Honoured as 2011 European Green Capital by the European Commission, Hamburg, Germany is seizing the opportunity to accelerate its growth as a city of the future. Educational programmes that reach across the community and across the Continent , ambitious carbon emissions reduction targets, aggressive leadership in the management and servicing of renewable energies, and major sustainable urban development projects are the hallmark activities of the city’s Green Capital year.

The Train of Ideas, a mobile international, interactive exhibition highlighting best practices in urban sustainability, launches in Hamburg just prior to Earth Day on April 15th and will be on display in 17 European cities before returning home in late September. Hamburg Green Capital’s reach will expand to the US later this year with events planned for Washington, DC, and New York.

Four out of five Europeans live in urban areas today and these urban areas account for 75% of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions. Despite facing enormous challenges, cities are in the forefront of developing solutions to the ecological issues of future.

In 2009 the European Commission recognised the vital role of cities in providing the blueprint towards sustainability by creating the designation of ‘European Green Capital’ for cities that have achieved high environmental standards, set ambitious goals for improvement, and are role models for other cities. The first European Green Capital title was awarded in 2010 to Stockholm. In fact, Hamburg received a higher score than any of the 34 European cities competing for the title, but, as Germany was already hosting a European Cultural Capital in 2010, the Green Capital award went first to Stockholm.

The Train of Ideas enables the Green Capital of Hamburg to become mobile. The international, interactive exhibition shines a spotlight on how cities can be made both liveable and sustainable in the future. Six ‘containers’ or train cars will display more than 100 best-practice projects from European cities in more than 70 exhibits and on 26 touchscreens.

Metropolitan Hamburg has a total population of 4.3 million people. It has more than 500 industrial plants and, right in the heart of the city, is home to Europe’s third-largest port. The city boasts high environmental standards including a 15% reduction in carbon emissions since 1990, despite the city’s continued growth; an excellent public transportation system that is accessible within 1000 feet to 99% of the population; high quality drinking water combined with low per capita consumption and minimal leakage; highly efficient waste water treatment; and nature conservation that maintains 16.7% of the city’s total area as woodlands, recreational areas and green spaces.

The city has adopted a series of ambitious development goals such as increasing the number of citizens using bicycles as their main form of transport to 18% (over 12% in 2008) and increasing public bike stations around the city; a solid climate action strategy to cut carbon emissions by 40% over 1990 levels by 2020; and a strategy for high-quality internal growth.

Innovative development visions are being put into practice throughout the city, with a number of model projects well under way. They include carbon neutral residential quarters, zero-energy and passive houses, a low-carbon heat supply for the HafenCity Hamburg, Europe’s largest inner-city development, as well as the ‘Energy-Bunker’ – a former flak bunker being converted into a renewable energy-power-plant. Many of these projects are part of the International Building Exhibition 2013 (IBA) and predominantly implemented on city-owned land.

Hamburg is already Germany’s number one wind power development and management centre. By the end of the Green Capital year, more than 10 megawatts of Hamburg’s electricity will be produced by solar power and local universities provide a wealth of internationally-regarded data and research in the field of renewable energy. The vision is to position the Hamburg metropolitan region as the leading site worldwide for management and innovative services in the field of renewable energy.

The European Commission has adopted a comprehensive strategy, ‘Transport 2050’, for a competitive transport system designed to increase mobility, remove major barriers in key areas and fuel growth and employment. At the same time, the proposals will dramatically reduce Europe’s dependence on imported oil and cut carbon emissions in transport by 60% by 2050.

To achieve this will require a transformation in Europe’s current transport system. By 2050, key goals will include:

* No more conventionally-fuelled cars in cities.

* 40% use of sustainable low carbon fuels in aviation; at least 40% cut in shipping emissions.

* A 50% shift of medium distance intercity passenger and freight journeys from road to rail and waterborne transport.

* All of which will contribute to a 60% cut in transport emissions by the middle of the century.

The Transport 2050 roadmap to a Single European Transport Area sets out to remove major barriers and bottlenecks in many key areas across the fields of: transport infrastructure and investment, innovation and the internal market. The aim is to create a Single European Transport Area with more competition and a fully integrated transport network which links the different modes and allows for a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers and freight. To this purpose, the roadmap puts forward 40 concrete initiatives for the next decade.

The Transport 2050 roadmap sets different goals for different types of journey – within cities, between cities, and long distance.

1 For intercity travel: 50% of all medium-distance passenger and freight transport should shift off the roads and onto rail and waterborne transport.

* By 2050, the majority of medium-distance passenger transport, about 300km and beyond, should go by rail.

* By 2030, 30% of road freight over 300 km should shift to other modes such as rail or waterborne transport, and more than 50% by 2050.

* Deliver a fully functional and EU-wide core network of transport corridors, ensuring facilities for efficient transfer between transport modes (TEN-T core network) by 2030, with a high-quality high-capacity network by 2050 and a corresponding set of information services.

* By 2050, connect all core network airports to the rail network, preferably high-speed; ensure that all core seaports are sufficiently connected to the rail freight and, where possible, inland waterway system.

* By 2020, establish the framework for a European multimodal transport information, management and payment system, both for passengers and freight.

* Move towards full application of “user pays” and “polluter pays” principles and private sector engagement to eliminate distortions, generate revenues and ensure financing for future transport investments.

2 For long-distance travel and intercontinental freight, air travel and ships will continue to dominate. New engines, fuels and traffic management systems will increase efficiency and reduce emissions.

- Low-carbon fuels in aviation to reach 40% by 2050; also, by 2050, reduce EU CO2 emissions from maritime bunker fuels by 40%.

- A complete modernisation of Europe’s air traffic control system by 2020, delivering the Single European Sky: shorter and safer air journeys and more capacity. Completion of the European Common Aviation Area of 58 countries and 1 billion inhabitants by 2020.

- Deployment of intelligent land and waterborne transport management systems (eg ERTMS, ITS, RIS, SafeSeaNet and LRIT).

- Work with international partners and in international organisations such as ICAO and IMO to promote European competitiveness and climate goals at a global level.

3 For urban transport, a big shift to cleaner cars and cleaner fuels. 50% shift away from conventionally fuelled cars by 2030, phasing them out in cities by 2050.

* Halve the use of ‘conventionally fuelled’ cars in urban transport by 2030; phase them out in cities by 2050; achieve essentially CO2-free movement of goods in major urban centres by 2030.

* By 2050, move close to zero fatalities in road transport. In line with this goal, the EU aims at halving road casualties by 2020. Make sure that the EU is a world leader in safety and security of transport in aviation, rail and maritime.

Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for transport, comments: “The widely held belief that you need to cut mobility to fight climate change is simply not true. Competitive transport systems are vital for Europe’s ability to compete in the world, for economic growth, job creation and for peoples’ everyday quality of life. Curbing mobility is not an option; neither is business as usual. We can break the transport system’s dependence on oil without sacrificing its efficiency and compromising mobility.”

The EU must put extra legislation in place in the lifetime of the current European Commission if it is to meet its commitment to cut domestic carbon emissions by 80-95% by 2050, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has warned.

The European Commission recently released its ‘Roadmap to a low carbon society’ which outlined the need for a “fully decarbonised power sector” by 2050. But the need for action is much more immediate than EU leaders realise.

Since the transport and agriculture sectors will still emit carbon in 2050, the power sector must be at zero carbon by then, and this requires immediate action, says Christian Kjaer, chief executive of EWEA. “Because fossil fuel power plants run for 30 to 45 years, investment decisions taken today will determine our energy mix and carbon emissions in 2050″, he explains. “This means that to achieve a carbon-free power sector by 2050, in theory no new carbon-emitting power plants ought to be built after 2015.”

EWEA proposes in its new report, ‘EU Energy Policy to 2050’:

* A binding “Emissions Performance Standard” (EPS) to limit carbon emissions on new power plants from 2015, starting at 350g/KWh – the emissions of a gas plant – and going down over time to encourage technological progress.

* Reducing Europe’s  domestic emissions by 30% by 2020 instead of the current 20% target, which includes reductions outside the EU.

* Setting domestic emissions reduction targets for 2030, 2040 and 2050, taking the power sector to zero carbon by 2050, as well as a 2030 renewable energy target. Higher emission reduction targets would also help tighten up the Emissions Trading System and make it more efficient.

“Europe needs to agree new policies and targets now for the period after 2020 to achieve the 80-95% emissions reduction it has committed itself to,” he adds. “EWEA believes a more ambitious emissions reduction target for 2020, alongside additional goals for 2030 and 2040, an Emissions Performance Standard and a new renewable energy target for 2030, can drive the ‘revolution in energy systems’ which EU Heads of State recently acknowledged is necessary.”

EWEA believes that wind energy alone could provide 50% of the EU’s power demand by 2050, with the other 50% coming from the many other renewable energy technologies

Grocery retailer Sainsbury’s is using experimental technology to help reduce the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels. Many people are unaware of the strain the National Grid comes under at peak times, as coal-fired power stations across the country have to be ‘switched on’ to meet the increased demand on the UK’s electricity supply.

Power station malfunction and the unpredictability of wind power can also cause changes in supply to the grid, but such changes could become more manageable thanks to the innovative ‘Smart Grid’ system at the new Sainsbury’s store at Hythe in Kent.

The system monitors the grid and activates the store’s biofuel generator when there is an increased demand for electricity. As a result, reserve power stations will not have to be used as much and the UK’s carbon footprint will be reduced.

The generator is the first of its kind and will be powered by waste oil and fat from Sainsbury’s stores to act as an auxiliary power source. Additional technology in the store will reduce strain on the grid further by deactivating or reducing the store’s heating, ventilation and lighting systems at peak times.

The introduction of the Smart Grid system is part of Sainsbury’s environmental stores programme, through which the company invests in environmental technology to drive energy and carbon efficiency in an effort to lessen the impact of climate change. Technology trialled in environmental stores is often rolled out to future store developments as standard.

Sainsbury’s has been at the forefront of environmental store development for many years. It was the first retailer to use anaerobic digestion at scale to dispose of food waste, and opened the first store to be heated and cooled using geo thermal energy last September.

The creation of the Smart Grid store is the first major output of Sainsbury’s partnership with Imperial College London’s Faculty of Engineering and Grantham Institute for Climate Change. The partnership, which launched last year, was created to develop technologies and solutions that will help Sainsbury’s lower its carbon footprint to help it meet with future climate change legislation, and continue to be the UK’s greenest grocer.

The Amazon rainforest, long regarded as a valuable carbon sink slowing climate change, is in danger of becoming a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. New research shows that the 2010 Amazon drought may have been even more devastating to the region’s rainforests than the unusual 2005 drought, which was previously billed as a one-in-100 year event. Analyses of rainfall across 5.3 million square kilometres of Amazonia during the 2010 dry season, published in Science, shows that the drought was more widespread and severe than in 2005.

The UK-Brazilian team also calculates that the carbon impact of the 2010 drought may eventually exceed the 5 billion tonnes of CO2 released following the 2005 event, as severe droughts kill rainforest trees. For context, the United States emitted 5.4 billion tonnes of CO2 from fossil fuel use in 2009.

The authors suggest that if extreme droughts like these become more frequent, the days of the Amazon rainforest acting as a natural buffer to man-made carbon emissions may be numbered.

Grim Future

Lead author Dr Simon Lewis, from the University of Leeds, explains: “Having two events of this magnitude in such close succession is extremely unusual, but is unfortunately consistent with those climate models that project a grim future for Amazonia.”

The Amazon rainforest covers an area approximately 25 times the size of the UK. University of Leeds scientists have previously shown that in a normal year intact forests absorb approximately 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2. This counter-balances the emissions from deforestation, logging and fire across the Amazon and has helped slow down climate change in recent decades.

In 2005, the region was struck by a rare drought which killed trees within the rainforest. On the ground monitoring showed that these forests stopped absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere, and as the dead trees rotted they released CO2 to the atmosphere.

The unusual drought, affecting south-western Amazonia, was described by scientists at the time as a ‘one-in-100-year event’, but just five years later the region was struck by a similar extreme drought that caused the Rio Negro tributary of the Amazon river to fall to its lowest level on record.

New Research

The new research, co-led by Dr Lewis and Brazilian scientist Dr Paulo Brando, used the known relationship between drought intensity in 2005 and tree deaths to estimate the impact of the 2010 drought.

They predict that Amazon forests will not absorb their usual 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere in both 2010 and 2011, and that a further 5 billion tonnes of CO2 will be released to the atmosphere over the coming years once the trees that are killed by the new drought rot.

Dr Brando, from Brazil’s Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), says: “We will not know exactly how many trees were killed until we can complete forest measurements on the ground. It could be that many of the drought susceptible trees were killed off in 2005, which would reduce the number killed last year. On the other hand, the first drought may have weakened a large number of trees so increasing the number dying in the 2010 dry season.”

Climate Change Models

Some global climate models suggest that Amazon droughts like these will become more frequent in future as a result of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Two unusual and extreme droughts occurring within a decade may largely offset the carbon absorbed by intact Amazon forests during that time. If events like this happen more often, the Amazon rainforest would reach a point where it shifts from being a valuable carbon sink slowing climate change, to a major source of greenhouse gasses that could speed it up,” Dr Lewis adds. “If greenhouse gas emissions contribute to Amazon droughts that in turn cause forests to release carbon, this feedback loop would be extremely concerning. Put more starkly, current emissions pathways risk playing Russian roulette with the world’s largest rainforest.”

The research was a collaboration between the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and the Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazonia (IPAM) in Brazil. The work was funded by the Royal Society, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the US National Science Foundation.

Energy and utilities firms have expressed optimism concerning the growth prospects for Europe’s electricity market in 2011. A poll of 60 power equipment and service providers and their customers undertaken at Power-Gen Europe 2010 found that the majority of respondents (75%) see a strengthening in market demand next year, despite the uncertainty surrounding international climate change regulation. Indeed, only a tiny minority of respondents – just 1.5% – thought the market would weaken, although many firms have yet to be convinced that the EC’s drive towards a single electricity market will be beneficial to their business.

In a survey designed to gauge industry confidence, Power-Gen Europe, the leading event for the international power industry, found that EU targets to reduce carbon emissions and increase power efficiency, each by 20% by 2020, are expected to drive the market.

The results of the survey were announced ahead of Power-Gen Europe 2011, which is being held at Fiera Milano City in Milan, from 7-9 June. Visitors to the event will also have access to Europe’s leading renewable and nuclear energy exhibitions – Renewable Energy World Europe 2011 and Nuclear Power Europe 2011. In addition, all three events will be complemented by a comprehensive conference programme, providing participants with a deeper understanding of a wide range of industry issues.

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) presented concrete evidence at COP16 in support of an accelerated deployment of photovoltaic (PV) solar electricity across the globe to bring clean energy to both the developed and developing world.

According to EPIA’s paradigm shift scenario, by 2020, photovoltaic (PV) energy could contribute as much as 12% of the electricity demand in Europe alone; reaching 390 GW of installed capacity and saving 220 Mt of CO2 per year. This is the equivalent to eliminating the carbon emissions from Thailand or taking 98 million cars off the road each year

“Not only is the sun an unlimited source of energy, PV electricity is available in large and small scale, in-grid and off-grid, which makes it perfect to reach all four corners of the world,” explains Eleni Despotou, EPIA’s secretary general. “Just as cell phones can bring the advantages of 21st century connectivity to regions which lack a traditional telecommunications infrastructure, PV is uniquely capable of becoming a catalyst for sustainable development by providing basic services such as lighting, drinking water, healthcare or education, which are crucial to meet the Millennium Development Goals”.

PV capacity in the Sunbelt region (comprising all countries between parallels 35 North/South) could range from 60 to 250 GW by 2020, and from 260 to 1,100 GW by 2030, which according to EPIA would represent 27-58% of the forecasted global installed PV capacity by then. A major departure from today’s situation in this area where, despite the exceptionally high solar irradiation registered, only 9% of the global installed PV capacity is accounted for.

“The Sunbelt represents now about 75% of the world population and 40% of the global electricity demand but our analysis shows that about 80% of the growth of the world electricity demand in the coming 20 years will originate from this region. COP16 negotiators must acknowledge the massive potential of PV in these countries, which remains largely untapped, and guarantee that the right policies and incentives are put in place to bring them clean and renewable energy,” he adds.

EirGrid has launched SmartGrid, an iPhone application that allows users to browse and graphically view key energy-related data in easy and intuitive format. From the effect of household devices on carbon emissions to wind forecasting, SmartGrid provides the user with a real-time view of system demand and carbon emissions.

A key feature is the real-time household appliance rating for carbon emissions. This allows users to select up to five household appliances and calculates the CO2 intensity for the use of the selected appliance at that point in time.

Other features include real-time electricity system data, including:

* System Demand

* Wind Generation/ Wind Forecast

* CO2 Emissions

* CO2 Intensity.

A zoomable map shows the all-island transmission system and the location of all conventional generation and transmission-connected wind farms.

SmartGrid requires an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad running iOS 3.0 or above.

The NTR Foundation, the independent philanthropic organisation established by NTR plc, has been announced as the principal sponsor of the Carbon Disclosure Project, Ireland 2010. The annual project aims to collect and distribute high quality information that motivates investors, corporations and governments to take action to prevent dangerous climate change. This is the second year that Irish companies have been invited to participate in the project. The 2010 report, compiled by KPMG, will be launched by Eamon Ryan, TD, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources on 19th October 2010 in Trinity College, Dublin.

A keynote speaker will be Yvo De Boer, KPMG Global Advisor and former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Since its launch in 2000, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has encouraged more than 3,000 companies in over 60 countries worldwide to participate in the CDP process, helping to raise awareness and create transparency around the management and reduction of carbon emissions. Through CDP, the businesses measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies, in order to set reduction targets and make performance improvements.

Dublin is leading the way in cutting its carbon emissions and is on track to becoming one of Europe’s first energy-smart cities. Projects include the world’s first carbon neutral convention centre, a wholly sustainable urban park and an innovative clustering scheme for homeowners to join together to retrofit their houses.

Dublin city signed up to the Covenant of Mayors last year, which is a commitment by signatory towns and cities to go beyond the EU targets for a reduction in carbon emissions. However, Dublin city is already ploughing ahead by working with its energy agency Codema to achieve a reduction of 33% by 2020.

Local authorities in Dublin are also increasing their use of renewable energy. For example, Dublin City Council is producing renewable electricity locally at Fr Collins Park, which opened as Ireland’s first wholly sustainable urban park last year. Five 50 kilowatt wind turbines provide electricity for the park’s sport facilities, public lighting and water aeration, bringing the portion of renewable energy for the Council’s own use to 19%.

Codema has recently worked with Dublin City Council in developing a Sustainable Energy Action Plan which shows how over the next twenty years, the introduction of carbon neutral and low-energy buildings, improvements in information technology and the development of a low-carbon transport system could lead to the city reducing its carbon emissions by 50%.