Cities are key to fight climate change

With more than 50 % of the world' s population is living in cities, we are an urban species. Cities account for about 80 % of the world-wide pollution. According to Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, this clearly shows, that human species is putting the world in danger and cities are key in addressing this challenge. At the same time, cities are leading the world-wide process to fight climate change both in mitigation and adaptation. Adaptation strategies in developing countries are by nature survival strategies. Global climate governance should therefore include those managing the habitats. This discussion has been recorded as part of the series 'Time for Real Questions' during COP15 in Copenhagen.

Lights off on Saturday: It's Earth Hour!

Earth Hour 2010 is taking place on Saturday the 27th of March, 8:30 PM (local time) and switching off the lights around the world for an hour. The idea is not to save electricity but to take a stand against climate change. Individuals, businesses and communities all over the world are called to action: to take responsibility and get involved in the fight against climate change.

In 2009, over 4 000 cities in 88 countries took part in Earth Hour making it the largest climate change initiative in the world. This year, many global landmarks such as the Eiffel tower in Paris, Big Ben in London, Empire State Building in New York City and Sydney Opera House are going to stand in darkness.

Earth Hour has been visible in social media such as Facebook and Twitter and there's a lot of enthusiasm around the event.One could ask if Earth Hour is really making a change. Turning off your lights for an hour per year is a great way to seem green to the public without really committing to mitigate climate change in everyday actions. But at the same time it is an easy way to show that you care.

One of the aims of Earth Hour is to show politicians the concern of the general public. Especially after the failure in the Copenhagen Summit, this kind of global campaign and enthusiasm is hopefully a way of giving world leaders the mandate they need to make the right climate deal.



More information on the campaign: Earth Hour website
Earth Hour is organized by WWF.

"Adaptigation"

There are different views when it comes to administrations and climate change response. The opinion of many is that climate change mitigation is most important while others believe that adaptation to the effects of a changing climate is more critical. Most, however, admit that both perspectives have to be taken into account.

Recently there has been a dramatic change in the perspective of how administrations act in response to climate change. After focusing almost solely on climate change mitigation for years, different administrations are now concentrating more on climate change adaptation. According to a Senior Research Fellow in Nordregio, Richard Langlais, good planning integrates both perspectives: adaptation and mitigation. He argues that separating the two perspectives in planning is becoming obsolete and can also lead to contradictory measures.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change adoption is defined as "initiatives and measures to reduce the vulnerability of natural and human systems against actual or expected climate change effects". Climate change mitigation, on the other hand, means "implementing policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance sinks".

Langlais uses a simple example of a municipality planting a new forest along a local river. As he argues, this measure should be seen as both adaptation and mitigation, that is: "adaptigation", by which he means a response to climate change that integrates a focus on adaptation with a focus on mitigation, to avoid conflicts and create synergies. "Seeing this newly planted forest as both adaptation (it buffers the impacts of flooding) and mitigation (it absorbs carbon) is good planning", writes Langlais. The most important thing is to keep "adaptigation" in mind: adaptation and mitigation can be outcomes of the same measures.

Source: Richard Langlais, Journal of Nordregio 9:4, 2009.

"The Bill" - short film

In anticipation to the COP 15:

"The Bill" is a 4 min short film made by Germanwatch and funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.



Three friends meet in a bar and start talking about their lives. Cars, holidays, energy and diet represent a colorful range of "climate sins". With the appearance of the barmaid, the film takes a surprising change of course...
The screenplay was produced as a film in May, 2009. The actors Benno Fuermann, Bjarne Maedel, Christoph Tomanek und Ina Paule Klink took part; Peter Wedel directed.
Contakt: Peter Wedel, ECOFILM, peterwedel@web.de, http://www.eco-film.de/

Today is Earth Overshoot Day!

But what does that mean?

Earth overshoot day marks the day when we start living beyond our ecological means. We use more resources at a faster rate as what the Earth can regenerate in one year. So not a day to celebrate.

Source: Global Foorprint Network

The Global Foorprint Network is publishing that we would now require 1.4 planets to support our lifestyles, that means in less than 10 months we have used ecological services that take 12 months for the Earth to generate

And the overshoot day gets earlier every year!

This is definitely something to think about!

On the websites of Global Foorprint Network you find much more information about how this is calculated etc.

Of course the Earth Overshoot Day is something where all aspects of global actions are cncerned, still action ahs to be taken just in everyday life.

In CHAMP we will develop collection of calculators and guidelines on how to decrease the carbon footprint in travels, meetings and other activities that we hav ein projects. We want to encourage our cities and other stakeholders to think about this issue and to do what they are able to do.

More information on that will come later, here and on our website

Algae to the rescue

The California based company Aurora Biofuels have successfully cultivated a new strain of algae that absorbs twice as much CO2 and produces double the amount of biofuel as conventional strains. In a pilot facility in Melbourne (FL) this new algae strain has reached a daily biodiesel production of one gallon (3,79 liters) in a olymic pool sized pond.

According to Robert Walsh the CEO of Aurora:

"Algae have a built-in mechanism to be effective at low light and as it gets brighter during the day their uptake of carbon dioxide levels off,” said Mr. Walsh. “We’ve been able to go in and alter strains by natural mutation to cause the algae to deal with light across the whole spectrum. The algae continue to uptake CO2 through brighter light and are more productive."

The company plans to open a demonstration plant capable of producing daily 1,000 gallons of fuel in operation by the second quarter of 2010. A full-scale production facility is to follow in 2011.

Do you think the use of algae can contribute to the fight against climate change?

Source: greeninc

Report: Ensuring quality of life in Europe's cities and towns.

Ensuring quality of life in Europe's cities and towns – report developed jointly by several organizations is now available. Get to know more about the various perspectives on, and perceptions of, quality of life with a specific focus on cities and towns. The report stresses the challenges ahead to ensure quality of life in the long run for all social groups, and the crucial importance of sustainability and the environment as our life supporting system. The report sheds light on certain aspects of the current quality of life discussions in order to illustrate how different conceptions of quality of life influence the quality of life of others, and provides ideas for ways to meet the challenges that lie ahead. It aims to support individuals and politicians to discover a balanced concept for quality of life compatible with sustainable development. EEA Report No 5/2009

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