Green Daily

It's easy to think that we city-dwellers are a pretty polluting bunch. Turns out we may not be that bad, according to a report by the International Institute for Environment and Development. Residents in major cities directly produce less greenhouse gas per capita than the rest of the country.

The study, which looked at major cities in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America, found that having larger concentrations of people can actually help reduce emissions. If you're a New Yorker, for instance, you likely live in a small place and use public transportation. In 2005, New Yorkers produced 7.1 tons of CO2 per person which is substantially less than the 23.92 tons per person produced nationally in 2004. Londoners produced 6.18 tons per person while the national UK average was 11.19.

Before we urban-ites all pat each other on the back, the report only looked at the emissions we produced directly and not the CO2 produced by the manufacturing of products we love to consume. City-dwellers do a lot of the consumption, but due to high labor costs and tougher environmental laws, production usually remains outside of major urban centers. UN-Habitat's executive director, Anna Tibaijuka, says that cities are actually responsible for closer to 80% of emissions when you take all the indirect emissions we are responsible for.