Political ideology is polarising climate change discussion

By Wojciech Kosc

Few topics of discourse today are more subject to ideological interpretation than the theory of global climate change. One result of this is that much so-called "debate" about climate change centres on whether or not a debate should be taking place in the first place. In Poland, for example, one anonymous blogger - though clearly a scientist - is battling to persuade readers that climate change isn't simply a leftist myth created by Al Gore to drain people's pockets.

No matter how fuzzy the margins of political left and right have become in Europe after the Soviet Union's collapse, it is usually safe to assume that one's stance on climate change determines on which side of the left-right political divide an individual sits.

Right-leaning political forces and media in Poland typically frown upon calls for action to mitigate climate change. In the country' nearly 100 percent coal-driven economy, any talk of need to curb or cut greenhouse gas emissions appears dangerous both to jobs and the economy as a whole.

There are, of course, several big CO2 emitters willing to jump on the emissions reduction bandwagon by getting involved in pilot projects for carbon capture and storage - provided, of course, that EU funding comes into the picture - but climate sceptics tend overall to suspect leftist manipulation and unconvincing science. And the climate-sceptical press now quite often replaces the word 'theory' with 'conjecture'.

The aforementioned blog (it's mostly in Polish, though the author most often refers to sources in English, assuming that readers can read it) offers a very fine defence of global climate change theory, where 'theory' is taken as something understood, rather than (as defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary) "a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena."

In an academic, matter-of-fact and logical manner, with numerous references to peer-reviewed content from such journals like Science and Nature, the blog literally destroys the naïve, shallow and ideologically laden notions that Poland's right wing uses to discredit the claim for needing a global pact to keep temperature growth below two degrees Celsius.

Those in Poland most keen to deny climate change frequently rely on statements like the following from leading right-wing columnist Rafal A. Ziemkiewicz (from an article published last June in
Rzeczpospolita):

"The summer holidays, say the meteorologists, will only be summer in name. Even going away doesn't guarantee heat, because the year is exceptionally cold. No one even needs meteorologists: everyone will admit that there hasn't been a summer this cold for years. [...] Personally, I'm not freezing. I'm full of admiration. Anytime I think of it, I shake my head, and think that no bigger trick has ever been played on everyone by anyone in the history. I'm thinking, of course, about the global warming hysteria."

With considerable cheek and ironic 'sensibility', the author parrots typical misconceptions and ignorance about climate change - for example, that lower temperatures in Poland or throughout Europe in June of one year can represent temperature drops globally.

'Denialist' publications also refer continually to the scientifically disproven legend that Greenland derives its name from its actually being green in the Middle Ages - allegedly the result of the Earth being warmer a relatively short time ago. They also claim that there were periods, such as the neo-proterozoic (500m to 1bn years ago), when there was more CO2 in the atmosphere but the planet was deep-frozen: alleged proof that CO2 is a totally negligible factor when it comes to explaining global changes in temperature - if one doesn't take into account a colder Sun, of course.

The Doskonale Szare blog might not be enough to counterbalance the kind of nonsense that penetrates mainstream discourse on climate change. What's a blog, after all, against a wealthy paper or a television station? One could argue, however, that it could have a greater impact in the long run than, say, Greenpeace actions, which tend towards the ephemerally theatrical. Perhaps a more in-your-face attitude with links to hardcore data from world's top science journals will work?

New products, bold plans and DIY enthusiasm 'fuel' transport revolution

By Jerome Simpson and Joshua Simpson

My 15-year-old son spends a lot of time surfing the web. YouTube often finds itself at the top of his list of favourite sites, and one of the clips that captivates him most has to do with something called the Aptera.

WINGLESS FLIGHT: Aptera Motors’ light aircraft-inspired '2e' three-wheeler. Photo courtesy of Aptera Motors

Neither a garden insect nor the latest sci-fi flick - though it has features characteristics of both -- the Aptera is a new electric vehicle just launched in the US. It's a slightly bizarre-looking three-wheeler that whirrs along at a top speed of over 85 mph/137 km/h (it also does 0-60 mph in less than 10 seconds), and in terms of fuel economy it achieves the equivalent of more than 100 miles per gallon.

This efficiency is due partly to its composite shell, which at 680 kilograms is super-lightweight; yet Aptera manufacturers claim that their vehicle is "likely safer than most others on the road." Indeed, at Aptera Motor's manufacturing facility in Carlsbad, California, visitors are given a sledgehammer and encouraged to swing away. Nobody thus far has been able to claim the USD 100 prize on offer for denting the shell.

Aptera Motors is a private company that, like many major manufacturers, is investing heavily in research and development in order to expand the capabilities of hybrid and electric vehicles. This is a response to a global push for further emissions reductions, which is itself a political and social response to a warming climate and air pollution in towns and city centres. With the Copenhagen summit on climate change now taking place, the European Union's own "push" in this area came on September 30 via its new Action Plan on Urban Mobility.

Fresh initiative

The plan "talks up" the idea of electric vehicles -- for instance, by promising to support research and demonstration projects that will enable introduction to the market of lower- and zero-emission vehicles. It also promises to fund new projects related to electric vehicles, and an important aspect concerns related infrastructure in urban areas. Specifically, the plan aims to help integrate national initiatives and support the standardisation of recharging infrastructure. And infrastructure has surely got to be the greatest challenge in reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. Most electric cars, like the Aptera, can't travel much farther than 100 miles on a single charge -- which takes anywhere between four and eight hours.

CHARGING AHEAD: Mary Mears inaugurates an electric charging point at Brighton & Hove. Photo: City of Brighton & Hove

Demonstration projects are therefore crucial in helping convince local authorities and citizens that electric is the way to go. Thanks to the help of the European Commission's "CIVITAS Initiative" for clean urban transport, the city of Brighton & Hove in Sussex, UK could forge ahead with its own plans to promote energy-efficient vehicle use and increased ownership and usage of electric vehicles.

Through CIVITAS' "Archimedes" the city will spend £130,000 to install 10 on-street electric vehicle charging points. It will then offer free electricity during a trial period to registered electric car users. The city's first electric vehicle charging point was inaugurated on October 2, 2009 by City Council Leader Mary Mears. Among other things, tests will be run under the scheme to learn whether widespread electric vehicle charging infrastructure will encourage more citizens to use electric vehicles.

DIY-not?

Fortunately, my son does much more than sitting in front of a PC. In his free time he's busy in another part of the UK -- Bedford -- building his own electric vehicle with grandfather. The two are part of a growing DIY movement involving people building electric hobby motors or removing petrol engines from standard cars and replacing them with electric motors that can be recharged with home generators.

MORE THAN A HOBBY: Joshua Simpson smoothes the shell of an electricity-powered F1 replica, built with his grandfather. Photo: John Simpson

So far they've yet to cash in on any government assistance for their own 1950s Formula One racing car lookalike, but are encouraged by the news that a £10 million fund has been announced by the UK secretary of state for energy and climate change, Ed Miliband, for local carbon-cutting initiatives such as charging stations, as well as grants of up to £5,000 for would-be electric car-buyers. The EC too, through its "European Green Cars Initiative" is keen to stimulate consumer demand by reducing car registration taxes on low CO₂ cars. It will also offer an internet guide on clean and energy-efficient vehicles.

Clearly it will take a combination of measures and actions to convince consumers to switch from fossil fuels to fuel cells and clean electricity, but as Geoffrey Theobald, councillor for Brighton & Hove, mentioned while sharing the city's experiences at this year's CIVITAS Forum in Krakow, Poland, such problems can only be resolved "by taking the public with us. That's a greater problem than the one of money."

Does videoconferencing technology point the way to a greener future?

By Nathan Johnson

In recent decades, the science fiction genre provided countless scenarios in which 'face to face' conversations take place between characters physically remote from each other. Surely, most of us retain some early impression of a futuristic 'vid-screen' from film or literature, as well as some recollection of how we reacted at the time to the concept. With telephones and televisions already in millions of households by the end of the 1950s, audio-visual personal communication seemed inevitable at some point, but how many of us expected the technology to develop so rapidly, and to be so easily accessible?

The future arrived early for me last year when I hooked up a cheap camera to my home computer so I could see my parents in the US while 'skyping' them from Hungary. It's wonderful enough that we can now have a trans-Atlantic conversation on Skype free of charge, but better yet that we can see each other at the same time. For expats like me, along with several of my friends and colleagues, Skype is an especially welcome technological breakthrough.

Advanced communication technologies are quickly becoming part of daily life for millions, but professional possibilities, such as videoconferencing, involve different dynamics. In either case it will be interesting to see if audio-visual communication technologies can develop in ways to encourage greener behaviour, though I must here admit to some scepticism.

Have technology: will travel

Any improved means of communication helps to shrink vast distances between friends and family, but I think it's difficult to argue that people made less homesick are necessarily less likely to travel abroad. In fact, progressive innovations in communication - from the telegraph to the telephone to the internet - have made people increasingly willing to tolerate long distances from home - that is, in the 'place I grew up' sense of home. Of course, advances in modes of transportation have provided the physical means for radical relocation, but improved modes of communication have provided means for tolerating separations that might otherwise prove unbearable over long periods of time.

What many recent technologies have in common is the capacity to encourage increased mobility. One need only examine some of the product nomenclature: the Walkman or mobile telephone, the laptop (because, presumably, you're away from your desktop). While these technologies don't seem necessarily inimical to development of a good public transportation network, they also don't necessarily discourage private transportation-dominant infrastructure.

This brings me to some consideration of possible impacts of videoconferencing technology on travel in general and air travel in particular.

Consider, for example, a paradoxical logistical scenario in which hundreds, if not thousands, of delegates are flown from various points around the globe to attend discussions on global warming and climate change. I raise this point neither to ridicule efforts to build and sustain international dialogue nor to suggest that everyone should walk, row or hitchhike to the discussion table. The point is rather to wonder whether or not it's possible to hold multi-party discussions at a distance.

A world of possibilities

Some of my colleagues have shared a few of their thoughts on videoconferencing, with more than one suggesting that, regardless of other logistical strengths or weaknesses, participants must, first of all, learn to grow comfortable interacting with the new technology. Just as everyone usually recoils in horror when hearing a recording of their 'real' voice for the first time, people initially find it difficult to comport themselves normally and communicate effectively when conscious of the fact that they are being 'viewed' as much as being listened to.

Long-time Green Horizon editor Pavel Antonov mentions also that sufficient broadband potential is necessary for such endeavours so that connections don't become clogged or conversation freezes. He says also that the UK's Open University, which he attends, "maintains equipment for videoconferencing and often uses it, not only for representative events, but for things like examination committee meetings."

The REC's director of communications, Zsolt Bauer, is fairly optimistic about the new technology, some of which the REC uses: "We use WebEx for internet and video conferences," says Bauer. "We tested it with CEE countries, such as Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia - also with Turkey and Japan. The quality is acceptable and you can hear others easily. The cost is something like 500 euro per year.

"The software has many features that make it perfect for conferences," he continues, "such as desktop and document sharing with annotation possibility; secure connections; record, edit and playback functions for meetings; the ability to join meetings from your iPhone, et cetera. But there are limits as well. If you want to connect four persons from one room with two or three others you need a cameraman who can follow the speakers in the room - which means you need special microphones and headsets.

"I think the technology is great, but we have to adjust our expectations and travel habits to the new possibilities. I would connect it to a CO2 calculation and tell people about the immediate savings," Bauer concludes.

Stick to your principles, and maybe even naysayers will see the light

By Emma Brewin

As a relatively green-minded person, I used to think that raising the profile of environmental awareness was simply a matter of thinking positive and spreading the word. A stint spent working at the Regional Environmental Centre in Hungary on this very website had left me buoyed with enthusiasm for the cause. Recycling, reduced goods traffic, Critical Mass, bicycle powered lamps and solar powered cooking - I knew every buzz word and what's more, I was a fan. Yet my enthusiasm recently came up against something of a stumbling block, one that would leave me speechless and all of my best eco-intentions foundering: "I just don't care".

The immortal words came from a new colleague in my latest home town of Bangkok, Thailand. Early forties, married with a young baby, a long-term ex-pat in Asia, when it came to the environment he announced, without concern, that he just didn't care. He liked his air-con on permanently at a knitwear-inducing 17 degrees centigrade he explained, and didn't spare a thought for resource depletion, deforestation or global warming; as long as his filter water was delivered, his regular steak meal cooked just right, and the short hop airplane flights to his favourite holiday beaches were cheap, he was happy.

Was it naive of me to assume that nowadays everyone realises at least to some degree the value and importance of the environment? And furthermore, was it my duty to conduct a Green Crusade and try to change his mind? Genuinely surprised by his comment, I left, mentioning only that I had heard that around 25 degrees centigrade was recommended as a sustainable air conditioning temperature compromise to relieve the sticky tropical heat, but I came away wondering whether people legitimately have the right to be so dismissive about the Earth and its inhabitants' future. After all, in a lot of countries we no longer have the right to inflict second hand smoke on others, or drink-drive and risk hurting an innocent fellow driver with our own actions, so why is it still acceptable to live an environmentally damaging lifestyle that has a wider impact? If I did nothing, would people like me be accused of being the 'silent masses' who stood by whilst environmental damage was being wreaked for future generations?

Over the next few days, interest in my own eco credentials came under scrutiny and criticism; my choice to be a vegetarian for environmental reasons for example, or need to take long haul flights to go home to visit my family in England. However, I impressed myself by letting every criticism and counter-argument slide in the hope that leading by example would be a less intrusive, and more effective, influence. When it became clear I was far from an eco warrior, the comments stopped and we forgot all about it. Yesterday, I was stopped by my colleague after a work meeting. Grinning (I think proudly) he told me he had managed a weekend with the air con at 25 degrees, and I gave a silent cheer for environmentalists everywhere. Clearly it's worth not giving up on even the most dedicated of eco-sceptics, and maybe it is precisely the silent masses like me who have the real power to enact mass change, by picking just a few environmental principles to stand by and letting these small actions prompt a chain reaction of awareness and personal commitment to protect our beautiful and irreplaceable planet.

Sweden pursues emissions targets with '20-20-20' vision

By Goran A. Persson

In the next few years, political decisions lie ahead regarding detailed formulation of the EU's so-called "20-20-20" targets and accompanying EU directives. Talks on new international post-2012 climate agreement are imminent.

The EU targets involve reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by 20 percent, increasing the proportion of renewable energy by 20 percent and improving energy efficiency by 20 percent — all by the year 2020.

To achieve the EU targets will require large investments in electricity production, particularly renewable energy, and in electricity networks. To replace 20 percent of electricity production from coal-fired power plants with wind, concentrated solar and bio-energy is an ambitious but realistic goal. Contributions from wave and photovoltaic power will be small initially but continue to grow. It will be necessary to speed up permitting processes for electricity production plants and networks. As wind is an intermittent source of electricity, Norwegian and Swedish hydropower will be most valuable in regulating supply. An extensive European network will be necessary to distribute electricity with wind power at peak levels.

After 2020 carbon dioxide 'capture and storage' (CCS) can provide important reductions at coal-fired power plants. New nuclear energy is also important toward achieving a carbon dioxide-free EU electricity system by around the year 2050. The Swedish government has recently removed a ban on new nuclear to replace existing reactors.

Sweden's transport sector is highly dependent on fossil fuels, and a number of steps have to be taken. There is a great potential for reduced carbon dioxide emissions and increased efficiency with plug-in hybrids and electric cars. One million cars consume about 10 TWh fuels. With plug-in hybrids that figure would be reduced to 2 TWh fuels and 2 TWh electricity; 8 TWh are replaced by 2 TWh electricity — a fairly marginal increase of electricity consumption in a country. A realistic figure is that 15 percent of the car fleet could be plug-in and/or electric by 2020.

Other solutions must be introduced for heavy-duty vehicles. A wide range of biofuels could be made available, such as biodiesel, biogas, dimethyl ether (DME), methanol and ethanol. Volvo has declared that engines for all these fuels can be made available.

The steps described above, together with a 10 percent blend of biofuels in gasoline and diesel and reduced fuel consumption from all cars, will mean a 20-30 per cent reduction of greenhouse gases from vehicles.

Fuel cells with hydrogen could be important after 2020. A successful development of CCS will make it possible to use natural gas as a carbon dioxide-free source of hydrogen.

Buildings are responsible for a considerable amount of energy use within the EU. New houses built according to low-energy and passive house standards use very little energy, but to reduce emissions from the construction sector, existing buildings have to be addressed. A 20 percent reduction of energy use by 2020 requires that more than one-third of existing buildings will have to use 50 percent less energy. Carbon dioxide emissions in the sector can be reduced further by the use of solar energy, biofuels and heat pumps.

The industry sector will also have to contribute to better energy efficiency and reduced carbon dioxide emissions. A continuous improvement of processes and replacement of oil by natural gas, biofuels and electricity will do the job.

Sweden will occupy the EU chair during the second half of 2009 when the important climate meeting in Copenhagen takes place. To set an example and to be at the forefront of the EU, the Swedish Government has decided on additional targets to those decided by the EU. Carbon dioxide emissions should be reduced by 40 per cent by the year 2020, the transport sector will be rid of fossil fuels in 2030, and Sweden as a whole shall be carbon dioxide neutral by 2050.

The cost of achieving the climate change policy objectives set by the EU will probably be very high; it is therefore important that the choices made ensure that climate change policy objectives are achieved at the lowest possible cost. Focusing on keeping costs to a minimum may be the very thing that makes it all possible to achieve these goals.

The best solution then is, as far as possible, to base energy and climate change policy on so-called market-based instruments, such as emission charges, tradable emission permits and perhaps certificates for renewable energy in electricity production and in the transport sector.

Can we meet the EU targets in 2020? Yes, we can!

Goran A. Persson is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. With a scientific background in air pollution, he has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Chalmers University of Technology. Persson has served in several leading positions in the Swedish Environment Protection Agency, e. g. Director of Research and Deputy Director General with responsibility for long-term planning and strategy development.

Public transport could possibly benefit from today's economic malaise

By Greg Spencer

Increased prosperity in the 1990s undermined the dominance of public transport in Central and Eastern Europe, so it's a distinct possibility that current economic recession could restore the status quo ante.

Many regular car users, faced with lighter wallets these days, will likely turn to subsidised services like public transport as a more economical travel alternative. All around the world, as governments ponder enlightened strategies for economic stimulus packages, renewed calls for public transport investments are growing ever more vigorous.

In the United States, where record-topping petrol prices have compounded the economic crisis, use of public transport is at a 52-year high, according to an industry study released in March. Americans took 10.7 billion trips on buses, trains and trams in 2008, a 4 percent increase from 2007 according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). Ridership was up 38 percent since 1995, the study revealed. Meanwhile, the US Department of Transport claimed that distances covered by car fell 3.6 percent from 2007.

Photos: Wioletta Szymanska

Whether a similar shift will happen in Europe was debated at a recent meeting of SPUTNIC, an EU-supported public transport project fostering know-how transfer from Western Europe to EU new member states and aspiring candidates.

Among those arguing in the affirmative was Stratos Papadimitriou, a public transport expert from the Greece's Piraeus University. "This is an opportunity for public transport to provide people with not only a more sustainable means of transport but also a more economical one," Papadimitriou said. The expert predicted that the recession will lead to a net decline in travelling, but of those kilometres still travelled, a greater share will be on public transport.

Radu Popescu, general manager Ploiesti, a Romania-based public transport company, agreed that this is a logical expectation, but argued that public transport authorities looking to make market-share gains need to be proactive. "In order to [provide an attractive travel alternative] you need to ensure a minimum level of comfort and certain speeds," Popescu said. "But this can't happen without public commitment and investment."

A less sanguine forecast came from Guido Bruggeman, a consultant and former officer of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. "I expect that the financial crisis will have almost no impact on car use, at least among those who already have a car," Bruggeman said. "They will not shift suddenly to public transport as they have already their car."

However, Bruggeman conceded that those who lose their jobs may no longer be able to afford to use their own cars. And, of course, a credit crisis will affect people's ability to buy new cars. While most adults in Western Europe already own a car, there are many in Central and Eastern Europe who don't. "In the [CEE] region, one could expect that people who are planning to buy a car for the first time will just postpone the decision," Bruggeman said.

Can supply meet demand?

Even if recession does lead to greater demand for public transport, the sour economy could threaten the investments needed to accommodate them.

Zoltan Adam Nemeth, manager of EU projects for the Szeged Transport Company in Hungary, noted that EU Cohesion Fund projects require local co-financing, which the current global economic crisis has made more difficult.

Szeged was in the midst of a EUR 13-million investment for nine trams and ten trolleybuses. The Cohesion Fund can provide all but 13 percent of the required capital, but even that amount might be too tough to cover. "We did the financial planning for this in 2005-06 based on credit conditions at that time, so we don't know the impact will be. What if we can't fulfil our obligations?" Adam Nemeth wondered. "What if our contractors raise their prices because banks raise their financing rates?"

Meanwhile, one of the newest EU members has problems of its own. A big car boom started in Bulgaria with the country's EU accession in January 2008 when 20-percent VAT was dropped from the purchase price of used vehicles. It's uncertain to what extent, if any, the recession will temper the car craze, said Tsvetan Tsolov, head of innovation projects at the Public Transport Company Sofia.

Noting that the latest economic forecasts call for negative growth, Tsolov said that there may be more interest in public transport; however, it remains an open question as to whether authorities would be able to make necessary infrastructure investments. In Bulgaria, fraud scandals last fall led the EC to block structural funding for roads and environmental and agricultural projects. Transport authorities now hope that similar problems won't affect them, Tsolov said.

On the other hand, a looser job market might make it easier to hire public transport staff, including bus drivers, which has been a major challenge in recent years for the Brno Public Transport Company, said Rene Dvorak, an in-house economist for the operator.

Greg Spencer, a member of the REC's Sustainable Transport Topic Area, writes about utility cycling at cyclingsolution.blogspot.com.

Europe strengthens FLEGT regulations to combat illegal logging

By Aniko Mudra-Nemeth

Trees and forests can provide far-reaching economic, social and environmental benefits to local communities, national economies and the global environment. In playing a multifaceted role, forests provide both wood and non-wood products, in addition to employment and income generation, energy and food production, and havens for recreation and urban escape. They also provide environmental services such as biodiversity conservation, nutrient cycling, and protection of microclimates, croplands and catchment areas. Carbon storage, tourism and possible genetic resources are further forest-related benefits. All of these services and benefits, however, are severely compromised today through the illegal harvesting and trading of timber.

Illegal logging and the trade of illegally logged timber is a substantial and/or growing problem for many countries. The serious environmental implications of such activity include biodiversity loss, deforestation and forest degradation, desertification and climate change. There are also devastating economic and social consequences, such as revenue loss for national governments and advanced levels of corruption which not only undermine the rule of law and good governance, but feed organised crime and tear at the social fabric. Illegal timber trade raises cross-border and international tensions by hindering sustainable development in affected regions.

Illegal logging thus undermines many essential elements of European development objectives: public-sector financing for development targeted at the poor, peace, security, good governance, the fight against corruption, and sustainable environmental management.

Important steps taken: more needed

In recent years, however, the European Community has strengthened efforts to achieve sustainable forest management, both within and outside the EU, by sharpening its focus on illegal logging.

In 2003 the EU adopted the Action Plan for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) to address illegal logging-related problems. FLEGT sets out measures in producer and consumer countries to facilitate trade in legal timber and to eliminate illegal timber from EU trade. The range of measures includes: support to timber-producing countries; activities to promote trade in legal timber; promotion of public procurement policies; support for private-sector initiatives to promote corporate social responsibility; safeguards for financing and investment; use of existing legislative instruments or adoption of new legislation to support the Plan; and, efforts to tackle problems related to conflict timber.

In December 2005, the Council of the European Union agreed to Regulation No. 2173/2005 concerning a FLEGT licensing scheme and mandate for negotiating partnership agreements. In October 2008, implementation modalities of FLEGT licensing schemes for timber imports into the European Community were adopted through Commission Regulation No. 1024/2008, which aims to minimise the risk of illegally harvested timber and timber products being placed on the European market. The EC regulation requires traders to seek sufficient guarantees that their timber and timber products have been harvested according to relevant laws of the country of origin.

At the heart of the FLEGT Action Plan are voluntary partnership agreements with producer countries suffering the effects of illegal logging and poor forest governance. Timber products exported from FLEGT partner countries to the European Community should be covered by a FLEGT licence issued by the licensing authority of that country. The FLEGT licence should demonstrate the legality of the timber products covered, as set out in the corresponding FLEGT voluntary partnership agreement.

It is encouraging that a great deal of effort has been put into this European initiative to tackle illegal logging; however, these actions require complementary national, regional and international initiatives to strengthen these efforts and to develop cooperation, enhance law enforcement and prosecute forest-related activity — all of which will encourage the sustainable use of natural resources.

With a view to assisting international and European efforts, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) is implementing a project under the ENVSEC Initiative on combating illegal logging in South-East Europe and Ukraine. Detailed information about this project and other envisaged activities can be found here.

Austria takes a 'passive'-aggressive approach to housing

By Emma Brewin

Russia and Ukraine's gas standoff over the winter had most of Central and Eastern Europe looking nervously eastward, so it's no surprise that increasing numbers of households in the region are beginning to take domestic energy efficiency seriously. Cold continental winters mean that a large proportion of national carbon emissions come from home energy consumption, so the reduction of domestic energy requirements has become a regional political priority too. Yet the sheer scale of the socialist legacy of poor-quality, energy inefficient housing is proving a significant barrier to change for many CEE governments.

One country in the region at least, seems to be leading the way when it comes to mainstreaming domestic energy efficiency. Austria not only currently produces one out of every three solar panels used in the European Union — including those adorning the European Commission building in Brussels — but ranks eighth worldwide in provision of solar energy facilities. It also comes second only to Germany in its adoption of passive house technology, a construction standard tipped to be a key solution to Europe's inevitable future energy dilemmas.

The science behind passive housing is remarkably simple: combining energy efficiency, heat exchange systems and maximised use of natural energy sources, such as solar heating, through clever design to dramatically reduce and even negate the need to actively heat or cool buildings. Super-insulated passive houses are able to use the 'fresh air' heating concept; heat from outgoing, warm and stale air is transferred to incoming fresh air by means of a special ventilator without any mixing of the two streams, thus re-using thermal energy that would otherwise be wasted. The resulting savings speak for themselves; passive houses save on average 80 percent of the heating costs of a conventional building, requiring just 10 to 20 kWh/m²/a (depending on climate), which adds up to a monthly bill of around EUR 10 to EUR 25.

The passive model can apparently also be adapted to different houses and locations as an energy 'standard,' as opposed to a set design. This flexibility has so far enabled successful application of the technology in a wide range of building projects all over Austria; Vienna already boasts over 1,000 passive buildings. The range of passive projects being implemented by the Central European Passivhaus-Institut meanwhile is diverse, to say the least. Three Austrian army barracks recently got the green treatment, for example, whereas the remote Schiestl-Haus mountain hut (situated 2,100m above sea level in the Hochschwab mountain range, Styria) is a pilot project testing the applicability of the passive standard and use of solar panels in inaccessible locations.

Yet despite the fact that national policy is beginning to mainstream alternative technologies, the majority of individuals still require coaxing out of their traditional housing habits. Most builders too have also been slow to adapt to the energy efficient alternatives to traditional construction techniques and materials that are now available, either for lack of information or fear of increased overheads. However, Central and Eastern Europeans mustn't ignore the uncertainty of their energy future, and individual domestic changes — as well as national infrastructural ones — will before long become a necessity. Why not get started with these simple tips?

Emma Brewin is a freelance writer from the UK who is a regular contributor to Green Horizon Online and Asia Property Report, a regional real estate magazine and website.

Instead of providing bailouts, governments would do well to follow the Bankwatch example

By Dan Swartz

The recent multi-billion dollar US government handout to failing financial giants is not the first occasion in which US taxpayers have come to the rescue (however unwittingly or grudgingly) for irresponsible lending practices. The firms in question, on both occasions, made poor business decisions, made bad business plans, and their businesses deservedly went under. In the earlier instance, the US government decision to reward incompetence by gifting billions and billions of dollars merely postponed the inevitable for a couple of decades. For example, Citigroup, the biggest bank in the world, has just received USD 20 billion for being a bunch of royal idiots twice running.

Consider also that the same airline companies which receive huge annual government subsidies, free land for airports, no tax on airplane fuel (kerosene), and which failed to provide proper airport security, significantly contributing to the deaths of thousands of people on September 11, 2001, were rewarded for their oversight and mismanagement with over USD 7 billion of taxpayers money. This is the United States, world trumpeter of the free market and Darwinist economics?

Now US, French and German automakers are crying for help, and governments are rushing to their aid. Honestly, I think it would be much better if the car companies were allowed a quick death. The savings could then be applied toward environmentally sustainable public transport systems, national health care and alternative energy systems.

I never thought that I would be expressing free market capitalist ideology in my old age; but yes, let the banks, car and airline companies rot. How many schoolbooks could this wasted money have bought? How many mosquito nets, or HIV medicines, or water filters? Mismanaged companies should be allowed to simply fail and vanish. Meanwhile, those which are well managed won't require taxpayer bailouts and billions in handouts to continue to provide bad loans and manufacture unsustainable, planet-destroying products. But, it seems safe to say that they will continue to do so because we'll just bail them out again.

While no one seems to be monitoring our savings and loan institutions, at least someone is monitoring the loans and projects of international financial institutions (IFIs). The CEE Bankwatch Network (www.bankwatch.org), an international NGO with member organisations from 12 countries across the Central and Eastern European region (CEE), has been doing good work since 1995. The aim of the network is to monitor the activities of IFIs which operate in the region, and to propose constructive alternatives to their policies and projects. Bankwatch focuses mainly on energy, transport and EU enlargement, while working at the same time to promote public participation and access to information about the activities of IFIs across our region.

At first glance, this sort of activity seems drastically different from the kind of monitoring that should guide the activities of local and national banks; but all too often, poorly considered international loans affect just as many people at the local level. Consider a mammoth construction such as China's Three Gorges Dam which, with the help of international bank financing, displaced 1.24 million people and completely obliterated the local environment. Or think about the continued interest of IFIs such as the EBRD in the funding of nuclear power plants in the CEE region; or the 'brilliant' World Bank project in Gracanice, Kosovo to clean up the local river while cutting all the reeds along the banks, simultaneously increasing erosion and removing the river's ability to clean itself.

Bankwatch offers comprehensive citizens' guides on the World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, explaining bank decision, operations and EIA procedures, providing tips on how to negotiate with banks, and detailing criticisms from citizens groups. Furthermore, Bankwatch has made its extensive photo archive available for free, full of good action photos and a detailed search engine. Although I've often struck out with the keywords I select, I'm sure that some tweaking and patience will result in a truly superb resource.

Eventually, the oil will run out: What to do in the meantime?

By Dan Swartz

Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis

By Jerremy Leggett, Published by Portobello Books, 322 pp

As Al Gore poignantly stated in An Inconvenient Truth, we so often go from denial to despair without doing anything in between; and this is how I feel while reading most environmental books. On the other hand, Jeremy Leggett's latest book, Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis, while depressing about the state of the world, does manage to offer significant hope — assuming, of course, that there enough political can be found.

The introductory chapter is written as a Daniel Quinn-like parable, but with Douglas Adams-type witty irony and the clarity of a Stephen J. Gould essay. The majority of the book deals with the question of peak oil and the debate between 'early peakers' and 'late peakers.' And while no one needs a book telling them that that oil will run out sooner or later, if you want to understand the science and economics behind the forecasts and debates, then this is an excellent book to give you a good grounding.

When I read about the peak oil debate, my first reaction is: "Good! Let the oil run out tomorrow, and then maybe people will finally begin to tackle seriously the challenges of renewable energy and energy conservation." But then I start thinking about my Gore-Tex jacket, shoes, oven cleaner, plastic water pipes, and a million other oil-derivative products that I use every day.

In his book, Leggett lays out five premises:

• It will be possible to replace oil, gas and coal completely with a plentiful supply of renewable energy, and faster than most people think.
• The shortfall between current expectations of oil supply and the availability of oil and other sources of energy is too great for renewable solutions to be implemented without economic and environmental trauma.
• Renewable energy, along with energy efficiency, will begin to replace oil and gas with explosive rapidity.
• Outmoded energy-producing systems will turn toward coal, the consequences of which will ultimately determine whether or not economies and ecosystems will survive the global warming threat.
• There is much that people can do to encourage the use of renewables and to ameliorate the worst global energy excesses.

It's not a question of when oil production will peak and decline, but of what will happen when it does. The world might leap to coal or nuclear options, or others even worse. Burning most of the remaining oil, or even a fraction of the coal, will destroy our economies and the environment; however, there are viable and quick solutions that even some of the world's worst polluters have not failed to recognise.

Shell's scenario planners declared in 2001 that renewables have the potential to provide power to a world of 10 billion people with ease, even if per capita use increases. For example, covering just 600 square kilometres of the Sahara Desert with photovoltaic cells would match the output of all of the world's existing power stations; Texas, North Dakota and Kansas have enough wind-power potential to meet the energy demands of the entire United States; and, all of non-electrified sub-Saharan Africa could be provided with small-scale solar for less than 70 percent of what OECD countries spend on annual subsidies to fossil-fuel industries. (Annual government subsidies to gas, oil and coal companies amount to more than USD 235 billion!)

In 2005, a ship travelled to the North Pole for the first time without the aid of an ice breaker. Time to act is obviously short, but not impossible. If you want your children to live in a world were there is still a polar icecap practice sustainable consumption by helping others who would not otherwise help themselves or the planet. For the next birthday, wedding or anniversary, give smart. Insulate your friends' or relatives' windows, doors and pipes; or give energy-efficient light bulbs, A+ energy- and water-efficiency appliances, or extension cords with a master 'off' switch. These days, many appliances don't even come with an 'off' button.

Climate-change talks could help to raise the international profile of SEE countries

By Maria Khovanskaya

According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the International Panel on Climate Change (2007), the countries of South Eastern Europe (SEE) are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In fact, countries across the region are already starting to suffer the ecological and economic consequences of rising global temperatures and decreasing precipitation. The European Centre for Nature Conservation, in a recent report, cites mounting evidence in SEE of climate-induced crop failure, flooding, soil erosion, alien specie invasion, biodiversity loss and decreased water-storage potential. Local communities will soon feel the knock-on effects from shortages of food, drinking water, fuel and building materials-effects that will likely drive up unemployment in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors.

SEE countries, now sufficiently alarmed by the global climate threat, have been quick to support international efforts to mitigate climate change and adapt to its effects. Between 2004 and 2008, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia all ratified the Kyoto Protocol. With the embrace of Kyoto and other strategies to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency, and support for legislation to encourage the development of green technologies, it is clear that the region's countries are prepared to take on their fair share in combating excessive GHG emissions.

When it comes to other international topics, however, SEE countries are typically under-represented and at a severe disadvantage while at the negotiating table. A scarcity of human and financial resources-a hangover effect of postwar economic hardship-has thus far limited representative numbers among negotiating groups, in most cases, to just two or three people per SEE country. This inability to fully participate is significantly hampering the region's long-term prospects, and it remains a key challenge to somehow ensure that these countries can eventually benefit from the international climate-change process to which they have so readily subscribed.

One possible solution to the problem of under-representation is regional leverage, the model for which is the G-77 (1964), a coalition of developing countries formed to articulate mutual economic interests and boost negotiating capacity on the global stage. Pooled resources and personnel enable G-77 delegates to represent the interests not only of their respective countries, but of the group as a whole.

The Kyoto Protocol's Adaptation Fund could prove another means of assistance to countries in South Eastern Europe struggling with the effects of climate change, though the fund's regulating principles have yet to be fully developed. The fund board's inaugural meeting in March 2008 was an important step toward providing funding to developing countries, but it remains to be seen as to whether the SEE region will be eligible for benefits.

On some levels at least, the advantages of regional cooperation are already being explored. The Belgrade Initiative on climate change, for instance, was launched in October 2007 and received full support at the UNECE's Sixth 'Environment for Europe' Ministerial Conference. In bringing together ministers from across the region, the Belgrade Initiative's groundwork on mutual collaboration in the region will hopefully pave the way for the emergence of similar negotiation groups at the international level.

Regional cities need to build infrastructure before copying Paris

By Greg Spencer

Thanks to a wildly successful first year, Velib, Paris' free bike-share system, has inspired cities the world over, including those in Central and Eastern Europe, to try to follow its example. Cities in the CEE region having started or about to start such systems include Bucharest (see ); Prague; Koprivnica, Croatia; and Wroclaw and Krakow in Poland. Belgrade officials are thinking about launching a system for the Universiade games in 2009, and Budapest is studying the idea.

Free bike-hire systems, which date at least as far back as the famous 'White Bike' experiment in Amsterdam in the 1960s, offer a convenient, environmentally sound way of travelling in congested centres. Visitors from outlying districts can come downtown by car or public transport and have a bike at their disposal without the hassle or worry of bringing their own bikes.

Bucharest's bike-share system is the best developed in the CEE region. Photo: flickr

The first free-bike experiments foundered because of theft, but European systems in the last decade or so have mitigated this problem by requiring users to put up collateral via credit or debit cards.

The Parisian system, closely modelled after a successful trial in Lyon, has made a big splash with its unprecedented scale: When fully implemented, Velib will offer more than 20,000 bicycles parked at 1,500 stations.

Velib, launched on July 15, 2007, has been very effective at promoting bicycling as transport. According to the French capital's bicycling affairs coordinator Didier Couval, the number of Paris cycling journeys in the second half of the year was 45 percent higher than during the same period of 2006.

Taxpayers also like Velib, as it relies on a clever form of financing: Rather than cutting into the city budget, the system is operated by an outside vendor in exchange for the use of municipally-controlled outdoor advertising space.

Clearly, there's a lot about Velib to like, but CEE cities wishing to emulate its success might, for now, be putting the cart before the horse.

One point that gets lost in the 'Velorution' hubbub is that Velib was no overnight success. The groundwork started more than a decade before its launch with the implementation of former mayor Jean Tiberi's Plan Velo in 1995. Since then, the city has built more than 370 kilometres of bike paths and bike lanes, installed thousands of kerb-side bike racks, and established several under-30kph zones to reduce risks to cyclists.

No city in this region has made such preparations. In Budapest, for instance, the Mayor's Office boasts of having created 170 kilometres of cycling infrastructure. But this is a disconnected collection of routes, most of which are merely painted lines on pavements.

Recently, Hungary's transport ministry launched a programme that offers EU Structural Funds to support local-level cycling projects. Budapest City Hall is looking at the prospect of tapping this fund to create a bike-share system, but in the meanwhile it has bungled funding applications for basic infrastructure.

Studies show that the main deterrent to utility cycling in urban areas is the lack of safe and convenient bike routes. Free bike rentals are a great idea, but only if there are places where people want to ride them.

Greg Spencer, a member of the REC's Sustainable Transport Topic Area, writes about utility cycling at cyclingsolution.blogspot.com.

A Canadian author addresses some the questions we ask ourselves every day.

By Dan Swartz

Ronald Wright's 'A History of Progress'

English-born Canadian author Ronald Wright's weeklong series of Massey Lectures in 2004 comprise the basis for A Short History of Progress, a well-written work of 130 pages, an additional 50 pages of endnotes, and ten pages of bibliography.

Wright's book begins with an examination of Paul Gauguin's art: "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?'" These are questions that pundits, philosophers, worried parents and millions of drunken college students around campfires late at night have considered through the ages. Surely, each of us have asked ourselves these very questions this at least once while watching the evening news, passing the 100th beggar that day, or choking on smog. A Short History of Progress asks us to do what we have been advised to do for centuries-learn from the past, and ensure a better future by not repeating the same mistakes. Personally, I despair daily that so few have taken this advice to heart. Ancient ruins that dot every corner of our world are "shipwrecks that mark the shoals of progress," and the patterns of decline are alarmingly similar.

While Wright does touch on different perceived measures of progress (technological, material, moral) he only manages to skim the surface. Perhaps he could have posed the question asked each election year by pollsters: 'Are you better off now than you were this time last year?' The book fails to examine how we can better address solutions to ensure that we have a roof over our head, enough food, clean drinking water, peace, and a good education for our kids. Instead, Wright focuses on "the runaway progression of change" and the "collapsing of time" — and the fact that the world we enter at birth is vastly different than the one we leave.

According to Wright, all the big changes since humans left caves have been cultural, not physical. We are "running 21st-century century software on hardware last upgraded 50,000 years ago," he writes. "Most people, throughout most of time, have lived on the edge of hunger-and much of the world still does." Annually, the US and the EU each spend over USD 1 billion paying farmers not to grow crops, and an additional billion each to buy up 'surplus' crops in order to keep prices artificially high. And now, multinational companies are copyrighting staple crops.

As G.K. Chesterton observed: "Man is an exception, whatever else he is. [...] If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head.'' Progress has not been made in distribution, infrastructure, transport-or, most importantly, in political will. Regardless of the 'progress' of irrigation, hybrid crops and other technological 'fixes,' humans still cannot feed themselves and continue to fall into 'progress traps.' For example, when the ancients in the Fertile Crescent discovered irrigation, they fell into the trap of salination-and later, lands lay barren for centuries. If we want to reduce our environmental impact and not go the way of the Sumerian, Roman and Maya empires, we must reform society. For the time being, however, we are like lemmings; we know that jumping over the cliff will prove fatal, but continue toward the cliff.

Unlike the grim Wright, I believe we can say no to GMOs and nuclear power, and that we can go re-embrace renewable energy sources, reusable bottles and organic farming.

There are all sorts of green tips available on the Internet, so don't plead ignorance.

By Jerome Simpson

An email discussion this summer among REC staff members about composting practices resulted, for me at least, in the discovery of a website truly worth bragging about. But before I get to that particular cyber-source I'd like to introduce a few of the slew of websites I've been tipped about in recent months.

Climate-Policy-Map.com is an interactive site that offers quick international comparisons of key climate-related statistics and policies for the world's leading industrialised nations plus the EU. Users create downloadable maps on climate policy by combining multifaceted information (e.g. Kyoto Protocol progress) with data on energy supplies (e.g. biofuel production) and socio-economic factors (e.g. GDP). Visitors can also download country fact sheets, while the site's 'Legal Basis' feature national legislation and climate protection policy programmes for the same countries.

Critters like these thrive ona steady diet of Camembert. True or false? Photo: istock

Another mine of information for policy academics is eco-finance dot org which is a directory of eco-finance institutions and mechanisms operating chiefly in the western Balkans. Built by former REC staffer Jurg Klarer, the site is organised as a set of country pages listing domestic, foreign and commercial public finance mechanisms for environment and water sector investments. Detailed profiles are also available for 15 selected institutions-the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development, for example. The English-language site's clear forte is that it provides support for knowledgeable analysis and discussion of eco-finance-related issues, though I do wonder why it's not yet available in any Balkan languages.

A third newby, launched by UNEP, offers green travel tips. The Green Passport addresses the environmental impacts of the world's largest industry by helping tourists to reduce their environmental and social footprint. There are helpful tips (in English, Portuguese and French) on choosing responsible service providers, reducing energy consumption while on the road or in a hotel, and buying locally made and environment-friendly souvenirs. For information of this type, however, I typically tend toward the 'Travelling Sustainably' and 'GreenDex' sections of the most recently published Lonely Planet guidebooks.

EcoPassenger is a scientifically proven yet user-friendly internet toolkit for calculating energy consumption, CO₂ and exhaust emissions of different transport modes for all European routes. Visitors can use the data compare energy consumption and emissions performance of a selected trip. Another site, ecotransit.org, is built on detailed and reliable railway data from the International Union of Railways (UIC) as well as 'national' inputs (instead of European averages). Unlike 'Green Passport', however, this site is geared chiefly for shippers of freight (road, rail, ship and air), not for your average tourist.

But let's return to my favourite by asking which of the following materials can be composted: pistachio nuts, hair and toenails, egg boxes, camembert cheese, sanitary towels, bread, fish and bones? If you've said 'all of them' then this site's definitely for you. Compostthis.co.uk is a clever, fun website that helps you determine, via a simple interactive menu and short briefs on over a hundred foodstuffs, what's good for the garden and what's not. It's light on text, the menus are easy to follow, and the site is so colourful that mere browsing is a pleasure. One step better than going to the site would be to post the data within easy reach of the kitchen sink!

Nature, an oft-unsung casualty of war, needs legal protection against its aggressors

By Cecille Monnier

Environmental damage from the late-August eruption of violence between Georgia and Russia, replete with bombings, forest fires and oil spills, will linger for quite some time.

All armed conflicts inflict environmental harm, but spoiled or scarce natural resources, such as water, are traditional causes of politic-economic struggles and war, according Silja Halle from UNEP's Post-Conflict and Disaster Management Branch. Halle adds that a badly degraded environment can seriously impair post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in affected countries.

In fact, there are several instances throughout history of wars in which attempts have been made to defeat the enemy by damaging the environment. During the Vietnam War, for example, the United States military sprayed 70 million litres of defoliant chemicals to destroy jungle areas and deny cover to their opponents. Now, decades after the war, Vietnam still suffers the environmental consequences of those tactics. More recently, deliberately released crude oil and uranium-tipped weapons have been employed by forces in the Persian Gulf with severe impacts on public health and the environment.

This type of military destruction has alarmed the international community and sparked fresh enquiries into rules and principles of international humanitarian law, as well as laws to protect the environment during times of war. Some provisions of the 1907 Hague Convention, Nuremberg Tribunal (1945) and Geneva Convention (1949) forbid destructive acts against the environment during times of war, though only indirectly; hence the adoption of international legal instruments to directly protect the environment, two of which are the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Techniques (ENMOD) and Protocol One of the Geneva Convention.

ENMOD, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1976, entered into force in 1978. The convention is an instrument of international disarmament law intended to protect the environment when war breaks out. It specifically forbids hostile use of the environment as a means of warfare, and prohibits the deliberate manipulation of natural processes that could produce phenomena such as floods, drought, hurricanes, tidal waves or other changes in climate.

While ENMOD outlaws geophysical warfare, Protocol One to the 1949 Geneva Convention, adopted in 1977, targets ecological war through two key provisions. Article 35 states that it is prohibited to employ methods or means of warfare which are intended or may be expected to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment. Alongside this is Article 55, which requires combatants to protect the natural environment from the same types of damage.

This pair of multilateral agreements is essentially complementary, though their scope is limited and the issues involved are addressed mostly in a theoretical sense. One could be tempted to call for the adoption of additional and more comprehensive legal instruments, but efforts should first be made toward the practical implementation and enforcement of existing rules.

Cities use mobile technology to overtake parking problems

By Greg Spencer

Here's a riddle: Name one urban problem that can actually be profitable instead of costly to solve.

Did you guess parking?

Guido Bruggeman, a public transport consultant from Amsterdam, explored the issue a few years ago in Bucharest, Sofia and other CEE cities while working with the EBRD. Giving advice on fiscal management of urban transport, he urged these cities to rein in parking. For Bucharest, he estimated potential parking revenues of EUR 100 million per year, based on a modest hourly tariff on each of the city's 60,000 spaces and assuming normal rates of occupancy, but only a few districts have followed Bruggeman's lead.

TELL IT TO THE JUDGE: A motorist in Prague contests a parking ticket. Photo: flickr.com

Bruggeman raised the issue at a recent working group meeting of SPUTNIC, a European project devoted to the betterment of public transport through experience-sharing. According to the consultant, cities put off addressing their parking woes for many reasons-politics, obviously, one of them. Another reason is that parking is a big and often shady business involving figures who don't give up control easily. Also, new parking systems often require new legal frameworks and structures.

Ultimately, however, the benefits outweigh the costs, Bruggeman points out. Consider Bologna, Italy, which tenders out its parking business to a private company. The winning firm handles everything from collecting tariffs to citing offenders and chasing down tardy payments. "The concessionaire pays the city EUR 10 million a year, and the city doesn't have to do anything," Bruggeman says.

A strict regime also makes parking less of an urban problem. In Amsterdam, the city has used high tariffs (EUR 4.80/hour in the city centre) to limit the number of cars crowding the of its 17th-century canal streets. That city's famous friendliness toward cyclists and pedestrians is due in no small measure to expensive parking.

City dwellers in CEE aren't yet ready for such steep fees, but a couple of cities are moving in the right direction. Five years ago, Zagreb introduced a system that allows motorists to pay parking tariffs by SMS. When you park your car in one of the city's 17,000 public parking spots, all you do is type in your license plate number and zone (1, 2 or 3) and send it to a dispatching centre. Parking inspectors then receive electronic verification that you've paid. An added convenience is that five minutes before your allotted time expires, you get an automatically generated warning by SMS.

This convenient system has proven popular, and today accounts for about 70 percent of all parking revenues and has improved fee-paying compliance, claims Srecko Simurina, a representative from Zagrebparking Company.

An SMS system has also been introduced recently in the Bulgarian capital. Parking stubs were previously available in Sofia only from human vendors, who aren't always easy to locate. SMS payment now makes it possible that the city might be able to avoid ever having to install mechanical parking metres. While the system represents a popular and undeniable step forward, parking in Sofia remains over-subscribed and difficult to find, especially downtown. Although several investors are clamouring to build multi-level parking facilities downtown, officials have yet to approve any project. Nor are they willing to raise street parking tariffs.

Public parking is still a pressing problem across the region. But cities like Amsterdam, whose own parking situation was a mess two decades ago, offer hope. With the benefits of Western experience and 21st-century technologies, CEE cities can't be far behind.

Bloggers continue to reshape politics and news media

By Jerome Simpson

European Commission Vice-President Margot Wallstrom does it at blogs.ec.europa.eu/wallstrom. Al Gore does it at blog.algore.com. Even the average man in the street can do it. What I'm referring to is blogging. But who really takes notice of blogs? And why post one anyway?

As I delve deeper into the world of blogs, I'm beginning to see their value, and not just for promoting individual agendas. In some places (Tibet, Kenya) blogs have provided first-hand accounts via text and MMS (multimedia messaging) of atrocities against humankind. Blogs also, in serving freelance or would-be journalists, offer a platform for voices that might not otherwise be heard.

Reporters without Borders, a Paris-based international NGO advocating for press freedom, recently published the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents. The handbook provides tips on how to set up an anonymous blog and "get around censorship." The organisation believes that blogs allow and encourage ordinary people to speak up, especially those who live under oppressive regimes. "Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure," according to the handbook blurb. "Only [bloggers] provide independent news."

Blogging, of course, is not without its risks, as the line drawn between freedom of expression and libel is often quite thin. And in some parts of the world, blogs actually have the authorities scared. Saudi Arabian officials, for example, locked up the country's most popular blogger in an attempt to intimidate online critics. And you can bet that repressive regimes are not alone in monitoring blogs. In April, an ultra-nationalist blogger in Hungary rallied around 1,000 right-wing protesters for a demonstration in Budapest, only to have been foiled by a counter-demonstration organised by the district mayor.

Blogs are also being tried out as a means of garnering political support. BBC World Service recently hosted a debate on their 'World Have Your Say' programme, and asked: "Do political bloggers make a difference?" Most respondents described (many via the programme's own blog page) their impact as negligible. Said one respondent: "Blogs are like the commentary section of a newspaper. You cannot and should not take everything to heart when you read them." One listener, however, took a more optimistic view: "The first requirement of any democracy is participation, and any medium that allows more people to participate is a good thing."

As a quick and informal means for putting information on the web, I see at least three positive functions of blogs: they're a valuable social networking tool for like-minded individuals; they have great potential as a powerful news source or even news medium; and they offer a potential platform for politicians to interact with CSOs and voters. The latter reason is why current EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas hopes that his online diary will "improve the level of debate and discussion on the shape that the next generation of environmental policies will take."

Dimas writes: "It is clear that developing and implementing policies that can effectively protect Europe's environment will be at the heart of the European 'project'. My hope is that this diary will improve the level of debate and discussion on the shape that the next generation of environmental policies will take."

In terms of leading by example in this regard, Dimas' action is praiseworthy.

The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents, which aims to foster credible blogging through the observation of basic ethical and journalistic principles, is available in five languages.

Leaders reject EC bid to introduce less stringent eco-labelling criteria

By Miriam Markus-Johansson

On April 24, the Regulatory Committee of EU Member State representatives rejected a European Commission (EC) proposal on eco-label criteria for specific product categories. The proposal would have allowed flame retardants (including decaBDE), biocides, PVC and GMOs in eco-labelled textiles, mattresses, flooring products and wooden furniture items; instead, the EC will have to go back to the drawing board and propose new criteria.

Of particular interest here is not why the proposed criteria were rejected, but why the criteria were proposed in the first place. After all, the EU's eco-labelling framework is supposed to identity products that do not include such types of chemical compounds.

The main purpose of the framework, as stipulated by Regulation No. 1980/2000 on a Revised Eco-Label Reward Scheme, is to propose products with reduced environmental impact during their entire life cycle. Products are to be analysed beginning with raw material extraction, then through production, distribution and use phases, and ending with disposal after use. Some of the ways to reduce environmental impacts at each level include using environmentally friendly materials and restricting the presence of controlled, harmful substances. Directive 2005/95/EC restricts the use of flame retardant decaBDE in electrical equipment, so there is legal justification to phase out that compound in other product categories, as well, especially in eco-labelled products touted as being more environment friendly.

PVC, GMOs and biocides are also controlled at the EU level, but should they be categorically rejected in all eco-labelled products? In this case it's worth looking at other models. Scandinavia's Nordic Swan eco-labelling scheme, for example, prohibits PVC in flooring, while GMOs, biocides and flame retardants are not allowed in wooden furniture and mattresses. Furthermore, Nordic Swan criteria for furniture and home decorations are among the most stringent in the world, and they also require a high proportion of forest source certification. In these countries at least, both the technology and a market for products meeting such criteria do clearly exist.

So, if it's possible to develop products meeting more stringent criteria, why lower the standards proposed for the 'EU flower' eco-labelling system? Unfortunately, various political, economic, social and cultural factors make this a difficult question to answer. First of all, producers and consumers alike have been slow to recognise and accept the EU flower. This might be due to the fact that, compared to Scandinavian countries, the EU bloc as a whole has less consumer purchasing power and lower levels of environmental awareness.

This being the case, will less stringent criteria ensure increased EU-flower accessibility to EU producers and consumers over the long term? Or are there even better reasons for maintaining the highest possible standards? Scandinavia's eco-labelling scheme has indeed been very successful, and more companies are using it as a marketing tool; the main problem is rather how to ensure frequent revision of eco-labelling criteria in order to better differentiate eco-labelled products from non-labelled products.

Generally, eco-labelled substances should be free of harmful substances, but there are instances in which small or trace amounts of restricted substances in such products are justified if the environmental gains potentially outweigh other adverse impacts. Some products, for example, include small amounts of heavy metals but perform with high energy efficiency. This involves weighing one environmental concern against another, i.e. waste management versus CO₂ emissions. Such assessments rely mostly on pure science and technological feasibility, but are also political decisions which to a large extent reflect current environmental priorities.

Congestion charges haven't taken hold in CEE, but official support is a key first step

By Greg Spencer

The concept of urban road charging, now as ever, remains a political pipe bomb, one that can vaporise the careers of any city mayor who dares touch it. Some would argue that road-use charges would be an especially hard sell in Central and Eastern Europe, where people, for historical reasons, are loath to give up democratic freedoms on collectivist grounds.

However, a few cities in the former socialist camp are pushing forward, albeit slowly and cautiously, with congestion charging schemes along the lines of those adopted fairly recently in central London and Stockholm.

In Lithuania and Latvia, where car ownership has grown more dramatically than anywhere else in Europe (167 and 142 percent, respectively, from 1990-2004, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit), congestion charging has won over the mayors of capital cities.

C-SPOT: The distinctive red-and-white charging logo doesn't mean pleasure for all motorists in central London. Photo: flickr.com

Latvia's capital Riga already has a charge for entry into a small part of its historic centre, both to protect buildings from pollution and to enhance walkability for tourists. But city mayor Janis Birks wants to curtail car access to an even wider area to address the larger problem of congestion. A feasibility study is underway, although a trial run has been postponed from an originally scheduled starting date in April, according to Janis Lagzdons, an economist working for the Riga City Council. "Now I'm not sure when it will begin," he says.

In the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, two consecutive mayors have backed a congestion charge proposal for their historic city centre. They see it as one possible antidote to the routine deluge of commuters that doubles the city's population from 500,000 to 1 million each workday.

However, the city needs legislative support at the national level to enforce such a charge, according to Mindaugas Laucius, deputy director of the Vilnius Public Transport Agency. Laucius says that prospects could improve with elections coming up later this year, but there's no certainty.

Congestion charging has been under discussion for at least two years in Prague, which has a higher rate of car ownership (one for every two residents) than 80 percent of European cities. Recently, the city government declared that it would implement a pilot road-use scheme by the end of 2009. In the meantime, according to city information officer Frantisek Balogh, administrative staff are working on a map of the charging area, carrying out a preliminary strategy study and setting formal goals. The Czech government has proved helpful in raising the statutory ceiling for road-use fees from CZK 20 to CZK 100 (EUR .80 to EUR 4); however, the Prague Mayor's Office still considers national legislation inadequate for efficient implementation of the system.

During a recent conference in Amsterdam, city transport planners and other professionals came together for a perennial meeting of Curacao, an EC-sponsored project devoted to road-user charging. During the project's two and a half years, the group has come up with a boatload of advice that could help cities bring their proposals to fruition: things like keeping the scheme relatively simple, making sure good transport alternatives exist before road charging begins, and promoting charges as a way to fund transport improvements.

The single biggest obstacle, it is agreed, is political acceptance. Road tolls are extremely difficult to sell to voters, and very few city administrations in Europe, or even worldwide, have managed to do it. However, in a few towns here in CEE, mayors have stuck their necks out on the issue and they've still got their heads. This is good news for city dwellers.

Casting ballots via the internet could reshape the concept of 'direct democracy'

By Jerome Simpson

In ancient Athens, citizens flocked to the amphitheatre to vote on decisions of public interest. When the amphitheatre became too small to accommodate the growing population, Athenians began electing representatives. Now, with the dawn of the information and communications technology (ICT) age, the internet provides us with a possibly new decision-making environment-a sort of virtual amphitheatre.

Besides being a huge source of information and entertainment, the internet is used to interact online and extend social lives beyond working hours. All sorts of virtual communities abound on social networking sites, blogs and message boards, launching new friendships and alliances.

With respect to political processes, online forums are often deployed to galvanise protestors for participation in campaigns and mass demonstrations. In 2006, for instance, users of MySpace (which attracts some 320,000 profile registrations per day) helped spread the word about immigration rights demonstrations across the US, enabling grassroots information sharing between large numbers of people. Opinions and decisions are also being shared electronically in the environment sector. Parallel with the United Nations Climate Change conference in Bali in December 2007, science journal Nature, having purchased an archipelago of islands called 'Second Nature' within the virtual world Second Life, hosted its own forum among climate experts, or their representational avatars.

The government sector is slowly getting in on the act, too. A mid-2007 initiative by the British government led to nearly 2 million people signing an online petition calling for planned pay-as-you-drive road charges to be scrapped. At the European level, an Interreg IIIB project piloted a virtual 3D visualisation and planning tool to provide support in public consultation processes. Relying on Google Earth maps, the tool allows online testing of environmental models against various decision scenarios. Malta's environmental protection agency, since going digital, has noted a "radical increase" in organisations viewing planning applications online, according to information system guru Antoine Zahra, attributing the spike to people no longer having to leave their workplace to stand in queues at the planning office.

With this kind of progress, what are the chances for actually engaging virtual communities in voting procedures? Australia's Senator On-Line is already leading the way. Touted as the first online party, Senator On-Line's ten unaffiliated representatives cast their votes based solely on internet responses from registered voters.

Politically speaking, one big demographic challenge to address is 'e-inclusion.' With the EU busy rolling out an abundance of e-type strategies, a recent UNECE report on knowledge-based economies reveals that many social groups in several countries lag far behind mainstream society in ICT usage. These include recent immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities, disabled individuals, the long-term unemployed and rural populations.

Meanwhile, in the US, presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are taking a proactive online approach, both having registered on MySpace and gaining 66,000 and 23,000 'friends' respectively. Will voters respond to the environmental merits of such an approach, or will alarm bells ring 'spam?'

One country where online elections have already taken place is Estonia, and we may soon see virtual voting on day-to-day legislation, policies and programmes, which of course will require a different set of technical solutions to assure that one person equals one vote. In fact, we may eventually find ourselves eventually asking whether we even need political representation. Now, there's a thought.