[size=75:3bnsd4fx]Sofia echo 26 March 2010

Bulgaria, the Balkans and Earth Hour 2010

Bulgaria’s Parliament is among major landmarks in Sofia, along with several Bulgarian cities and towns, that will be taking part in Earth Hour 2010 – just days after the United Nations released a report saying that the first decade of the new millennium was the warmest on record.

Bulgaria will observe Earth Hour on March 27 at 8.30pm. The goal of the project, launched in Sydney, Australia in 2007, is not to save electricity but to demonstrate concern about climate change.

Along with global landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum in Rome, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate and the Empire State Bulding, 40 Bulgarian cities and towns will douse the glim at landmarks and in private homes.

In Sofia, there will be a procession of light at the National Palace of Culture, starting at 7pm.

In Varna, the lights will be switched out at buildings as diverse as the archeological museum, theatres, the district court, the arches at the entrance to the Sea Garden and the Assumption of Mary Cathedral – however, streetlights will stay on, to prevent accidents, the municipality said.

For Earth Hour, Bulgaria and Romania have joined forces to bring about an exclusive video link event between the two countries. Entitled "
Low carbon economy – business opportunities and challenges"
, the event is organised by WWF, the British Council and the British embassies in Sofia and Bucharest.

The European Parliament and the European Commission are getting in early, by switching off lights in their buildings for one hour on March 26 and 27.

"
To boost the impact,"
the European Parliament’s media office said, it would also switch off its lights from 6pm on March 26.

In a media statement in Sofia, the WWF said that Balkan countries will be taking a prominent role as thousands of cities, communities, businesses and individuals around the world come together for Earth Hour.

"
The powerful symbolism of lights going out on famous world landmarks is regarded as a key support for the continuing efforts of international institutions and national governments to find solutions to this most pressing of global issues,"
according to the media statement.

"
Europe has led the way in taking climate change targets and enacting policies at regional and national level. But we've known all along that even these measures weren't sufficient to deal with the challenge we face,"
according to Jason Anderson, Head of European Climate and Energy Policy at WWF.

"
This is why options for increasing the EU-wide reduction target for 2020 from 20 per cent to 30 per cent are under consideration, and a number of strategies in the power sector, transport and other areas are under development that could take us to 95 per cent cuts by 2050. All of Europe will have to contribute to these goals, though there is clearly flexibility which shows the benefits of solidarity"
.

In the Balkans, the issue of climate change is finally gaining credibility and a deserved place at the top of the political agenda, fostering a much needed public debate, according to the WWF.

The media statement said that Greece is leading the way with 71 per cent of Greeks believing that climate change is a serious problem and more than eight in 10 saying that they do not think the seriousness of climate change has been exaggerated.

Greece is currently in the top five countries with the largest number of cities signed up for Earth Hour, with more than 230 cities committed to participate in Earth Hour 2010.

The lights are going out on the Acropolis and the Parthenon, and citizens of Athens are gathering for candlelit concerts scattered throughout the city.

"
The new government has set climate change as a top priority and is encouraging the development of a green economy. The current energy strategy of the country is quite progressive,"
says Achilleas Plitharas, Campaign Officer at WWF Greece.

"
However, the economic crisis has hit Greek economy hard and this affects climate science in monetary terms. Climate science is vital in order to promote solid action plans on mitigation and adaptation,"
Plitharas said.

Greece has already implemented regulatory and financial measures to promote the uptake of natural gas and to improve efficiency in energy end-use as well as electricity generation. In 2001, a feed-in tariff scheme was introduced, increasing the share of renewable energy. In 2009, an EU commissioned survey revealed that the strongest belief in the usage of alternative energy is found in four European countries – Greece, Denmark, Slovenia and Slovakia.

The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, which brings together the governments of countries committed to democracy and market economy, recommends that the Greek government should take environmental protection into consideration to overcome the current financial crisis.

The Paris-based organisation recommends increasing and widening the scope of green taxes in its Environmental Performance Review of Greece. Moreover, OECD calls for stricter regulations for producers and users of polluting products in the country and for the removal of subsidies and tax exemptions on activities that damage the environment.

Konstantin Ivanov, Head of Communication and Marketing at WWF Bulgaria: "
We want to raise awareness among the business, as tackling climate change requires a transition to a low carbon economy. Many companies are taking up the opportunities climate change brings by finding innovative solutions, while increasing their production volumes and profits"
.

In December 2008, the EU adopted an integrated package of legislative measures on energy and climate to implement ambitious targets for 2020. The targets are aimed at building a sustainable future through cutting greenhouse gases, reducing energy consumption through increased energy efficiency and meeting more of our energy needs from renewable sources.

Although having the lowest energy consumption per capita in the EU, Romania is typical for the region as it also has one of the highest energy intensities (units of energy per unit of GDP).

In 2005, the Romanian government adopted the first National Strategy on Climate Change, setting up the framework for a coordinated national effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to provide the roadmap to climate change adaptation, the WWF media statement said.

The current Energy Strategy of Romania (for the 2007-2020 period) promotes energy efficiency through cogeneration and liberalisation of the electricity market.

The Romanian ministry of environment and sustainable development is at the same time developing a roadmap for implementation of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan, which comprises a series of measures aimed at boosting green innovations and setting up a market for environmental technologies.

In the first of many business initiatives aiming at energy efficiency, Coca-Cola Hellenic and ContourGlobal have opened an advanced energy-saving power plant in Romania as part of an initiative to cut annual CO2 emissions across all of Coca-Cola Hellenic’s operations by more than 20 per cent.

However, despite certain improvements of policies, citizens of Romania and Bulgaria remain the least well informed on climate change in the EU, according to the WWF. Figures show that one in five citizens can not say whether they have taken actions aimed at helping to fight climate change, which is well above the EU average of seven per cent.

But Earth Hour is helping raise awareness, and doing it in style, if a "
Golden Award for Excellence"
is anything to go by, according to the WWF.

In 2009, the WWF team behind the Romanian campaign picked up the top prize at the annual PR Awards ceremony in "
The best campaign implemented by an NGO"
category. According to the Romanian Energy Directorate, an estimated 10 per cent of the population or about two millon people participated in the event in 2009.

The WWF said that Bulgaria is the country in the region which has the highest reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as a party to the Kyoto Protocol, with approximately 50 per cent reduction. This is due to economic restructuring over the past 20 years and closing many of the factories of communist times.

However, for the past two years Bulgaria has tried but failed to finish its 2020 energy strategy, the Third National Action Plan on Climate Change and the National Action Plan for renewable energy sources. It is hoped that the recently elected government (summer of 2009) will finish what the previous could not, the WWF said.

"
One of the most serious problems in recent years has been that policies have closely reflected lobbying and economic interests of certain business circles related to energy"
, said Georgi Stefanov, Climate Change expert at WWF Bulgaria.

"
This reflected badly on the country and its preparation to meet EU targets for tackling climate change,"
he said. "
Let’s hope the new government will not repeat the same mistakes. Let’s hope they are able to produce strategic documents that provide real solutions and enable Bulgaria to catch up with Europe and the region"
.

Bulgaria’s nature is exceptionally well preserved, with one third of the country covered by forests.

The country could prioritise capturing carbon in the so-called carbon sequestration schemes. As part of a recently launched WWF/GEF project, aimed at promoting Payments for Ecosystem Services, carbon capture by wetlands in the Danube River Basin will be explored and evaluated, the WWF said.

Just like Bulgaria, Serbia has one of the highest carbon footprints in Europe. According to the International Energy Agency (the latest available indicators are from 2007), the CO2 per GDP figures for Serbia are more than twice as high as those of West European countries.

However, the past few years have seen significant changes in Serbia.

Climate issues are currently dealt with by three important institutions - the Sustainable development office under the patronage of the prime minister, the sustainable development department within the ministry of mining and energy, and the Climate Change Unit in the ministry of environment and spatial planning.

"
Institutional and legal frameworks are already in place for dealing with climate change,"
according to Nebojša Pokimica, assistant minister at the ministry of environment and spatial planning in Belgrade. "
The issue of climate change is now included in some of the national and sectoral strategies as one of the most important issues for future development,"
he said.

Meanwhile, the first decade of the new millennium was the warmest on record, the United Nations weather monitoring agency said on March 24 2010, the UN News Service reported.

"
The decade of the 2000s was warmer than the decade of the 1990s, which in turn was warmer than the 1980s,"
said Omar Baddour, Chief of the Data Management Application Divisions at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

The new findings are part of the WMO Statement on the Status of the Global Climate, an annual survey by the agency about the weather and climate change.

The decade between 2000 and 2009 included one of the warmest years on record – last year, which was the fifth hottest year since records began.

"
The current nominal ranking of 2009 places it as the fifth-warmest year since the beginning of instrumental climate records [in 1850],"
Baddour said.

The year 2009 also brought extreme weather, ranging from devastating droughts to severe floods, extreme heat waves and cold waves, in many parts of the world, according to the newly released WMO Statement on the Status of the Global Climate.

The Southern Hemisphere was particularly warmer than the long-term average, while the Northern Hemisphere cooled at the end of 2009 with heavy snowfall in Europe, North America and northern Asia.

The information is based on climate date from a network of data collected from about 10 000 land stations, 3000 aircraft, 1000 upper-air stations and 1000 ships and nearly 70 satellites.

Well this is a start but maybe to little to late