good standards of water access and cleanliness, good sewage management, and low levels of incidences of infectious diseases and air pollution.
Dubai has a lower score when assessing indicators that are subject to climate change such as the rise of the sea level or water scarcity or factors that are highly unpredictable such as earthquakes or hurricanes. Dubai’s geographic location, influences the city’s ranking in these dimensions.
Economic advisor to MasterCard Worldwide, and author of the report, Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong said, “The overall picture for Dubai is that by and large the city has done exceptionally well in creating a high quality environment within its urban setting, managing increasing population growth and a degree of unpredictable environmental impacts to ensure a good quality of life for residents. However, as this report also shows, that unpredictability means there is still no room for complacency."
He continued, "The environmental dimension of urban development looms large as a central policy issue to be addressed by governments and businesses. Centers of commerce are critical nodes of economic growth and connectivity in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region; and the sustainability of their growth momentum is closely linked to the sustainability of their environments and quality of life. Our research findings constitute an objective perspective in assessing the performance of centers of commerce in this regard; and in so doing provide a new road map for governments and business leaders to address the challenge.
An analysis of the report's environmental rankings indicates that historically, the higher-income cities have been able to provide improvements in environmental quality.
Meanwhile poorer cities at a lower level of development usually suffer from a lack of basic infrastructure services such as clean drinking water and sanitation. As they industrialize and income levels increase, basic services are usually improved, but new environmental problems emerge, such as traffic congestion, air pollution and toxic wastes.
This diversity of performance across cities is perhaps best illustrated in the report by the stark contrast between Melbourne (1st) and Mumbai (21st).
The differential between these two cities can at least in part be explained due to Melbourne's low population and city growth rates, positive wealth and income levels and a generally healthy economic condition. As a result Melbourne experiences a low incidence of infectious diseases, good air quality and limited risk from climate change and extreme natural disasters.
Conversely Mumbai shows the signs of a city challenged with keeping up with the rapid growth of its population and city size. The strain on natural resources, goods and services and general infrastructure is apparent through the prevalence of such negative features as frequent outbreaks of endemic diseases, partial coverage and frequent malfunctions of sewage systems, and poor air quality from traffic and industry.
Similarly in China, Chengdu (12th) Shanghai (13th) and Shenzhen (15th) and Beijing (17th) are growing (or urbanizing) rapidly, but as the report shows all four cities perform poorly with regards to air pollution, water potability and waste removal. This combined with the high risk of natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes in these cities leads to their low rankings in the report.
Methodology
In establishing the rankings, the new report has considered three dimensions,
1. Factors largely under the government’s control
2. Factors not considered to be under the government's control and subject to climate change
3. Factors linked to unpredictable environmental risks such as natural disasters
These three dimensions were then weighted based on the perception that the most important dimension by far is the quality of the day-to-day environment (Dimension 1), since that is the daily experience of the city resident or visitor and its indicators have the most significant impact on health and welfare. Next in importance is the dimension of risks from climate change (Dimension 2), since the trends are to some extent predictable and known to be getting more severe. The least important dimension was considered to be the element of unpredictable risk. (Dimension 3),
The dimensions were then weighted as below:
Indicator Weight (%)
Dimension 1 70
Dimension 2 20
Dimension 3 10
Results - Combined Rankings
Overall results of combined rankings for the MasterCard Worldwide Index Insights Report on Urbanization and Environmental Challenges in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa
Rank City Normalized
Overall Rank
1 Melbourne 2.03
2 Johannesburg 2.37
3 Singapore 2.40
4 Dubai 2.70
5 Sydney 3.02
6 Tel Aviv 3.08
7 Tokyo 3.27
8 Seoul 3.29
9 Kuala Lumpur 3.54
10 Riyadh 4.35
11 Hong Kong 4.93
12 Chengdu 5.25
13 Shanghai 5.54
14 Bangkok 5.79
15 Beijing 5.82
16 Cairo 5.95
17 Shenzhen 6.07
18 Beirut 6.29
19 Jakarta 7.10
20 New Delhi 7.24
21 Mumbai 7.78
Results - Dimension 1
Indicators included in this dimension are those considered to be under government control; and they include conditions of water potability, water availability, sewage system, waste removal, air quality, and infectious diseases.
This dimension revealed that those cities that rank lowest in environmental quality suffer from very high levels of air pollution (especially vehicular emissions), absent or ineffective waste removal and coverage (solid wastes and sewage network) and high instances of infectious diseases. Severe limitations to water availability and potability are marked in New Delhi and Mumbai, with Jakarta and Beijing subject to significantly impaired potability. Beirut suffers from degraded environmental services due to political disturbance.
Table 1: Weights of Indicators in Dimension 1
Indicator Weight (%)
Water potability 12
Water availability 12
Sewage system 12
Waste removal 16
Air quality 32
Infectious diseases 16
Table 2: Rankings in Dimension 1
Rank Centers of Commerce Normalized Score (1= best)
1 Melbourne 1.0
2 Singapore 1.7
3 Tokyo 1.7
4 Sydney 1.8
5 Dubai 2.2
6 Johannesburg 2.7
7 Tel Aviv 3.6
8 Seoul 3.8
9 Kuala Lumpur 4.6
10 Riyadh 5.2
11 Hong Kong 5.3
12 Bangkok 5.3
13 Shanghai 6.0
14 Chengdu 6.7
15 Shenzhen 6.9
16 Cairo 7.1
17 Beijing 7.4
18 Jakarta 7.8
19 Beirut 8.2
20 New Delhi 9.7
21 Mumbai 10.0
Results - Dimension 2
Indicators included in this dimension are not considered to be under government control (at least not directly); and are subject to potential impact from climate change. These include rise of sea level, water scarcity due to drought, severe storms, and fires.
This dimension found that the impact of climate change is likely to be especially marked in Bangkok, Jakarta, Shanghai and Sydney due to flooding from a rise in sea level; they may be less marked in Singapore, Tokyo and Melbourne where adaptive strategies may be easier to implement. Drought is predicted to be significant in the Middle East countries. with offset strategies being variously adopted according to financial strength. Increased incidences and severity of typhoons are predicted for Hong Kong and Shenzhen and to a lesser degree Tokyo.
Table 3: Weights of Indicators in Dimension 2
Indicator Weight (%)
Sea level rising 70
Water scarcity 20
Severe storms 5
Fires 5
Table 4. Rankings in dimension 2
Rank Centers of Commerce — Normalized Score (1= low risk)
1 Kuala Lumpur 1.0
2 Chengdu 1.3
3 New Delhi 1.6
4 Johannesburg 1.9
5 Beijing 1.9
6 Tel Aviv 2.2
7 Beirut 2.2
8 Seoul 2.4
9 Riyadh 3.1
10 Mumbai 3.2
11 Cairo 4.4
12 Hong Kong 4.8
13 Shenzhen 4.8
14 Dubai 5.0
15 Tokyo 5.4
16 Singapore 5.4
17 Melbourne 6.2
18 Shanghai 6.2
19 Jakarta 6.7
20 Sydney 8.4
21 Bangkok 10.0
Results - Dimension 3
Indicators in this dimension are those considered to be highly unpredictable (hence exogenous), but all have immediate impact on the environment of the centers of commerce nonetheless should they occur. They are earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, and volcano eruptions.
These dimensions revealed that unpredictable risks are pronounced in the case of Tokyo and to a degree in Jakarta and the cities in China. Tokyo is in close proximity to volcanic activity, subject to severe earthquakes and lies in the path of frequent typhoons. The remaining cities are relatively free of these events either singly or in combination. Preparation measures receive significant attention and have been put in place to minimize the effect of these events in Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Table 5: Weights of Indicators in Dimension 3
Indicator Weight (%)
Earthquakes 75
Typhoons/Hurricanes 20
Volcano eruptions 5
Table 6. Rankings in dimension 3
Rank Centers of Commerce Normalized Score
(1= low risk)
1 Melbourne 1.0
2 Johannesburg 1.0
3 Sydney 1.0
4 Tel Aviv 1.0
5 Riyadh 1.0
6 Bangkok 1.0
7 Beirut 1.0
8 Shanghai 1.2
9 Singapore 1.3
10 Dubai 1.4
11 Kuala Lumpur 1.4
12 Cairo 1.4
13 New Delhi 1.4
14 Mumbai 1.4
15 Seoul 1.6
16 Beijing 2.9
17 Hong Kong 2.9
18 Shenzhen 2.9
19 Chengdu 3.3
20 Jakarta 3.4
21 Tokyo 10.0
Note to Editors: Full details of the insights report are available at www.masterintelligence.com.
About MasterCard Worldwide
MasterCard Worldwide advances global commerce by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, businesses, cardholders and merchants worldwide. As a franchisor, processor and advisor, MasterCard develops and markets payment solutions, processes over 16 billion transactions each year, and provides industry-leading analysis and consulting services to financial institution customers and merchants. Through its family of brands, including MasterCard®, Maestro® and Cirrus®, MasterCard serves consumers and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information, go to http://www.mastercard.com.
