After being shortlisted into the final eight cities tussling for the accolade of the first ever European Green Capital, Bristol has just missed out to the winning city of Stockholm, Sweden.

The award, which aims to help cities become more attractive and healthy places and strengthen sustainable and integrated urban management across Europe, is similar to the European Capital of Culture competition. Bristol was the only UK city to make the shortlist and impressed judges with its parks, green spaces and efforts to prevent climate change. The other 7 cities shortlisted were Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo, Freiburg, Munster, Stockholm and Hamburg.

European Environment Commissioner, Stavros Dimas announced Stockholm will take the title in 2010 followed by Hamburg in 2011. Stockholm won because the city is home to 800,000 people and their emissions per person are 50% lower than the national average. All their public transport runs on renewable fuels and 95% of the population lives only 300 metres away from a green space. They have also set themselves the ambitious target of being a completely fossil fuel free city by 2050.

“The eight cities are the green front-runners among European cities. They all presented remarkable results and ideas. I was very impressed by their commitment and enthusiasm,” said evaluation panel member Mr. J. Luis Bento Coelho, Associate Professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal.

www.ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital