INFORMATION
In March 2007, the EU declared that within the context of international negotiations carried out under
the auspices of
UNFCCC and the
Kyoto Protocol is willing to accept a reduction of GHG emissions by 30% by
2020 compared to 1990. The EU Prime Ministers also agreed to an internal EU target, which is to reduce EU
emissions of
greenhouse gases (GHG) by at least 20% by 2020 compared to 1990.
Greece is one of the Member States where emissions are increasing (by approximately 25% from 1990) and the
projections show an increase of 42% by 2015 in the Business As Usual scenario. Therefore, Greece will face
severe difficulties to achieve ambitious reduction targets within the framework of the EU targets of -20-30%.
Apart from actions related to large emitters (i.e. industry) which are at present covered to a large extent
by the
Emissions Trading Directive, a large part of the remaining effort will inevitably fall to the large
number of small emitters.
Since the local authorities are the closest to citizens and can often deal more effectively with regional
particularities than the central administration, a major challenge towards sustainable development and
climate change mitigation is to stimulate the local potential for GHG emissions reductions through a set of
systematic, well-designed and well-monitored activities, which can have significant ancillary benefits for
local environmental problems as well.
The CLIM-LOCAL2020 project implemented climate change mitigation actions at local level, which delivered significant
GHG emissions reductions through the implementation of a set of GHG emissions reduction measures.Furthermore, the results of
the project included:
- A set of user-friendly tools for the calculation of emissions of GHG and basic air pollutants per emission source at local level
- A local GHG emissions inventory
- A set of tools for the projection of GHG emissions at local level up to 2020
- A set of methodologies for assessing the emissions reduction potential of measures
- A calculation tool for undertaking Cost-Benefit analyses of GHG emissions reduction measures,
including environmental externalities
- A Local Action Plan for drastic and long-term GHG emissions reductions
- A set of practical guidelines for measures’ implementation
- A monitoring plan and relevant indices for evaluating the progress of the
implementation of GHG emissions reductions measures
- Educational material on climate change addressed to schools (teachers and students)
- Dissemination of results