The Challenge of Making a Climate Strategy for a Metropolitan Area

Transcription

1 The Challenge of Making a Climate Strategy for a Metropolitan Area Climate Change/Urban Change METREX Meeting, Granada Marja Jallinoja/Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council

2 Content Background of the climate strategy Some facts about Helsinki Metropolitan area as a greenhouse gas emitter Main aspects of the strategy and the challenges related to them Future of the strategy How to have a successful implementation?

3 Helsinki Metropolitan Area as a greenhouse gas emitter In the Helsinki Metropolitan Area works and lives about 20% of the whole population of Finland and it causes 10% of the GHGemission in Finland The GHG emissions of the Helsinki Metropolitan area were around 7,7 million t CO 2 equivalent in 2002, per capita it means c. 7 t Share of buildings served by district heating is very high (over 80%) Buildings are rather energy efficient and constantly improving All main power plants in the area are combined heat and power plants with high efficiency BUT using almost only fossil fuels: hard coal and natural gas

4 Helsinki Metropolitan Area as a greenhouse gas emitter The GHG-emissions of Helsinki Metropolitan Area are roughly divided as follows: 2/5 heating of buildings 2/5 electricity consumption (excluding heating by electricity) 1/5 traffic Methane emissions from landfills and waste water treatment corresponds some 1% of green house gases Circa 3% of emissions are caused by separate fuel consumption in industry and construction machines

5 Helsinki Metropolitan Area as a greenhouse gas emitter When the emissions from heating, electricity consumption and traffic are divided by the consumer group, the emission can bee seen caused by these three groups: 45 % service sector (public and private) 45 % households 10 % industry

6 Helsinki Metropolitan Area as a greenhouse gas emitter Trends GHG-emissions per capita have decreased by almost 7 % since 1990 mostly because of the switching over from hard coal to natural gas in energy production and reduction of landfill gas emissions

7 Helsinki Metropolitan Area as a greenhouse gas emitter Trends Heat consumption per capita has stayed stable although the living space is growing Growth in electricity consumption is strong and does not show any sign of slowing down GHG-emissions from traffic have not been growing but car traffic is constantly increasing Potential for emission reductions in waste management has almost been used

8 Climate change mitigation in the context of sustainability ENERGY CONSUMPITON is MATERIAL CONSUMPITON which is USE OF NATURAL RECOURSES There is no energy production without environmental impacts! (and there will never be) Final target of a climate strategy has to be the reduction of use of natural resources, which means reduction of energy consumption A city can be considered as a production facility, where product is the living conditions (residence, services and work) for its inhabitants and the production should be as eco-efficiently as possible

9 TkT Nils-Olof Nylund/

10 How to verify the emission impact of a energy conservation measure? In electricity and district heat (from CHP) there is no way! The energy production system is to complicated to exactly identify how a certain change in energy consumption at a certain moment effects the GHG-emission Can we at least say, that less energy consumption means less use of natural resources? To be exactly truthful, not for sure For sure we can only say, that less energy consumption does not mean MORE use of natural resources How to get a `good enough` estimates accepted? Or should we just hide the truth?

11 How to measure the development in a dynamic community? A number of changing variables, which can not be controlled in the name of climate protection, are effecting energy consumption and GHG-emissions Size of households Age class distribution Employment Business cycle Etc. How can we see behind all that, if our climate strategy or energy saving measures are successful?

12 The challenge of implementation of a climate strategy Two critical points We have to get the decision makers Politically committed To have basic understanding of the relation between human activities and use of natural recourses