General Electric supports EUCO2 80/50

Steve Fludder, GE's vicepresident of ecomagination, announced at the COP15 summit on Copenhagen on December 13, 2009 that the ecomagination initiative of GE  will support EUCO2 80/50, "Europe's biggest and probably most ambitious cities initiative to reduce urban greenhouse gas emissions".

  Steve Fludder 

With the support of this exclusive industry sponsor, project EUCO2 80/50 will be able to go on devising strategies for a low carbon future on the metropolitan level. Read more...

In a 24-month project, 15 european metropolitan regions aim to devise strategies
for achieving an 80% reduction of greenhouse gases emissions by the year 2050.
Lead partner and Coordinator is the Metropolitan Region of Hamburg. Scientific monitoring is provided by the University of Manchester, which devised the GRIP
model – the Greenhouse gas Regional Inventory Protocol.  GRIP is recommended by the European Commission as an efficient tool in the context of the Covenant of Mayors.

Project EUCO2 80/50 is a three-step mitigation project for Metropolitan Areas. After the production of regional greenhouse gas inventories, political and economic stakeholders  come together in scenario/strategy workshops in order to find a consensual long term CO2 reduction strategy. Results will be disseminated to other metropolitan areas.

The discussion on the reduction of greenhouse gases shows ever more clearly that it’s not a problem of lacking solutions. By higher energy-efficiency in production, by energy-saving in transport and buildings and by use of renewable energies, the  reduction goals of the EU can be achieved.

The main problem rather consists in implementing the measures that have been identified as good practices into tangible politics. Therefore we need a decision finding process that unshackles the issue from ideological dispute and guides the stakeholders of economy, politics, science and administration towards a consensual strategy.

Exactly this is the task and goal of project EUCO2 80/50.
Read the summary...

Presentation for stakeholders

A Presentation with 24 slides reflects the backgrounds and the principles of EUCO2 80/50 and helps to inform stakeholders. See the presentation...

18 Regional GRIP Inventories

18 European metropolitan areas representing 55 million inhabitants have united in their efforts to fight climate change.  In a simultaneous and common process, they produced  inventories of the greenhouse gas emissions of their areas.

The method used was GRIP - the Greenhouse Gas Regional Inventory protocol, based on United Nations reporting standards.

It is the first time that such a big number of important metropolitan areas realized this crucial step which is the basis for a rational and effective climate action plan. A brochure with the results of each region and a comparative study has been presented at the METREX meeting in Paris in May 2009. A summary with testimonials from all over the world emphasizes on the importance of Step 1 of EUCO2 80/50.

You can download a summary with testimonials and graphics here.

The entire brochure is available in our Download section.

Find more information about the GRIP Inventory Tool and the Scenario Process on our GRIP page.

From October 2006 to June 2007, a pilot project was realised, which devised a unified method for inventorying CO2 emissions in a computer simulation. Participants were the METREX members Glasgow, Stockholm, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto.

Scientific monitoring was provided by the Tyndall Centre  (University of Manchester, UK). It devised the GRIP model – the Greenhouse gas Regional Inventory Protocol.

In the pilot project, the four participants implemented the first step (compilation of regional energy data). In the project EUCO2  80/50 the entire  GRIP process, including the use of the Scenario Tool, will be realised.

Project EUCO2 80/50 started in August 2007 when METREX and the future Lead Partner, the Metropolitan Region of Hamburg met first in order to bring together the partnership. 20 metropolitan regions plus METREX submitted an Application to the first call of the InterregIVc programm in January 2008. When the approval failed in September 2008, 16 partners decided to finance the first step, the regional CO2 inventory, by their own expenses and to resubmit the Application within the second call in January 2009. Approval failed again in October 2009. 

From May to August 2009, the GRIP methodology was evaluated by the Joint Research Centre of the EU. In October, the Lead Partner received a letter of recognition from the European Commission which recommends GRIP as "efficient tool in the context of the Covenant of Mayors" and sees "a high analogy and good convergence between GRIP and Covenant".

In view of the positive recommendation by the Covenant of Mayors, 15 partners decided in November 2009 to go on with the scenario step and start with a training meeting in February 2010. The Lead partner negotiated with possible sponsors to ensure the future of the project.

General Electric decided in December 2009 to become partner of project EUCO2 80/50.