Happy Terra Madre Day to All !!!

Against a background of record greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, more frequent and intense extreme weather events, but also growing momentum for action to fight climate change, the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban (28 November to 9 December) kicked off today.

At the start of the conference, South African President Jacob Zuma pointed to the climate impacts in Africa as a reason for all governments to take action.

“We have experienced unusual and severe flooding in coastal areas in recent times, impacting on people directly as they lose their homes, jobs and livelihoods. Given the urgency, governments need to strive to find solutions here in Durban. Change and solutions are always possible, and Durban must take us many steps forward towards a solution that saves tomorrow today,” he said.

The newly elected President of the conference, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, stressed that Durban would be a decisive moment for the future of the multilateral rules-based regime. “In Durban, we need to show the world that we are ready to tackle and solve our very real problems in a practical manner,” she said.

According to the UN’s top climate change official, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, governments can take two major, decisive steps in Durban. The first step relates to completing the most comprehensive package ever to help developing countries adapt to climate change and to limit the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions, which was decided at the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun last year.

“The Technology Mechanism and the Adaptation Committee agreed in Cancun can be completed here in Durban so that they can begin benefitting people in 2012,” Ms. Figueres said. “And in Durban, the first phase of the design of the Green Climate Fund can be approved, as a major step on the road towards better supported climate action,” she stated.

Governments can also ramp up funding towards the 100 billion USD of long-term climate finance they have already agreed to provide by 2020 and need to work out the “what” and the “how” for a review agreed in Cancun that will assess the adequacy of a below 2 degrees Celsius temperature limit, including in relation to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The second decisive step that can be made in Durban relates to how governments will work together to achieve their common goal of limiting the global temperature rise to a level which will prevent the worst ravages of climate change.

“This means, as a central task for Durban, answering the very important question of the future of the Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, governments will need to agree on how they want to pursue a broader framework to reduce greenhouse gases under the Climate Change Convention,” Ms. Figueres said.

Ms. Figueres drew attention to the fact that action on climate change is presently building nationally, regionally and at all levels of society, and that this positive momentum can feed into the UN climate change process.
“These negations are about securing a better future and improving the quality of life of people. The momentum for change is building, not least in developing countries. More can be achieved if governments and the private sector work in partnerships,” she said.

Together with the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and South African President Jacob Zuma, the UN Climate Change secretariat will in Durban launch a “Momentum for Change” initiative on 6 December designed to demonstrate how the public and private sectors are already working together to fight climate change.

The Flemish Ministry for Environment, the regional authority for the Northern part of Belgium, has released a report which shows dramatic temperature increases in the last 180 years. The report bases itself on the recently released Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The Ministry has taken key indicators and analyzed the situation in Belgium. The main conclusions are that:

• The annual average temperature in Belgium shows continuous increase since the early 19th Century. The average temperature is 2.3 degrees Celsius higher than that in 1830.
• The warmest years in the period analyzed are situated between 1989 and 2000. (see graph below)
• The major increases in temperature have occurred during the Spring and Summer seasons.
• Rainfall has increased an average of 5 mm per decade, with more precipitation observed in Winter and less in Summer.
• Average sea-level has risen on the Belgian coast by 103mm-133mm compared to 1970.

Since climate change is the long-term effect of human activity on the Earth’s climate, this study shows proof that there have been significant changes in Belgium. In simple terms, the facts that the average temperature has risen, that there is more rainfall in the Winter and less in Summer, and that the warmest years have been more recently recorded all show a tendency for a change in the Belgian climate.

The image below shows a graphical representation of the rise in average temperature in each season in Belgium since 1830.

Source: Vlaamse Milieumaatschapij (Flemish Ministry of Environment)

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, makes a dramatic appeal to progressive business and Eco-Innovators on the eve of UN talks in Durban at the Eco-Innovation Summit, hosted by the Lisbon Council in Brussels. For more information, visit www.lisboncouncil.net

One of the main issues at the Conference of the Parties 17 in Durban, South Africa, will be negotiating a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which is set to expire in 2012. The European Union is looking to push for a new commitment period under the Protocol, which is being blocked by Japan, Canada and the USA.

Weeks before the Conference is set to begin, the EU has announced that it will look to build a ¨coalition of the willing¨ for the new Kyoto Protocol. Countries that have stated their interest to join are China, the group of 77 developing countries (G77), the least-developed countries (LDCs) and the Alliance for Small Island States (AOSIS). This means that many developed nations are reluctant to commit, which would leave the states with the largest share of greenhouse-gas emissions out of the system. In effect, this would not have the required effect of globally reducing emissions.

However, facing a situation where most Parties agree on a new Protocol, it is expected that these developed nations will fold and join in instead of be left out. The doubts surrounding the role of the USA are strongest, since if it does not join such an agreement, it would lose its role as ´leader of the world´, at lease in climate change negotiations. Also, the USA is one of the most polluting nations in the world, and an agreement without them would be a huge blow to the process. Still, the EU is looking to build up momentum for a global deal, and it will not accept a handful of nations blocking a near-worldwide agreement.

Furthermore, the European Parliament called for the EU to show strong leadership in Durban on Nov. 16th. MEPs voted on a resolution to support this position, which passed with 532 votes for, 76 against, and 43 abstentions. Jo Linen, Chairman of the Environment and Public Safety Committee stated: “The economic crisis must not be used as an excuse not to act. The EU should back the Kyoto Protocol and work with other countries on a roadmap to ensure a comprehensive climate treaty is in place by 2015 at the latest”.

Apart from the focus on the Kyoto Protocol, the Parliament resolution calls for a need to settle the question of how much the EU can contribute to the Green Climate Fund´s $100 billion a year for developing countries. Also, it states that new measures have to be agreed upon on maritime and aviation transport, an issue which was scrapped from the Cancun agreement due to disagreement. All of this aims at reaffirming the commitment to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to meet the 2 degrees Celsius target, which includes addressing the ¨emissions gap¨.

On the whole, the European Parliament delegation at Cancun will work tightly together with Commissioner Hedegaard on addressing all these issues. It seems the EU will strike as many agreements as possible with willing Parties, while try to convince the reluctant ones to join or be excluded from the process. In the inclusive nature of the UN, it is doubtful whether it will support such a divisive measure.

Vilnius, a fantastically well-preserved mix of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, classical and contemporary architecture, is enchanting the eye of the visitor. And the lungs as well. While documenting for a short climate change related article it bounced as a surprise that the Lithuanian capital enjoys the cleanest air in urban agglomerations in Europe. The answer to such low levels of CO2, CO, NOx or heavy metals in the East-European air of Vilnius, as well as to being an overtly bicycle and people friendly city, must have lied in some really alternative local leadership and policies.

View of Vilnius Centre. Photo 2C

Thus, I wrote a letter to the town’s charismatic mayor. Arturas Zuokas peaked global notoriety following a rather military public-relations move when he drove a tank over an illegally parked automobile and his Youtube viral video became quite an international alternative media hit (see embedded video). As an environmental journalist and passionate cyclist, I was rejoicing in some strange feeling of justice and revenge. On the other hand, watching a Soviet tank rolling on the street in an apparent legitimate mission gives me the chills, brings back a scary image of Brezhnev, and makes me wonder if urban ecology did actually need a PR war-monger.

“Sometimes you need a tank to get your message across,” wrote Zuokas to 2Celsius. “If you see something, you have to do something about that – and this is the only way to solve problems. We have, shortly after this event, strengthened forces against illegal car parking. The number of policemen on patrol has been doubled in the city.” Indeed, Vilnius was one of the first towns to introduce an intelligent city-wide traffic management system (TMS). The municipality improved its control over the rising amount of traffic in the city center causing serious congestion and jams. The traffic system was set-up by Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group, in conjunction with a local consortium.

Arturaz Zuokas, mayor of Vilnius. Photo: zuokas.lt

Well, same Siemens indexed Vilnius as the capital with the cleanest air in the EU. Says Zuokas: “talking about air pollution, one of the latest Green City Index made by Siemens company revealed that Vilnius can be proud to have the cleanest air among European capitals. Also infrastructural changes – new bypass roads are being build – help to control and reduce pollution. “

“There always should be balance between all kinds of transportation in the city. We are glad numbers of those who chose riding a bike in the city are increasing significantly during recent years,” the mayor added.

“We are always thinking how to solve traffic problems in the city, especially in the Old Town (included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1994 – n.n.). We are investigating most modern and environmentally friendly ideas to implement them into our public transport in the City Centre as well as all over the city. Different financing structures are also being considered.” Public transport, far from satisfying Jan Gehl’s sustainable city, relies on soviet flavored electric trolley buses, gas guzzling buses and a bunch of higher-speed vans named maxi-taxis.

Vilnius has already gone through the East-European trauma of having a bike sharing system implemented when no one was prepared for a non-motorized urban evolution; an older program of the municipality named the “Ride Orange” turned out to be a flop due to massive thievery from the two-wheeled orange armada.

Electric bus in Vilnius. Photo 2C

During Zuokas’ first term, the municipality invested in the construction of cycling paths and the installation of bicycle stands, while private sponsors such as Rubikon Apskaitos Sistemos, Utenos Alus (beer), Baltic Vairas (the largest East-European bicycle construction plant), Lietuvos Draudimas, Pieno Zvaigzdes and other firms – had bought the bikes. The 1,000 orange bikes, in a good yet involuntary promotion of green jobs, were ordered from the Siauliai-based company Baltic Vairas.

The Hype

“Ride Orange” eventually had some downturns. Are you envisioning similar projects?

“Yes we do. This summer Vilnius has become the first city in Europe to offer an electric bike share system, we are also looking forward to implement city bike rental system as soon as possible,” Zuokas replied.

Vilnius, electric bike rentals. Photo 2C

Indeed on the occasion of the European basketball championship, September 2011, in Vilnius, the municipality launched a “Rent and Share” program allowing residents and tourists to rent electric bicycles at four Tourism Information Centers located in the business downtown and Old Town areas. One has to block approximately EUR145 on her credit card and pay around EUR5 per hour in order to get electric on bicycling. Thieves must face top notch technology this time; all electric bikes are being monitored via GPS.

“Everyone should find the most comfortable way to travel in the city. Segway is also one of them, but I often use a bike or electric bike as well. There is no need to advertise comfortable transport,” concludes the mayor, a declared fan of electric transport.

NIBBLES

Green space. “Vilnius has number of green spaces that we are up to preserve, develop and manage properly. We are also looking for the ways to expand these areas. In the near future we will renovate one of the oldest park of the city – Sereikiskiu parkas, that is situated in the very heart of Vilnius – in the Old Town near the Gediminas Castle.”

Vilnius Cathedral. Photo 2C

Energy saving in buildings (Lithuania does not have a Green Building Council). “House [insulation and] renovation is a big issue in our country and in Vilnius as well. There is a municipal company that consults and helps citizens to organize the renovation projects, but the program is still moving too slowly. There are some financial incentives from the Central Government, but it seems that there is much work to be done in this field.”

Strategy. “Vilnius has no particular document as Environmental Master plan. But the principles of city development are stated in other relevant plans, as General Plan until 2015, Vilnius City Strategic Plan for years 2012-2020. They include principles of sustainable development, green areas saving and healthy environment creation. Whereas Vilnius is a green city, it has clear objectives to save the best it has.”

PR. Besides riding tanks and Segways, Zuokas ticked something extra in his PR endeavors. He was endorsed in his last election campaign by… Jeremy Irons. Yes, the actor.

Corruption. Zuokas was convicted of bribery and thrown out of office in 2007, merely to return in the last municipal elections.

International relations. Within the same PR/advertising paradigm, the mayor has proposed the Lithuanian government buy an island in Greece to use as a resort – “an exclusive place for rest in the Mediterranean for our citizens, but also a great global advert for Lithuania.”

Raul Cazan

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC. Photo: The Lisbon Council

Only weeks before the Conference of the Parties 17 in Durban, South Africa is set to begin, Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, was in Brussels for the Robert Schuman lecture, organized by the Lisbon Council. Ms. Figueres outlined the priorities for the CoP 17 and urged civil society, business, and nations to do their part in fighting climate change.

To believers that climate change policy can be made in a day, Ms. Figueres pointed out that Robert Schuman himself took a step-by-step approach to realize his dream of a lasting peace in Europe. This policy-grafting approach may be slow, too slow in fact, to address the urgent need to transform our economy to a low-carbon one. All the same, the approach is viewed as successful. However, building peace from the rubble of World War II is where the parallel ends. Preventive action is required in the case of the environment, and not resuscitation after the damage has been done.

One of the major set-backs in at the CoP 16 in Cancun was the effort to agree on a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Without such an agreement, the efforts to continue with a broad mitigation framework are severely hampered and the ongoing negotiations do not show a light at the end of the tunnel. In addition to this, the European Union has been attempting to ‘blackmail’ the other Parties to agree on the issue by stating that if they accept a new commitment period (provisionally named “Kyoto II”), the EU will raise its greenhouse-gas emissions target to 30% (from the current 20%). In Ms. Figueres’ viewpoint, this is a lackluster attitude which has received a similarly lackluster response from the Convention. In similar fashion, if industrialized countries take a serious, ambitious, and vigorous approach to an agreement on mitigation and the Kyoto Protocol, they will receive a similar answer from the rest of the Parties.

Furthermore, after the fiasco at CoP 15 in Copenhagen, business leaders had become pessimistic at best about the Cancun negotiations. The fact that an agreement was produced shocked the business world into believing in the process once more. “The Cancun agreements comprised the most comprehensive package to help developing nations”, Ms. Figueres stated. There is little need to point out that infrastructure building and technology transfer, as agreed by the Parties, opens up enormous markets for business in developing countries.

“The business success of tomorrow is born on the low-carbon opportunities of today.”

Even so, it is a widespread belief that business needs a strong signal from policy-makers in order to act on environmental issues. Adoption of the step-by-step approach means that this ingredient is weak and slow. At the same time, businesses are instrumental in the interpretation of the supply and demand structures of the modern market, and can therefore potentially send strong signals to governments. Ms. Figueres labeled this the “vicious circle” of climate change mentality. However, this can be reversed into a virtuous circle if businesses manage to introduce a change in consumer and supplier behavior and send a strong message to governments that the people are not satisfied with business as usual. More specifically, when it comes to changes in industry and energy, national leaders require input from the market.

Entrepreneurship, as a strong component of capitalism, is the key to the puzzle. Ms. Figueres received input from Harry Verhaar, senior director for energy and climate change at Philips, and Harry van Dorenmalen, chairman of IBM Europe. Both emphasized that there is no “quick-fix” for climate change, but that technology is the most important component. They stressed the position that people are not fully aware of the role technology can already play in contributing to a low-carbon economy.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Mr. Verhaar pointed out that, in addition to technology, we need a policy framework, financing, and communication to tackle climate change. Due to the step-by-step approach at the UNFCCC, the first aspect is slow in its development. In the context of the economic and debt crises, financing has become a taboo subject. However, for businesses, financial systems also mean discovering a new way of budget-building and implementation – one that focuses on an optimization of cost-benefit ratios and emphasizes efficiency. As for communication, he stressed that there are many eco-innovators and they need to disseminate their ideas, improve interaction with citizens, and work together.

In agreement, Mr. van Dorenmalen introduced the need for another component – leadership. So far, policy-makers have not provided the required level of strong leadership to drive the policy process forward. If business was to step in, it would also be observed that a company requires strong leadership to implement the changes paramount to the transfer to a low-carbon economy. Tapping into talent internationally means the use of modern social media and the grouping of ideas. To set the wheels in motion, CEOs and business leaders have to assume a strong leadership position.

In answer to these views, Ms. Figueres presented an open question to all eco-innovators: “Are you collectively being vocal enough to at least balance, if not drown out, the corporate voices of those who see no benefit in action?” This also applies to consumers and civil society organizations – there has to be an informed balance between climate change skeptics and extreme environmentalists.

As individuals, it may be hard to change the world by replacing a single light-bulb, but even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Global climate negotiations are a step-by-step journey, and we can only hope they are heading in the right direction.

A single electricity market will increase competition, improve security of supply, help deliver climate goals and integrate modern energy technologies including renewables. Whilst development of a single power market is progressing, development of the infrastructure urgently needs a very major boost.

According to recent data, to achieve the 20% increase in renewable energy sources, and the 20% decrease in greenhouse-gas emissions, the EU needs to construct 42,000 km of new transmission lines (14% more than the existing lines). Since one of the biggest challenges to development of renewable energy is the capacity of the power grid to handle the varying input, all new lines will have to employ ´smart´ technology. Old lines will have to be renovated to support the same issue.

The creation of an internal market for energy is crucial for the ´core´ EU countries who are considered to be poor in renewable energy potential. In fact, the largest potential lies in the outer fringes of the EU – the extreme South of Europe for solar power and the further Northern fringes for wind energy. Until the new grid is constructed and a 20% increase in EU usage of renewable energy is achieved, the core European states will have to rely on natural gas for the majority of their power generation.

“There is a growing consensus within the financial community that new financing models will need to be found to finance this transition alongside existing approaches,” the ECF has stated.

The European Commission has already stated that it will launch European project bonds to finance all energy-related initiatives, which will be used alongside existing measures. This is the major set-back for the construction of the new grid connections, especially in the context of the debt crisis.

On the whole, the EU is facing a mountain to climb in order to create an internal market for energy. It seems that EU-level financing will not be enough to contribute to the full implementation of the project, and significant foreign or national financial measures will have to be introduced. Keeping in mind the current debt-related turmoil, if the EU had to choose between the European Financial Stability Facility (requires 1 trillion euro) and the power grid (requires 1.2 trillion euro), it is hard to determine which will be scrapped. However, it must be recognized that a focus on economic growth to recover from the crisis will most definitely be supported by investment in the European power grid.