ABSTRACT
Major environmental award competitions and indexes rank Oslo high among European ‘green’ capitals. Oslo won the European Sustainable City Award in 2003, together with Heidelberg and Ferrara, and qualified for the finals in the European Green Capital Award competition in 2008, finishing sixth out of 35 participating European cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants. Oslo was also ranked third out of 30 European capitals in the European Green City Index 2009, behind Copenhagen and Stockholm. The competitions were organized by the European Union DG Environment, whilst the ranking was made by the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Siemens. The EU commitment to organize an annual Green Capital Award is a following up of its Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment.
