More Than 350 EU Mayors Sign New Climate ‘Covenant’. By Holly Fox, AP, February 12, 2009. “Mayors from more than 350 cities across Europe signed an EU climate change agreement Tuesday [in Brussels] pledging to cut CO2 by more than 20 percent by 2020. The pact covers urban areas across 23 EU countries and includes cities like London, Paris and Madrid. Cities in Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine and Turkey have also signed it, and faraway places — like New York; Buenos Aires, Argentina and Christchurch, New Zealand — also backed the initiative… EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said the plan — called the Covenant of Mayors — will affect 80 million Europeans and will save around 8 billion euros ($10.4 billion) in energy costs. Under the pact, cities commit to ‘go beyond’ a two-year agreement by EU national governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, increase energy efficiency by 20% and to increase the use of renewable energy sources to 20% of all energy used by 2020.”
Filed under: Climate Change
