Campaign Launch: A world you like. With a Climate you like

A world you like. With a climate you like.

A new campaign to promote climate action and a low carbon economy was launched in the beginning of October 2012 in London City Hall. Private and public sector representatives were invited to launch the campaign and discuss visions for a World you like. With a climate you like. The purpose of the campaign is to highlight, not only the urgent need, but also existing good ideas and practices in lowering our use of Carbon dioxides and other Green-house Gases.

The campaign includes five themes related to climate actions: Travel and transport, Producing & Innovating, Building and Living, Shopping and Eating, Re-use & Recycling. Through the campaign website and the campaign's Facebook page you can discuss Europe's low-carbon future with other Europeans including Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action.  

© European Union, 1995-2012

On the campaign website 27 short videos inspire with practical examples to tackle climate change locally and make a change towards a low carbon Europe. Just like the UBC best practice database, it is intended to inspire and present front-runners and innovative solutions. Later on it will be possible to submit projects and show your action towards climate change and work towards a world you like with a climate you like. From the UBC Environmental Commission we in encourage all our member cities to prepare inputs for this campaign and, as our growing database shows, the Baltic Sea Region had plenty of good examples to show to the rest of Europe.

Picture: Creative illustrations were made on the spot inspired by the panel discussions. © European Union, 1995-2012

Author: Jeppe Mikel Jensen

Awareness raising portals

During resent years a lot of focus has been put on increasing the environmental awareness of several target groups. Most of the attempts have been campaigns, projects or short term tests, that have not had a long lifespan. The truth is that increasing knowledge and changing people´s habits needs constant effort. It is not a one time poster show without strategic analyses of the results.

UBC Commission on Environment has been assisting in several awareness raising processes. Together with partners we have managed to find several win-win solutions for cities. One of the most successful initiatives has been the work done together with the city of St Petersburg. Building up an Environmental portal of St Petersburg has enabled the city to address several target groups in one go. It has created a meeting point that gathers thousands of visitors daily. It is one of the model examples of one source that can be broadened over time.

1 prize awarded to Olga Ostapenko

One of the strategic means to develop the environmental portal of St Petersburg was to organize a comic competition to raise the awareness of youth in Russia and Finland on the state of the Baltic Sea. More than 200 participants took part in the competition. The comics showcase well the different approaches that the current youth has on the Baltic Sea and actions that can be done to save it. There is a lot to do, to ensure that littering is not the only thing that one could do!

Now there is an "Our Baltic Sea" - Computer game programming competition for Finnish and Russian students. Games are one interesting field of awareness raising activities that could be developed even further in the future. Not just for youth, but also for adults. The number of environmental games in Russian is still limited - have a look of what exist and if you know more, let us know them too.

Stella Aaltonen