The study ranked some 300 cities worldwide using a rather complicated set of procedures.

In order to rank highly, a city must not only be clean, but it had to solve many specific problems related to environment and public services.

Production of energy for industrial and residential use, as well as to power public transport is one of the core sources for rankings. Here, Ireland scores extremely poorly with most of our energy generated from fossil fuels, low level of electrification of public transport and low energy efficiency in our residential and transport sectors.

In waste management, moving away from the use of landfills toward recycling formed a part of international weightings. Our government is committed to building an incinerator in the very heart of Dublin Bay . . . Poolbeg Peninsula . . . an area that is already contaminated by sewage-related pollution.

Dublin's recycling programmes that rely on recycling banks instead of direct collection are shambolic. Again, logic suggests that we should have been at the bottom of the world league table.

In general transport, what matters for rankings is the type of roads, rail, air transport, subways and other transport infrastructure in place. In all, save aviation, Dublin is hardly an exemplary case.

We lack subways and have low density of rail networks, with public transport excessively reliant on buses. Our poor roads infrastructure should be on par with that of developing, not developed, countries. We have the M50 and the trucks gridlock at Dublin Port, while our surface streets are seemingly managed without any regard for the natural traffic flow patterns.

Finally, the rankings cover the old staples of air, water and soil quality. Once again, it is hard to make the case for Dublin given the fact that our water supply is stretched to the limit, our air carries aromas of the untreated waste and our city centre is full of industrial sites with so much soil contamination that the contractors are forced to ship it overseas for treatment.

Can anyone explain, how did our city manage to score ahead of Amsterdam, Toronto, Lyon and Copenhagen?