Kick the Habit: A UN Guide to Climate Neutrality

The key to success for an effective emissions reduction programme is to have a well-organized, performing structure and a clear process in place. The first step is to decide to go climate-neutral: that obviously comes first. Then we need to count the GHG emissions for which we are directly respon- sible and analyse where are those emissions coming from? Then comes the need to find out what we must do to lower or stop them, what options we have, and to act on that knowledge. The last steps are to evaluate what we have done, identify flaws and then start all over again , hopefully taking into account the lessons learnt in the first round. Before any of this is going to happen, of course, someone has to take a clear decision to work to become climate neutral. It will certainly be an individu- al’s decision, but for more complex set-ups, it will be wider than that. For it to get very far, it will need positive political leadership at the highest level Norway is one of five countries to have publicly declared their intention to work towards climate neutrality (the others are Costa Rica, Iceland, Monaco and New Zealand). Norway aims to reach its goal by 2030. The decision was taken by the government under the leadership of the Prime Minister – but, crucially, it enlist- ed the agreement of the opposition parties as well. The Finance Minister, Kristin Halvorsen, said: “The purpose of the government parties’ invitation to the op- position was to create a broad-based, long-term majority platform on which a proactive Norwegian climate policy could be based.” A lot of money is going into efforts to promote renewable energy, strengthen public transport and implement measures aimed at reducing emissions from transport. The UN is not simply telling other people how to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, it aims to do so itself. The Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, says the organization is moving toward making its New York headquarters climate neutral and environmentally sustainable. The initiative should ultimately include the other UN headquarters and offices around the globe. To help make sure the “greening” effort extends across the entire UN system, the Secretary-General has asked the heads of all UN agencies, funds and programmes to join the effort through an initiative supported by the Environment Management Group (EMG). and wide popular agreement that the effort is worth making. The Intergov- ernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol under the convention represent global leaders’ commitment to confront the problem. The degree to which they succeed will show the depth of that commitment. The British environ- Get a firm commitment

KICK THE HABIT THE CYCLE

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