E.U. Urges Europeans
to Act Locally to Help Stop Global Warming
May 30, 2006 — By Constant Brand, Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European
Union launched a new awareness campaign Monday urging its citizens to
help stop global warming, adding that just the smallest changes to
everyday routines, like turning down the thermostat by a degree, can
make a difference.
The campaign, dubbed "You Control Climate Change," gives citizens some
50 practical "easy-to-do" tips to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases,
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.
"It makes clear to which extent we all are responsible for climate
change and what individuals can and need to do to limit this threat,"
Barroso said.
The European Commission said that households within the 25-nation bloc
contribute some 16 percent of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions,
most of which comes from the production and use of energy.
The EU awareness campaign, which encourages people to "Turn down. Switch
off. Recycle. Walk," on posters, will be launched in each member country
in the coming days, officials said.
Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who joined Barroso at the
launching of the campaign said his government would urge all citizens
and business to participate.
Environmental group Friends of the Earth Europe criticized Barroso,
however, for not abiding by his own call to cut emissions, because he
owns a sport utility vehicle.
Barroso answered that the campaign was not forcing people to change the
way they lived, but was only voluntary.
Tips being used in the campaign can also be downloaded from a special EU
Web site -- http://www.climatechange.eu.com -- which includes other
suggestions like turning off TVs, computers or stereos rather than
putting them on standby-mode, a move which the EU said will save 10
percent in the energy those appliances use up.
As part of the campaign, school children are encouraged to sign a pledge
to reduce emissions and to track their progress in cutting pollution.
The commission said that every European citizen is responsible for 11
tons of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly carbon dioxide, per year. Most
of those emissions are caused by the production and use of energy,
around 61 percent, it said, followed by transport, 21 percent, both of
which use fossil fuels, like coal, gas and oil, that release carbon
emissions when burned.
Source: Associated Press
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