European Climate Champions website launched!

We're very happy and excited to launch the website and the agenda for the European Climate Champions conference, taking place on the 14th - 15th December 2011!

The conference is the culmination point of the CHAMP project and is going to present the results of the project. Furthermore, we will discuss the integrated approach in local climate work more broadly and try to find solutions to the need of continuos capacity building for local authorities and form a bridge between the EU policies and the work that local authorities do.

We have been planning and preparing for the conference for a long time and are very thrilled to see how it really works in practice. After all, this will be the first ever online conference organised by the team!

See our Welcome video to find out more and save the date!

Climate 2011 - OR finding inspiration for the CHAMP final conference

Currently everyone in the world can take part in the "World´s CO2-friendly scientific online conference" CLIMATE 2011, which runs from today until Saturday, 12th of November.

We do that for the third time, but this year it is a bit special: in 5 weeks we´ll launch the "European Climate Champions" final conference for the CHAMP project!

Online conferences become more and more common: either its possible to follow sessions as live streams in the internet, or videos are available afterwards, but there are also some "all-online" conferences, very often dealing with environmental or climate change related topics.

Meeting online is up-to-date, it´s easy (at least for the participants), it usually doesn´t cost any fees and you also save time and money with staying at your own desk - a lot of advantages!

Nevertheless there are still many that doubt that an online conference can be as efficient and resultful as a physical conference. The whole networking adn mingling part is missing as well as you are not physically bound to a place.
But is this necessarily negative?

Not in my opinion.

An online conference gives me the chance to listen to the presentations I am most interested(and skip those I am not), read and print papers that I might use later on and also it might be easier to ask questions in a discussion forum than in anauditorium with hundreds of people.
The biggest advantage is in my eyes, that you have the chance to take part in so many different events all over the worls without leaving your desk (and spend a lot of money on flight tickets)

The new possibilities will never replace face-to-face meetings but offer whole new ways of collaborating!

I am excited and happy that we have the chance to test this now with our online conference, it´s a lot of work and organisation, both content-wise and technical-wise, but we keep the fingers crossed that everything will work out.

So YOU are warmly invited to take part in the
"European Climate Champions" conference
14th-15th of December
at www.climatechampions.eu!

Revealing and inspiring to Success - CHAMP regional final conference

The windmill farm just outside Liepaja rising around us while driving towards the UBC IX General Conference awoke a perfect positivism inside just before the CHAMP regional final conference in Liepaja. The purpose of our trip was to participate in the UBC General Conference as a CHAMP delegation and conduct the regional final conference of CHAMP in the Baltic Sea Region.

The three year CHAMP project is moving closer to the end. October 4th – 7th in connection to the UBC IX General Conference, the CHAMP BSR final conference was held in form of two workshops. The first workshop on Success stories of Local climate change work in the Baltic Sea Region gathered Finnish CHAMP cities Lahti and Kotka to present and share their success stories. Besides hearing about the good practices and development in CHAMP cities, another theme was cooperation.

Swedish Climate Municipalities introduced their activities in supporting Swedish municipalities to a joint effort towards success in climate work. As a comment speech of parallel action in Finland the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, also a CHAMP partner, shared their experiences from their Climate Campaign. At the same time one of the new initiatives connecting cities and the signature of the Covenant of Mayors, NET-COM Networking the Covenant of Mayors was presented.

It is clear that cooperation is also needed in future, but how? In our opinion it will be in form of the European Partnership for Integrated Sustainability Management, launched in June this year. The partnership will consist of Training hubs offering support and IMS trainings to local and regional authorities,

Quoting a famous business quote and Pekka Salminen, Project Manager for CHAMP,
“If you want to be incrementally better: Be competitive.
If you want to be exponentially better: Be cooperative.”

The second part of the workshop, How to master climate change; success factors in local integrated climate management, put the focus on the elements of successful management, implementation and stakeholder involvement of local climate change work. Tampere city working towards carbon neutrality and a presentation on Successful stakeholder involvement from the Danish Board of Technology gave inspiration and set a base for discussion on various solutions in different cities.

Thinking about the expected outcomes of the CHAMP project – a Capacity Development Package, Publications, Case studies and continuity in form of the European partnership are now presented. Back from Liepaja, we are now at the office reprocessing the great work done by cities, but heading towards the Final Conference to be held December 14th – 15th. The Online conference European Climate Champions will have a great impact on the total carbon footprint of our project and will therefore fulfill the expected outcomes set three years ago. It’s time to assure proper headsets and connections and prepare for cooperation to become exponentially better in European climate work.

See the presentations of the CHAMP BSR final conference on the CHAMP website

Pictures: UBC Env Com/ Liepaja 2011

Working from home to save climate?

Last week, the first National Distance Work Day took place in Finland, resulting in 50 000 kg save in CO2 emissions. Furthermore, over 10 000 participants saved 8 200 hours of travelling time. More time to spend with their families and doing whatever they enjoy and keeps them energetic at work! Besides being seen as giving more freedom to the employees and thus increasing motivation to work, distance work also saves time, money and is helping to achieve climate goals.

From the point of view of slowing down climate change, the biggest benefit of working from home is the reduced need to travel. For most people, travelling to work is the main source of their transport-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Some 15 % of Finnish labour force is weekly working from home with the help of information technology, but the amount could well be bigger. For many workplaces, more flexibility in where and when the work is done would not affect the results. In Finland, some 1.6 million commutes are made by car every day, resulting in congestion peaks in the morning and afternoon.

This week we're celebrating the annual European Mobility Week. The campaign aims at familiarizing citizens with the use of public transport, cycling, walking and encouraging cities to promote these sustainable modes of transport. Besides fighting atmospheric pollution and noise, it's also a question of improving the quality of urban life.

Many cities in most of the Baltic Sea Region countries are campaigning for sustainable urban mobility. See on the European Mobility Week website what is happening in your home town!

Picture: Valonia. Campaigning in Turku on the national distance work day - No need to worry about the dress code when you're working from home!

What is the most wanted job in the future?

Checking statistics in selecting education tracks, it seems like accounting is an ever solid choice for the future. The pattern has its reason; a monetary world needs experts in monetary logistics at all levels. I’d like to ask for a minute of thought. What if a nation state, company or family would one day count their assets in ecological wealth? To clarify, this would mean counting debit and credit according to ecological footprint within the limits of biocapacity of the specific entity. In the visualization below you can familiarise with the thought, where the traditional parts are reversed for many countries.

Biocapacity Debtors (red)
Footprint greater than biocapacity
150%
100 –150%
50 –100%
0 – 50%
Biocapacity Creditors (green)
Biocapacity greater than Footprint
0 – 50%
50 –100%
100 –150%
150%

To quote the Annual Report 2010 of the Global Footprint Network, I’d like to agree that ”deforestation, reduced cropland productivity and the collapse of fisheries are not the problem”. The years-long discussion on climate change, finger-pointing at single fields of production; who’s fault is this, who amplifies climate change most, and what not, should be halted for a while and pulled back to the core. The Global Footprint Network continues, “each of these crises, though alarming, is a symptom of a single, over-riding issue”.

Lately we have seen a fairly positive trend rising, at least in the Nordic countries that endeavour to downsize the needs, desires and demands of everyday life. We have seen small local grocery shops popping up in urban neighbourhoods, and areas for cultivation near cities where urban citizens can grow their own vegetables. The vibrant weekend flea markets are providing both a lingering experience and good bargains. When humanity is demanding more than the earth can provide, we should be focusing on the core dilemma and encouraging world citizens to reshape their demands. As similar behavioural changes do not happen over night, it is convenient to start from redesigning matters into new forms, suitable in a more ecologically aware world.

The Global Footprint Network claims that decision-makers are employing Ecological Footprint accounting to manage their ecological capital more than ever, now and for the long-term. If I manage to connect matters right, I’d want to mention the lately pulsating market on emissions trading. For what I have understood the world is fairly united in its opinions about the trading. Is this real, a preliminary solution for an enhanced value of monetary nature of the climate? In a way I’m shocked over the facileness of changing the conception of wealth. When money talks - when the air we breathe starts to cost the conception changes. Facile! We are there.

The conception of the secure solid future job has been adapted to the new form as well. So, it is allowed to keep on dreaming about the secure job as accountant at company X (supposing that a big part of students at the schools of economics do). This time the regular accountant just has double the responsibility, a world economical and world ecological one. Are you ready for the challenge?

Source and inspiration: Global Footprint Network - 2010 Annual Report

Taste the sun - by Solar Kitchen

Walking down the side of River Aura, City of Turku (Finland), on this perfect sunny Friday lunch breake, five large solar-powered cookers catch our eyes in the middle of the piazza. Beside the now identified objects there is a worktable and closer to the river shore two longer tables are set, invitingly waiting to be filled by passers-by. There are yet a few empty chairs.

Hospitality and culinary expert, facilitator and concept director Antto Melasniemi functions as Chef de Cuisine of the Lapin Kulta Solar Kitchen Restaurant set today at Vähätori in Turku. Finnish Melasniemi is renowned for his Hel Yes! pop-up restaurant in London, runs two restaurants in Helsinki and seemingly cooks at the Solar Kitchen during the summer. Co-partner and designer of the cookers, Martí Guixé has exhibited in the most known museums of modern art and is dedicating himself to the invention of “bright and simple ideas made of a curious seriousness”.

Lapin Kulta Solar Kitchen Restaurant is based on a solar kitchen concept where cooking is by pure solar energy. The Solar Kitchen Restaurant opened at the Triennale di Milano 12.4-17.4.2011, and aims to follow the sun through Europe this summer, visiting a range of cities where it will present this extraordinary culinary concept. Melasniemi himself reveals Helsinki and Berlin being on the map some time soon. The Solar Kitchen highlights key contemporary themes: a nature-driven process, flexibility and immediacy.

This environmental and gastronomic art project as well as a gourmet eatery visited Turku today. Next week, who knows, maybe they are about Berlin. You should probably check out where the sun is shining!

Not for traditional busy business lunches. Take it easy and enjoy immediacy! Kitchen open on sunny days.



Get your invitation on Facebook.
For a flexible timetable, check the weather forecast in Europe!

Picture 2: Antto Melasniemi is looking for the Sun god.

Picture sources:
Picture 1 - UBC Environmental Commission/ Anna Stenberg
Picture 2 - Copyright © by IMAGEKONTAINER.

Climate adaptation - Science vs. Practice?!

On May 31st the Baltic Sea States Sub-regional Cooperation (BSSSC) and the Baltex Secretariat invited practitioners, scientists and decision makers at the regional political level in the Baltic Sea Region a platform to present and discuss concrete examples of regional or local adaptation to climate change.

The biggest challenge of the conference was to find a common language and discussion basis for the diverse audience: scientists and practitioners and decision-makers from regional and local authorities.
Several researchers presented current projects working with the issue of climate adpataion in the region; from projects on adaptation strategies, involvement of stakeholders or capacity buidling to the issue of transferring scientific knowledge to decision-makers.

In the end, the most interesting and inspiring input came from the cities and regions themselves; especially Swedish and Danis cities and regions took the chance to show off what they have been working on and implementing in terms of climate adaptation and those experiences were very inspiring!

The need for a better understanding, better cooperation and better communication between science and practice is definitely existing. the conference was a good point on the way, but there still is a bit to go.

All presentations and the Hamburg declaration can be found from the Baltex-website