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KICK THE HABIT
THE CYCLE – REDUCE
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technologies. A consortium being developed by C40’s partner, the Clin-
ton Climate Initiative, will form partnerships with vendors that will lead
to lower production and delivery costs and therefore lower prices. Key
product categories will include building materials, systems, and controls;
traffic and street lighting; clean buses and waste disposal trucks; and
waste-to-energy systems.
ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) runs a campaign called
Cities
for Climate Protection (CCP
). It helps cities adopt policies and implement
quantifiable measures to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, improve
air quality, and enhance urban liveability and sustainability. More than 800
local governments participate in the CCP, integrating climate change miti-
gation into their decision-making processes. Five milestones help local gov-
ernments to understand how municipal decisions affect energy use and
how these decisions can be used to mitigate global climate change while
improving the community’s quality of life. Like the generic environmen-
tal management system (EMS) approach, the CCP methodology provides a
simple, standardized way of acting to reduce GHGs emissions and moni-
toring, measuring, and reporting performance.
COUNTRIES
Decisions taken at country level can influence and motivate actors rang-
ing from the international community to individuals and have a profound
effect on GHG emissions and patterns of consumption and production.
Whereas cities are in a better position to motivate people and unlock their
enthusiasm, countries have the power to induce fundamental changes. One
way of motivating people is by offering them ways to save money, yet not all
governments have exploited the potential of the taxation system to change
behaviour to greener patterns. Governments can, for example, introduce
carbon taxes on the use of fossil fuels. They can impose taxes on the extrac-
tion and production of minerals, energy and timber and structure them
to support more climate-friendly practices. Specific taxes are possible on
technologies and products which cause significant environmental damage.
Waste disposal, pollution and hazardous wastes can also be taxed. To com-
pensate taxpayers for these new impositions governments can lower other
charges, for instance income and sales taxes, and those on property and