Big and small cities take lead in innovative measures to cut emissions
Mark Rice-Oxley, Guardian in Straits Times 17 Dec 07;
WOKING (ENGLAND) - CITIES, towns and even villages across Europe are pressing ahead with deep, unilateral cuts in carbon emissions, regardless of national or international targets, proving that one does not necessarily need a Bali-style global deal to get to grips with climate change.
From Woking in England to Vaxjo in Sweden, and from the mighty metropolises of London, Barcelona and Munich to tiny villages like Gussing in Austria, Europeans are shrinking their individual carbon footprints through an exotic range of renewables and energy efficiency projects.
The result: some towns have cut emissions by far greater amounts than was prescribed in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, while others are confidently setting targets that go well beyond any tentative suggestions put forward last week at the Bali conference of 190 nations.
'If we want to tackle climate change we have to be local,' says Mr Pedro Ballesteros Torres, manager of the European Commission's Sustainable Energy Europe campaign.
'Our aim is for the cities to push the governments to act on climate change.'
Woking is an early pioneer in Britain. With its solar-powered street lights and photovoltaic panels, its fuel cells and energy-efficient power generators, this town south of London has gained a reputation as Britain's greenest city.
'We have cut emissions by 21 per cent since 1990,' enthuses Ms Lara Curran, who heads the climate change programme for the local council. If the national grid were to go down, locals here boast, parts of Woking would remain lit, thanks to its alternative energy supplies.
'Woking is a small town but this shows we can make a difference,' says Ms Curran.
Vaxjo in southern Sweden is even further down the road to becoming fossil-fuel free, a goal it set for itself in 1996. It has since cut emissions by 30 per cent and is confident it can get a 50 per cent cut by 2010.
The main agent of change has been a centralised 'district heating system' which runs on low-emitting woodchip fuel (one of a number of stock fuels known as biomass) and provides up to 90 per cent of local heating needs.
'We are taking leftover product from forestry industry and sawmills and so on and using that as the source for heat and electricity production,' says environment controller Henrik Johansson.
Vaxjo has also expanded its bicycle network (snow is cleared from cycle paths before roads) and provides free parking for green cars. It is insulating older buildings and 50 per cent of its energy supply now comes from renewable sources.
Visitors come from all over the world to see what can be done on a local level.
'We send them the message that you don't have to wait for international agreements because you can do a lot on a voluntary local basis,' he says.
As for cities, Barcelona now requires all new buildings to install solar panels for hot water.
Munich is refurbishing old buildings for tackling energy wastage through poor insulation. It aims to shrink its footprint by 50 per cent by 2030. That compares with the likes of Copenhagen (35 per cent by 2010) and London (60 per cent by 2025).
Cities are also taking on the fastest-growing source of carbon emissions: transport.
Paris has its new 'Velib' free bicycle rental scheme, joining cities such as Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vienna and Brussels; London has its much-admired congestion charge that has cut weekday traffic through the city centre. Stockholm followed suit in August this year.
'Traffic is the big problem for the future,' says Ms Angela Harnish of the Climate Alliance of European Cities, a grouping of more than 1,400 member cities and municipalities across Europe which aim to cut their emissions by 10 per cent every five years.
'For energy and heating we have solutions but for traffic and mobility, it's harder.'
