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Cyprus and Climate Change
As world leaders and environmentalists prepare for the 2009 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in a few weeks, the island of Cyprus is preparing for its own forum on the same subject. The Climate Change Conference will take place from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th November at the Goethe Centre in the capital, Nicosia.
Renewable energy, recycling and climate change have not, until recently, figured prominently in the ordinary lives of Cypriots or the politics of Cyprus. Now, along with other countries across the world, the people of Cyprus and its politicians have realised that they can’t ignore the ever-mounting evidence; the increases in world average air and ocean temperatures, the widespread melting of ice caps and a rise of the global sea level. Climate change has become a major challenge both on a local level and for global policy makers.
The conference in Nicosia will bring together local and foreign experts in the field, allowing them to exchange views and inform the public on the latest developments. It has been organised by the German Cypriot Forum (DZF) in co-operation with the Friends of Nature Cyprus. It will be held in English and is open to the public with online registration, making it quick and easy for anyone interested to get involved.
DZF Chairman, Eckart Kuhlwein, talked about the important issues for Cyprus and insisted that “economic policy considers ecological and social consequences, tourism policy respects nature, and that agricultural policy takes into better account the protection of the environment.”
The order of events this coming weekend is as follows:
•Former vice-president of the European Parliament, Mechtild Rothe, will be talking about environmental targets and policy implementation within the EU.
•The subject of renewable energies will be closely dealt with as guest speakers point out what needs to be done to ensure the island uses its natural resources as efficiently as possible.
•Looking at the possibilities for renewable energies in Cyprus, the German Hermann Scheer (President of Eurosolar and General Chairman for the World Council for Renewable Energy) will be giving a presentation on how renewable energies are used in the rest of Europe and what potential Cyprus has within that context.
An interesting presentation will come from architect and landscape planner, Anna Grichting, a teaching fellow at Harvard University about the ‘Green Line Project’. It aspires to make the buffer zone a “laboratory of ecological territorial planning and a catalyst for lasting peace.” Her work takes the concept of a European Green Belt into account - an initiative focusing on the former border areas along the Iron Curtain, which developed a corridor of valuable biotypes due to years of non-cultivation and isolation.
The final day of the conference will be more hands-on as the whole of Sunday 29th November will be taken up by a study trip to one of the island’s designated Natura 2000 regions. Standing as part of an ecological network of protected areas within the European Union, legislation has been designed to safeguard the most seriously threatened species and habitats across Europe.
Author: Anne Hall