How Can Northern Cities Mitigate and Adapt to Climate Change?

Cities of the Future(Minister of the Environment and International Development, Government of Norway)

Also discussed here: Cities of the Future: From Norway with love(World Streets, Dec. 6. 2012)

And here:

Cities of the Future 2008–2014 – Agreement between the state, KS and the municipalities(3 page pdf, Government of Norway)

Today we look at the cities of the future in northern Scandinavia where 13 of Norway’s largest cities have become engaged with their national government in a 6 year program, ending in 2014 “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make the cities better places to live”. The initiatives are broken down into four distinct categories (Land Use and Transport, Consumption and Waste, Energy and Buildings, and Climate Adaptation) and each of these has several sub components with specific examples of progress being made. This would be of special interest to other northern countries, such as Canada and Russia, where carbon fuels needed in winter for heating buildings and for transportation and where introducing new energy sources and infrastructure to reduce emissions are big challenges.  Some, if not all, of the ideas may be borrowed and used elsewhere in the wake of the recent 2012 Conference of the Parties (COP) 18 at Doha, Qatar where the world and the world’s cities in particular look ahead to post-Kyoto years as to how to reduce global emissions by the 90% required in the short time available.

To see Key Quotes and Links to key reports about this post, click HERE