Costa Rica Reciclaje | Reciclar Aluminio | Reciclar Plastico | Reciclar Papel | Reciclar Carton | Reciclar Latas | Reciclar Basura | Basura Reciclaje | Material Reciclaje

Español » English

UNEP Unveils the Climate Neutral Network
to Catalyze a Transition to a Low Carbon World

Article By Climate Neutral Network - http://www.climateneutral.unep.org

The participants are the first to join the Climate Neutral Network (CN Net), launched today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in cooperation with the UN’s Environmental Management Group, as one inspiring solution to the challenge of rising greenhouse gases.

The Network, a web-based project, is seeking to federate the small but growing wave of nations, local authorities and companies who are pledging to significantly reduce emissions en route to zero emission economies, communities and businesses.

Over the coming months, intergovernmental bodies, organizations, civil society groups and eventually individuals will be invited to take part.

The aim is a truly global information exchange network open to all sectors of society from Presidents, Prime Ministers and Princes to people from Pittsburg and Sao Paulo to Poznan and Apia.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said today: “Climate neutrality is an idea whose time has come, driven by the urgent need to address climate change but also the abundant economic opportunities emerging for those willing to embrace a transition to a Green Economy”.

“This new initiative supports the formal negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Here governments need to navigate the Bali Road Map to a successful conclusion in Copenhagen in 2009. The CN Net can assist in building confidence through demonstrable action at the national and local level on the art of the possible,” he said.

“The CN Net is also in for the long haul and equally aimed at mobilizing a broad-based response demonstrating that a transition to a low, even zero carbon future, can be a reality if inspiring and practical actions can be federated around the world,” said Mr Steiner.

The first four countries to partner are Costa Rica, Iceland, New Zealand and Norway. They, along with the initial cities and companies, represent a diversity of challenges and opportunities which have the potential to be replicated by others in whole or in part.

“For Norway it is emissions from oil and gas that dominate whereas for New Zealand, agriculture represents 50 per cent of its current greenhouse gases,” said Mr Steiner.

“Iceland’s central challenge is perhaps transport and industry including fishing and fish processing. I am especially delighted that Costa Rica is at the forefront of the initiative. Its commitment demonstrates that the economic benefits of reducing dependency on fossil fuels and action on deforestation and degradation are of central interest to developing and developed countries alike,” he said.

Costa Rica aims to be climate neutral by 2021 when it celebrates 200 years of independence.

The strategy will build on Costa Rica’s decision to tax fossil fuels in 1996 with 3.5 per cent of the money raised allocated to the National Forestry Financing Fund.

These are part of a ‘payment for environmental services’ programme that pays landowners who manage forests for their carbon sequestration and storage alongside management for water production, biodiversity and scenic beauty.

In 2007 Costa Rica planted more than five million trees or 1.25 per person making it the highest per capita planting in the world. Various industries are supporting the initiative including a C-neutral plan by Costa Rica’s banana sector.

Other elements of the strategy include increasing the percentage of renewable energy generation to well over 90 per cent and action on energy efficiency including energy saving appliances.

Iceland has drawn up a plan to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75 per cent by 2050. The country’s electricity production is already among the greenest on the globe.

Currently 99 per cent of electricity generation and 75 per cent of total energy production is coming from geothermal and hydro-power. Iceland’s biggest challenge comes from transport including vehicles and its fishing fleet whose emissions have risen since 1990.

The country is planning to extend discount fees to people buying environmentally-friendly vehicles such as ones powered by methane, hydrogen, electricity or hybrid technology.

Iceland is also looking to equip the country’s fishing fleet with eco-friendly fuel systems including fuel cells. Progress is also under way to substitute ammonia for HCFCs – an ozone damaging and greenhouse gas – in the fleet’s refrigeration equipment.

Tapping methane from landfills and better management and restoration of soils, wetlands and forests in order to ‘sequestrate’ carbon from the air and minimize releases from the land are also part of Iceland’s strategy.

New Zealand is aspiring to climate neutrality through a wide range of domestic initiatives including a trading scheme covering all sectors of the economy and all six greenhouse gases regulated under the Kyoto Protocol.

The country has set itself the target of generating 90 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025, and halving per capita transport emissions by 2040 by introducing electric cars and a requirement to use bio fuels.

Meanwhile six government agencies will be aiming to achieve full neutrality by 2012. Where emissions cannot be cut they will be offset through forest regeneration projects on tribal lands.

New Zealand, which will host World Environment Day 2008 under the theme ‘Kick the C02 Habit”, is paying particular attention to emissions from agriculture. Some 40,000 farms account for 50 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gases versus around 12 per cent from agriculture in most developed countries.

Norway aims to become climate neutral by 2030, advancing by around 20 years a previously announced deadline.

The country has embarked on a vigorous energy efficiency and energy savings policy and is perfecting carbon capture and storage at its offshore oil fields.

Norway recently joined the European Emissions Trading Scheme and has approved over $730 million to invest in offsets via the Kyoto Protocol’s Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanism.

It has announced plans to invest $2.7 billion in Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation—global greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation are estimated to be around 20 per cent of the total from all sources.

During the period 2008-2012, Norway estimates that it will over-fulfill its Kyoto Protocol commitments by five million tonnes.

Cities

Four cities are also today announcing they have joined the CN Net. They are Arendal, Norway; Rizhao, China; Vancouver, Canada and Växjö, Sweden.

Arendal took a decision on climate neutrality in 2007. It is currently assessing its greenhouse gas footprint and will have a final estimate in May 2008. The city’s initial target is stabilization in 2012 and a 25 per cent emission reduction by 2025.

City-wide action, including energy efficiency measures in buildings, will be supplemented by the purchasing of carbon offsets via a scheme run by the Norwegian State Pollution Control body. This may commence as early as this year.

Rizhao is implementing a transition to a low carbon society via a variety of innovative measures including boosting solar power in homes and schools up to harvesting methane as a fuel from industrial waste-water.

Close to 100 per cent of urban housing now has solar heaters and 30 per cent of rural homes. Compared to 2000, the amount of energy used per unit of GDP has fallen by almost a third and C02 emissions by almost half.

Vancouver has adopted targets to reduce community greenhouse gas emissions to 33% below current levels by 2020 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. In addition, Vancouver adopted the target of greenhouse gas neutral buildings for all new construction by 2030.

The city has also set a target of being carbon neutral in its own civic operations by 2012 by retro-fitting public buildings to save energy, adopting more efficient vehicles, including those powered by alternative fuels, and capturing methane gas from its landfill and converting the energy to heat and electricity .

Växjö has decided to become a ‘Fossil Fuel Free” City.

In 1996, there was a unanimous political decision to reduce CO2 emissions per inhabitant by at least 50% by the year 2010, compared to 1993. In 2006, the reduction was 30%. For the year 2025, the goal is 70% and the long term goal is of course to stop using fossil fuels. Today, over 50% of the city’s energy supply comes from renewables.

Corporations

Five companies have become the first to join the CN Net. They are Co-Operative Financial Services, UK; Interface Inc, United States; Natura, Brazil; Nedbank, South Africa and Senoko Power, Singapore.

Co-operative Financial Services’s (CFS) 25-storey headquarters in the North of England is the largest solar installation in the UK with 7,000 photovoltaic panels. In addition, 99 per cent of the CFS’s electricity is sourced from ‘good quality’ renewable energy supplies.

The company has also developed a range of innovative products for customers including car insurance and mortgages that include offsets covering a fifth of a vehicle and a household’s emissions.

Interface Inc, a commercial interiors company, has committed to climate neutrality by 2020 under the Clinton Global Initiative. Employee and company travel is offset through several schemes including Cool C02mmute and Trees for Travel.

Seven of its manufacturing facilities are run using renewable energy including its LaGrange plant in Georgia that is fueled by methane from a landfill site. The company is committed to greening its supply chain and offers a range of climate neutral products including Cool Carpet.

Natura, a Brazilian multinational cosmetics company, has pinpointed potential emissions savings of 33 per cent from its business supply chain. The company has committed to replace petroleum-based products in its cosmetic in favour of natural minerals and plant materials.

As early as 1997, Natura converted its distribution fleet in the greater Sao Paulo area to natural gas. Emissions that cannot be cut will be offset via native species forestry projects and renewable energy.

Nedbank is working to reduce its own emissions and those of its 24,000 employees through a range of initiatives including public awareness schemes for environmentally-friendly living.

The company is a signatory to South Africa’s Energy Efficiency Accord; is the only African bank to have signed up to the Equator Principles and is a leading member of the Carbon Disclosure Project that encourages companies to disclose their carbon footprint as a stepping stone to greater emissions reductions.

Senoko Power is Singapore’s largest power company. In 1998, over 80 per cent of its power plants were powered by fuel oil or diesel. Today over 90 per cent of electricity is generated by natural gas and since 1990 the ‘carbon intensity’ has fallen by close to 40 per cent.

Part of its Corporate Social Responsibility strategy includes building climate awareness in the community including in schools and via a National Weather Study Project. Senoko is the first power company in Singapore to meet the environmental standard ISO 14001.

| Home | Recycle Links | About Us | Contact Us |