Cities can fight climate change
2008-12-08 21:17
Cape Town - City governments have an important role in fighting global warming, Cape Town's mayoral committee member for the environment, Marian Nieuwoudt, said on Monday.
Nieuwoudt will represent the city at a United Nations conference on global warming and climate change which starts in Poznan, Poland, on Tuesday.
She said in a statement released ahead of her departure that cities were home to half the world's population, and were where up to 80% of all energy was consumed.
"Municipal and provincial governments, as the closest government level to citizens, can accelerate behavioural change in communities," she said.
She said the conference would seek to improve links between local and national tiers of government to more effectively reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
Mayors from around the world would be signing an agreement committing themselves to a 60% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in industrialised countries from 1990 levels.
- SAPA