Climate Star Award 2007 focus on sustainable mobility
Climate Star Award urges local authorities to act on climate change
The Hague, The Netherlands – With all of Europe fallen under the spell of the ambitious energy and climate-change policy of the European Union, it is time for local authorities to think about their role in these policies. Worldwide climate protection not only needs European and international climate negotiations, but first and foremost dedication at the local level and by the people. An initiative embracing this ‘on the ground approach’ is the Climate Star Award.
The European Council on 9 March 2007 backed Commission proposals on energy and climate change, agreeing on an action plan to put in place a European energy policy by year 2009. The EU set ambitious targets:
- A binding target to reduce EU greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020;
- A binding target to have 20 per cent of the EU’s overall energy consumption coming from renewables by 2020, and a binding minimum target for each member state to achieve at least 10 per cent of their transport fuel consumption from biofuels;
- Achieve the Commission’s objective of saving 20 per cent of the EU’s energy consumption compared to projections for 2020.
The UK government takes the issue even further and has already announced plans for binding five-year climate-change budgets, with the objective of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions 60% by 2050.
None of these targets will be met without the explicit support and commitment of European local authorities and citizens. And now is the time to act.
An organisation that shares this sense of urgency for local action is the Climate Alliance, organiser of the Climate Star Award. Local authorities working on innovative policies on energy efficiency and climate-change can now compete for the Award. With the awarding scheme, the Climate Alliance underlines the importance of local climate protection strategies and measures. The Alliance hopes to urge more local authorities to get involved.
The Climate Star Award 2007 focuses on sustainable mobility, and for a reason: traffic is the fastest growing source of greenhouse-gas emissions. It causes approximately 30 per cent of the greenhouse-gas emissions in Europe. Climate protection begins with the everyday journeys of each individual.
The European Urban Knowledge Network encourages local authorities to participate in the 2007 Climate Star Awards. For a sustainable future, cities and their inhabitants play a vital role, and the time to act is now.
