CoolPlanet2009 - Seal the Deal
At the second “Road to Copenhagen Conference” on 6 November 2008, Road to Copenhagen initiative announced the partnership with the UN’s Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC), in partnership with UNEP Brussels, which officially launched its second European public information campaign “CoolPlanet2009”. CoolPlanet2009 aims to generate interest and involvement in climate change issues and to encourage people to explore what else is happening in and around Europe.
UNRIC is working with artists, individuals and NGOs to put climate change on the agenda and mobilise support for a new climate agreement in December. Icelandic singer Björk was the first engaged member of the civil society to join CoolPlanet2009. Björk recently launched the climate friendly informal ecological movement “Náttúra” to promote green economy initiatives. Since then, a number of other Cool Friends have joined her in supporting the campaign, among others human rights and climate advocate Bianca Jagger, photographer and film-maker Yann Arthus-Bertrand and the three co-chairs of Road to Copenhagen.
Watch a new 30 second video Seal the Deal Europe on http://www.vimeo.com/4978781
UNRIC services Western Europe and provides information and documentation to the countries of the region. Its information outreach activities extend to all segments of society and joint projects and events are organized with key partners, including governments, the media, NGOs, educational institutions and local authorities.
Seal the Deal! is a powerful new campaign by the United Nations to encourage governments to agree on a fair, balanced and effective climate agreement when they meet in Copenhagen, this December.
Announced by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, Seal the Deal! provides a framework for advocacy and public action on climate change in 2009. It features a series of special events and online activities in the lead-up to the crucial UN climate convention meeting. The Campaign is supported by global and regional civil-action campaigns, the business community and major groups around the world. High-profile spokespeople, including the Secretary General and selected UN Goodwill Ambassadors, are leading the call for action.
Visit Seal the Deal on www.sealthedeal2009.org and add your name to the climate petition. The Petition will initially be presented to world leaders, meeting in New York this September at the High Level Event on Climate Change. Ultimately, world leaders will receive the final Petition in Copenhagen in December, as they put the final touches to a decision that will impact the fate of the planet.
City of Malmö – Invest in Skåne
In December 2009, the City of Malmö will host the final “Road to Copenhagen” conference.
Due to the vicinity of Malmö located in the region of Skåne to Copenhagen, a network has been created in Skåne with the purpose of coordinating activities leading up to COP15, called SwedenCOP15. These activities include this website, organizing visits by journalists, technical visits, seminars, conferences and so on.
Invest in Skåne is coordinating the project for the network.
Malmö – The sustainable City
Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, is located 30 minutes from Copenhagen. This situation provides Malmö with a strategic opportunity to heighten its own efforts to confront climate change.
Malmö has a vision of being a sustainable city socially, economically, and ecologically. This will be achieved and maintained by consolidating and raising the level of education, strengthening integration as well as facilitating a planning process for sustainable city development. Already for more than 10 years, Malmö has actively taken a holistic approach to sustainable city development, investing in new city districts centred on sustainable development, retrofitting existing areas as well as investing in centres of learning surrounding urban sustainability (including ISU, the Institute for Sustainable Urban Development, a joint venture between the city of Malmö and the University of Malmö).
Resulting from this work, the city has become reputable on the world stage for its innovation, its dedication, its creativity, its practical application, and its sincerity in terms of infrastructure investments.
The best know example of sustainable urban development in Malmö is the Western Harbour, a form ship yard has been undergoing urban renewal and houses now housing and office space for some 10 000 people. The energy for a major part of the Western Harbour is 100% renewable and locally produced.
Malmö is also working with retrofitting existing buildings, one example being Augustenborg. The area, originally built in the 1950s has been redeveloped introducing green roofs and an open rainwater management system which takes care of nearly all of the storm water. In addition it improves the area through the greenery and water features and increase biodiversity in the housing area. Addition measures include improved insulation as well as a better waste management and recycling system.
Malmö addresses many environmental issues simultaneously: holistic transport planning including collective transportation, as well as investing in alternative fuel vehicles and increasing bicycling and bicycle infrastructure – Malmö has more than 410 kilometres of bicycle paths. Malmö invests in renewable energy whilst concentrating on energy efficiency. It focuses on waste management by improving recycling, invests in waste to energy and creates biogas for city buses from food waste.
At the same time the city is engaged in public awareness and education. Malmö is the first Fairtrade city in Sweden, actively promoting Fairtade products and a large number of Fairtrade products are for sale in the city. Malmö is cooperating with its university and neighbouring municipality and is jointly running a Regional Centre for expertise for education for sustainable development (RCE Skane), which is operating to introduce the sustainable development concept into school curricula as well as less formal education such as public awareness campaigns.
For more information please visit www.malmo.se/sustainablecity.
Young Ideas for Europe
Shaping Europe's Future. The future Europe needs committed citizens. It also needs visionary people who are ready to take on responsibility. Young Ideas for Europe is an initiative which inspires young people aged 15 to 18 to actively shape Europe’s future, e.g. with regard to climate change. It gives young people a voice in European politics by engaging them in a strong participatory format.
Young Ideas for Europe is an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, realised by IFOK GmbH.
The Robert Bosch Stiftung is one of the major German foundations associated with a private company. It focuses on the fields of science, international relations, education and health. IFOK is one of the leading German strategic communications consultancies and supports its clients from the public sector, business and society in successfully shaping change.
The Global Humanitarian Forum’s Youth Forum
The Global Humanitarian Forum’s Youth Forum is a new platform where young people from all parts of the global society come together to help solve humanitarian problems in creative ways. The Youth Forum supplies opportunities for challenging and influential dialogue as well as the scaling up of concrete ideas. With unique access to the Global Humanitarian Forum’s high-level audience, the Youth Forum engages with some of the most important decision makers in the world.
The Youth Forum currently focuses, as does the Global Humanitarian Forum, on the human impact of climate change. It encourages young adults to see climate change as an opportunity to develop innovative ideas.
Entitled Young Adults 4 New Results, Youth Forum 2009 – the Youth Forum’s annual conference held this past June in Geneva – marked a starting point in developing new initiatives on youth action with regard to climate change. For information on Youth Forum 2010, to be held again in June in Geneva, please visit www.ghf-ge.org or contact youthforum@ghf-ge.org. Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign
The Sustainable Energy Europe (SEE) Campaign (www.sustenergy.org) contributes to the achievement of EU energy policy goals and targets in the fields of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and clean transport and alternative fuels.
The objectives of the Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign are to raise the awareness of decision-makers (at local, regional, national and European level), spread best-practice, ensure a strong level of public awareness, understanding and support, and stimulate the necessary trends towards an increase in private investment in sustainable energy technologies by encouraging the commitment of Partners from local to European levels.
The Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign is specifically to support and promote actions in the following Campaigning Areas:
• Sustainable Energy Communities
• Market Transformation - Voluntary Commitments
• Promotional, Communication and Educational Actions
• Demonstration and Dissemination projects
• Cooperation Programmes
Road to Copenhagen has become Official Partner of Sustainable Energy Europe.
Furthermore, the third Road to Copenhagen Conference "Sustaining People and the Planet: A Fair Deal in Copenhagen" to be held on 8-9 December 2009 is now an Energy Day of the SEE Campaign.
SEE Energy Days are the preferred communication tool to spread the message of energy sustainability at local and regional level. SEE Energy days mobilize consumers, businesses and decision-makers to take a day to think about the future of European energy production and use. They are public events, demonstrating to a wide audience that sustainable energy technologies and patterns of behaviour are viable, cost effective and better for the environment.
Andreas Carlgren, Minister of Environment of Sweden
Andreas Carlgren, Minister for Environment of Sweden supports the Road to Copenhagen Initiative.
Broad international cooperation and trade can be developed to deal with environmental challenges, with open societies as the drivers. It is my hope and my ambition that the world comes together in Copenhagen and makes the necessary commitments to save our climate. Road to Copenhagen will for sure be of great help in order to communicate this to the global community. And I will do everything in my power to have the focus on the Copenhagen summit during Sweden’s EU presidency in the second half of 2009.
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