Experts from The Economist Intelligence Unit named Copenhagen Europe's "greenest" major city, followed by Stockholm, Oslo, Vienna and Amsterdam.

The European Green City Index evaluates 30 cities in 30 European countries in eight categories: C02 emissions, energy, buildings, transportation, water, air quality, waste and land management, and environmental governance. The award was presented by the German industrial giant Siemens during the 15th UN climate change conference, which opened on Monday in Copenhagen.

"Our analysis indicates that European cities are leaders in environmental performance. In particular, almost all of the 30 cities - which are home to a total of nearly 75 million inhabitants - [have] average lower per capita CO2 emissions than [the average among] EU countries," said James Watson, managing editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit and the editor of the study.

The best city in the CO2 emissions category, Oslo, emits only 2.5 tons of CO2 per capita and per year, far less than the EU average of 8.5 tons, and aims to become carbon-free by 2025.

"Awareness of environmental protection in these cities has been strong for years, which is reflected in the cities' ambitious climate targets," according to a press release on the results of the research.

The least environmentally friendly European cities on the list are Belgrade (27), Bucharest (28), Sofia (29) and Kiev (30). Moscow was not included in the list.

"So far, Eastern European cities generally rank lower. This is largely due to a comparatively low gross domestic product and historic burdens, including the lack of attention paid to environmental protection in previous decades," Siemens said in a press release.

However, most Eastern European cities were ranked above average in the transportation category. Kiev, for example, had the highest percentage of people using public transportation to commute.

STOCKHOLM, December 8 (RIA Novosti)