Green Economy in Europe (part 4)

Hungary

Dr. István Teplán, Chief Advisor to the State Minister for Environment, Hungary

"The Hungarian government looks at green economy not as restriction or a constraint, rather as a great economic opportunity. After every crisis something naturally emerges as an engine for recovery and we believe that for small countries, like Hungary, greening the economy can serve as a new and energizing opportunity.

The Hungarian government launched the New Széchenyi Development Plan this year. The Plan aims at improving Hungary's competitiveness, creating one million new jobs within ten years along seven break-out points - one of them is the development of green economy. In the business promotion scheme a set of conditions presented, where sustainability, resource efficiency and environmental impact have high priority.

Green economy can especially be important for small and medium size enterprises where creativity and implementation of innovations can boost business. It is also an opportunity for local producers since the consumption of local products means reduced transportation needs, lower energy costs and pollution, helps local producers to market their products and can provide further green job opportunities.

The raising awareness and the growing demand for healthy organic food and other organic products call for greening the agriculture too. Organic production and the cultivation of traditional local sorts and species requires less or can even eliminate the use of pesticides and other chemicals. Hungary, being traditionally an agricultural country, has long traditions of and good potential for organic production.

Agricultural and forestry by-products and residues can perfectly be used as renewable energy sources. Considerable electricity producing capacity has been realized in the past few years transforming previously coal-fired power plant blocks to biomass utilization. Several Hungarian district heating companies switched to solid biomass based operation. Biogas production is based on agricultural and food industry waste and sludge, and mainly used in Hungary for heat and power production. We have great potential for the utilization of geothermal, solar and wind energy too.

In the Renewable Energy Action Plan the government had set an ambitious target of almost 15 % share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption by 2020.

Large amount of energy wasted because of the inefficient buildings, especially due to bad insulation of blocks of flats. The government’s re-launched support scheme provides financial support for energy efficiency improvements of blocks of flats built in the communist era.

Transport is responsible for a considerable percentage of greenhouse-gas emissions. Promoting public transport modes (railway, sub-urban railway, urban public transport) and biking, discouraging the use of private cars in particular in city centers helps climate change mitigation and contributes to improving the quality of life of the urban population.

These are only a few selected examples of programs and measures aiming at implementing green economy in Hungary. And we have not even mentioned research, technology, innovations, training and education, awareness raising, sustainable consumption and production, which are of special importance in green economy too."

http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/528Hungary.pdf

Romania

Following the example of forerunners in different parts of the globe, Romania can obtain the significant benefits by lower energy costs, greater energy security, and creation of employment – including many new skilled jobs in green technology, products and services. As Romanian buildings utilize almost 40% of the energy and have a direct impact on the quality of life for all Romanians, improvements in the new and existing buildings represent a tremendous opportunity to achieve economic stimulus, improve the lives of the citizens, and achieve the full benefits of international and European climate change legislation. In particular, construction renovation efforts provide numerous local jobs ensuring an answer to growing unemployment in the construction and related sectors.

At the European level, the environmental industry was estimated to employ 3.4 million people in 2005. This was more jobs than those found in the automobile and chemical industry, demonstrating the potential of the “green market” to create immediate benefits for people in addition to achieving critical environmental stewardship in the long term. According to the European Renewable Energy Council, by raising the share of renewable energy to 20% of the EU’s energy consumption by 2020, the number of green jobs would rise by 2 million.

The costs of implementing energy efficiency and renewable energy measures are minimal as they are not cash expenditures but rather investments paid back by future, continuous energy savings. With already proven technologies that are currently available in Romania, the energy consumption in both new and old buildings can be cut by an 30-50 percent without significantly increasing the upfront investment cost. In addition, government or private loans can be utilized to improve energy efficiency and have the benefit that the reach of existing programs can be vastly expanded without undue strain on today’s budget.

Stronger legislation to promote energy efficiency is being implemented throughout Europe and the world. Romanian firms can prosper by developing the capabilities to service these needs domestically, regionally and internationally that are generated from these higher standards. Alternatively, Romanian firms can be left behind as other nations win these projects.

Most credible analysts predict continuously rising energy costs which will be transferred to the homeowners and businesses and hurt economic potential. More dramatic price increases can be expected as the global economic crisis turns again to growth. Therefore encouraging energy efficiency in buildings will provide economic safety and comfort to Romanians – particularly those most vulnerable to high energy bills. Measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions obviously have the immediate and long term benefit require reducing dependence on fossil fuels. It is therefore important to also consider the value of avoiding the severe economic distress on families, businesses, regions, and economies as fossil fuel costs rise due to scarcity, increased human population, and economic growth.

New buildings have the main saving potential (both energy consumption and CO2 emissions). However, significant GHG reduction and future cost savings could be easily achieved with public investment in the existing building sector through thermal rehabilitation of buildings. In Romania 38% of the thermal energy consumption could be saved through minimal thermal rehabilitation of existing residential blocks. The CO2 emission reduction potential from the thermal rehabilitation of old blocks alone is 4 million tons of CO2 per year. Considering that starting with 2013 many of the thermal plants will be excluded from the EU-ETS scheme and will have to pay (and pass along the cost to consumers) for every CO2 tone emitted, the saving potential is appealing.

In addition, while opinions of causes may vary, it is a known fact that the citizenry is growing increasingly concerned about changing weather patterns – particularly those affecting agriculture and personal safety. According to a Eurobarometer survey from 2008, Romanians place climate change as the biggest global problem of the moment demonstrating a high level of concern for the matter. Impacts such as droughts and floods, increased temperatures would be highly disruptive to a country with such a strong agriculture sector. Many citizens would welcome strong action by government to understand and resolve the source of this problem.

http://www.rogbc.org/Downloads/Position_Papers/Economic_Stimulus_from_a_Green_Economy.pdf

Bulgaria

Finding pathways to a green economy is both a global and European opportunity for overcoming the international economic problems, and this pursuit is accompanied by a much friendlier attitude to the exhaused natural environment. It is thus that economic profit will be able to meet the demand for both a higher employment rate and proper environmental protection at the same time.

As far as Bulgaria is concerned in particular, the pathway to a green economy is not a luxury. The green economy is rather a necessity, as the country avails of specific local opportunities for implementing different environmentally-friendly approaches.

The sparing consumption of raw materials, the reasonable management of agriculture, and the modern attitude to waste management can prove to be highly profitable. The technology-aided economy can be environmentally-friendly as long as it never stops the process of analyzing and inventing. The environmentally sustainable employment brings about a higher level of social responsibility. Remote territories also offer economic opportunities.

What business needs is the guidance and support of the government, in order to be able to step on the road leading to a more prospective destination.

Each EU member country, each business sector, and each individual company must establish and implement specific, autonomous, and locally oriented business strategies and tactics of its own. It would be unrealistic to expect that the Green New Treaty for Europe initiative could be some sort of a modern centralization of the national and sector-specific economic policies, some kind of a “taking the individual managerial and economic entities by the hand”. To run each individual business means to take individual business risks, whereby the environmentally-friendly approaches envisaged by the GNT will make no exception to this rule. Both the profits and the costs of every such business will depend on the managerial and economic decisions made by these entities and they will continue to make profits and incur losses “on their own behalf and at their own expense”. The Bulgarian managers and entrepreneurs have to pay special attention to this fact in view of the characteristic and markedly low level of managerial and entrepreneurial culture in this country. This situation has been revealed by a number of targeted surveys and by the empirical indicators they have produced on precisely these issues in Bulgaria, as well as by numerous other studies.

There is also another well substantiated reason for the Bulgarian institutions and businesses to get committed to their local specific approaches for utilizing new and environmentally-friendly economic opportunities. The different sectors of the national economy, and the Bulgarian economy as a whole, are ranking almost at the bottom of the index rating scale measuring the economic development of the EU member states. The pursuit of a conservative, compilatory, and imitative strategy (with almost no intensive innovations and the lack of any financial back-up for investments in such innovations) has limited the country’s resources, thus making it impossible for it to improve its current situation and move forward from a purely quantitative point of view. Such a strategy is incapable of changing the current situation in the country in qualitative terms either. This is the reason why the entire responsibility for the “green” present and future of the country is lying on the shoulders of Bulgarian business, no matter how undesirable this fact seems to be for Bulgarian businessmen at this particular point in time.

Last but not least, the current specific local peculiarities in this country would pose an insurmountable barrier to each mechanically introduced and non-adapted business strategy, which happens to have failed to take these peculiarities into consideration. What is meant here is not so much the geographic and climatic location of Bulgaria as the inherited current situation of the sector-specific structure of the national economy and the entrepreneurial models of doing business. This is especially true with respect to the intensity and success-rate in the area of research and development of innovations, and the topical trends both in the area of vocational training and on the Bulgarian labor market as well.

http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/sofia/08775.pdf

Images source: http://www.crossed-flag-pins.com

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Romania

Romania is situated in the southeastern part of Central Europe and shares borders with Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova and the Black Sea. Romania's territory features splendid mountains, beautiful rolling hills, fertile plains and numerous rivers and lakes. The Carpathian Mountains traverse the country, bordered on both sides by foothills and finally the great plains of the outer rim. Forests cover over one quarter of the country and the fauna is one of the richest in Europe including bears, lynx, chamois and wolves. The legendary Danube River ends its eight-country journey at the Black Sea, after forming one of the largest and most biodiverse wetlands in the world, the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Danube Delta.

Natural and Cultural are the words that best capture the essence of Romania, a dynamic country rich in history, art and scenic beauty. Visitors can experience an impressive number of attractions ranging from the Danube River and its Delta to beautiful, intact medieval towns in Transylvania, like the Sighisoara citadel; from the vibrant capital Bucharest to the Black Sea resorts; from breathtaking Carpathian Mountains to the world’s famous painted monasteries in Bucovina or to a centuries-old village in Maramures.

Environmental challenges in Romania

• Air pollution and water pollution caused by industry are serious environmental problems in Romania. The country’s factories, chemical plants, and electric power plants depend heavily on burning fossil fuels, emitting high levels of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide - a key component of acid rain. Bucharest, the capital city, also faces serious air pollution, to which the increasing traffic is a big contributor.

• Much of the nation’s industrial runoff ends up in the rivers and eventually in the Danube river system, making water unsafe for drinking and threatening the diverse ecosystems of the Danube Delta. Part of the inland waters which could sustain a rich biological diversity are polluted, and the Danube brings from the countries located upstream a pollution level with negative impact upon the river's biological diversity, as well as on the Danube Delta and the Black Sea. The high nutrient load of the Danube River has caused eutrophication in the Danube Delta lakes.

• Poor farming practices have led to severe soil degradation and erosion. Damage to the nation's soils from erosion and pollution has decreased agricultural production by 50% in some areas. In the 1980s large tracts of marshland lining the Danube were drained and converted to cropland to aid food production. The irrigation of agricultural land has also brought about increased salinization on large areas, while overgrazing has contributed to a decrease in soil quality.

• Romania has already started investing in clean energy, such as solar, wind and hydro energy sources. Also, several projects on using geothermal energy have already been implemented in the country.

• Romania is rich in biodiversity, particularly in the broad Danube delta, the largest delta in Europe, which is reserve of water plants, wetland ecosystem and swamp haven for both flora and fauna. Moreover, Romania has one of the largest undisturbed forest area in the world (13% of the country). However, the country has undergone a progressive loss of biodiversity as a result of human activity. Pollution, the alteration of river courses and hydrotechnical works, mineral resource extraction and the overexploitation of biological resources have been the main factors involved. The draining of wetlands was promoted by the previous regime in order to ensure increased areas of arable land for agriculture. This practice led to the loss of floodplains, particularly along the Danube river.

• As of 2001, 4.6% of Romania's total land area is protected. Sixteen of Romania's mammal species, 11 of its bird species, and 34 plant types are endangered. The Romanian bullhead perch, Atlantic sturgeon, slender-billed curlew, and Mediterranean monk seals are among those listed as endangered.

• Romania suffers great consequences of climate change in a form of tornadoes, floods and desertification. The country has had records of occasional tornadoes since late 19th century but in the last few years number of tornado-force winds beat all the previous records. Floods in Romania also became frequent and abundant, taking many lives, affecting over 1500 settlements, and causing thousands evacuations. Yet another serious effect of changes in a global climate regime is drought that has been predicted to turn Romanian region Dobrogea into a desert, within the next 100 years.

Citizens’ community involvement

The major structural weaknesses of the Romanian civil society remain low levels of citizen participation in associational life, together with a poor level of organization and limited inter-relations among civil society organizations, which represent obstacles for the development of a strong civil society sector. Despite many attempts by CSOs to mobilize citizens around issues of public concern at both local and national level, the response from the population has remained modest.

In Romania, like in other countries from Eastern Europe, volunteerism has been perceived as associated with Communism and, as a result, it has remained weak. There is still widespread memory of the communist era’s “forced volunteering” which keeps people away from engaging in volunteer activities. However, over the last years there has been growing interest in volunteering, especially among young people, particularly among students, who regard it as an opportunity to get professional experience, to connect with other people or to use it as a stepping stone for a permanent job.

A number of Romanian civil society activities in the area of environmental sustainability can be detected. Broad-based support and public visibility of such initiatives, however, are still in an early stage. Although serious pollution and sustainable development problems exist, environmental issues have a moderate salience the on the Romanian public agenda. The new social media opportunities, however, have led to a broader and quicker dissemination of environmental concerns among the general public, making it easier for them to get involved (e.g. signing an online petition).

Government policies

According to OECD there are about 23 environmental taxes in Romania, among which 8 regard fuel, vehicles and planes, 2 regard air pollution, 4 regard water, 4 regard waste, while the remaining five refer to use of resources, nature protection and noise. There are also 2 environmental schemes with the purpose of waste minimisation, rational use of raw materials and resource conservation.

The projects and programs financed through the Romanian Environment Fund Administration are targeting:

• energy efficiency by financing renewable energy projects
• waste management by financing companies and regional administrations
• financial compensation for individuals or legal persons for every used car older than 10 years sent to recycling centres
• financing new sewage systems for local administrations, in order to protect water sources
• financing for public local administrations investing in creating or extending parks and forests
• the use of heating systems based on alternative energy
• the thermal rehabilitation for housing blocks

Other sector-specific strategies and action plans:

• Mining Industry Strategy 2010 – 2020
• Romania’s Biomass Master Plan (2010)
• The National Action Plan for Energy from Renewable Sources (2010)
• Romania’s National Strategy for Energy Efficiency
• The policy and the Strategy for Forest Sector Development in Romania (2001 - 2010) along with the National Plan to Combat Illegal Logging
• The National Action Plan for environmental public procurement (2008 - 2013)
• Implemented Eco-Design Directive
• The Action Plan for water protection against nitrates pollution from agriculture sources
• The Good agricultural and environmental conditions (GAEC)
• The National Strategy for Drought Mitigation, Prevention and Combating of Land Degradation and Desertification

Environmental tax revenue, at 1.9 % of GDP in 2009, lies well below the EU-27 average (2.6 %); in fact, this value is the second lowest in the EU. Most of this revenue is realized from energy, none from pollution and only 0.3% from transport (excluding fuel). However, the excise duty rates have been increased in 2010.

Corporate Social Responsibilty (CSR)

A positive trend that has been seen at the level of the business sector in the last years is a growing interest in CSR, especially at the level of larger or international companies. Major companies are beginning to take the potential negative social and environmental impacts of their operations into account. Some companies have a particular interest in the field of environmental protection and try to build their corporate social responsibility identity mainly on this dimension.

Corporate Social Responsibility is a relatively new, yet expanding concept in Romania. In spite of visible progress and of successful examples, much remains to be done. Small Romanian companies, albeit involved in charity actions, remain largely ignorant of the concept of CSR. Moreover, statistics revealed that only 5% of all companies in Romania have an annual budget for making donations. A quarter of them try to establish a strategy for donations and 70% take such decisions on ad-hoc and arbitrary basis.

Multinational companies were the first to set an example with regard to corporate philanthropy and CSR, and are considered to have started corporate philanthropy and CSR initiatives in Romania in the mid 1990s. As the lack of visibility for CSR initiatives was considered to negatively influence public perception and to discourage others potentially interested in getting involved in corporate philanthropy programs, some of the non-governmental, international and corporate players have become involved in promoting CSR among businesses in Romania.

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Sources and further reading:

http://naturvernforbundet.no/international/environmental-issues-in-romania/category944.html

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Romania-ENVIRONMENT.html

http://enrin.grida.no/biodiv/biodiv/national/romania/threats.htm

http://www.civicus.org/media/CSI_Romania_Country_Report.pdf

http://www.enjoined.edupolicy.net/files/ROM_ESD_eng.pdf

http://www2.oecd.org/ecoinst/queries/index.htm

http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/economy/resource-efficiency/romania-2014-resource-efficiency-policies

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-DU-11-001/EN/KS-DU-11-001-EN.PDF

http://www.civicus.org/media/CSI_Romania_Country_Report.pdf

http://www.romaniatourism.com/

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Global Youth Music Contest / Detailed Contest Guidelines

Couple of days ago we shared information about Global Youth Music Contest we are a part of. The GYMC is using the resonance of music as a powerful expression of intercultural dialogue to incite all multi-stakeholders and actors of change to act upon their commitment for sustainable development.

The GYMC is a chance to inspire, connect and mobilize young people to use their creativity toward building a sustainable future.

The GYMC issued a joined statement addressed to the Secretary General of the United Nations, His Excellency Mr Ban Ki Moon, and you can read the statement here.

Today, we would like to share more details about the Global Youth Music Contest:

 

 Share this with your friends and communities, and join us with your creativity and inspiration.

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For more information about Global Youth Music Contest , please visit also the resources page, and join GYMC Facebook Page.

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June - October 2011 overview of our 10:10 actvities

  

It's review time again for our activities as a 10:10 hub! We published a five-month review at the end of May this year, and here are the news / highlights from our activities in June, July, August, September and October 2011:

•‘Low Carbon and Delicious” cookbook got a media sponsor/partner (Food & Drink magazine from Croatia)

•Free desktop 10:10 wallpapers/calendars were issued in different formats/colours

•An event to promote cycling for school children was held in Bucharest, Romania in association with Cutezatorii magazine (photo gallery)

•We took part in the biggest Romanian music festival B’estFest (check out also the photo gallery and full report from our on-the-field volunteer)

•Our young 10:10ers from Bratislava, Slovakia sent us this lovely poem and held an outdoor 10:10 teen event

•10:10 Global’s web design guru Tom helped us re-vamp our 10:10 teen blog, and it looks absolutely amazing

•Zadar county (10:10 county), Croatia turns to wind power to reduce carbon emissions

•We had a set of lovely low carbon events to celebrate 10:10:11

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Nektarina Non Profit serves as a 24 country hub for the 10:10 campaign since June 2010. All work that we do for this project is voluntary.

We carry out the campaign in the following countries: Alabania, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia (FYROM), Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.

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Greener cities? Not yet, but we are trying.

by Livia Minca

Moving away from fossil fuels is one of the biggest current challenges and for the cities who are trying to achieve this, the road is certainly not easy. One obvious sector where changes can and have to be made is transportation. However, good intentions sometimes do not pay off.

Here are two examples of cities where things are starting to move, although quite slowly.

In Zagreb, Croatia, the main slice of public transport infrastructure goes to trams, that cover most of the city centre, while buses are mainly used for suburban areas. This is certainly a great advantage, as trams use electricity instead of fuel and do not exhaust any nasty gases, so they are more environmentally friendly. However, the ride fares are not very cheap if you are not using a monthly subscription and the tickets represent one-way rides of maximum one hour in time.

A few years ago, a measure that was introduced by the city council certainly put a smile on citizens' faces. It was decided that a city belt would be created in the centre, inside of which travelling by tram would be free. Yes, it might have been just a political decision to gain votes in the upcoming elections and no one actually promoted the environmental benefits of this measure, but it does not mean they were not felt. Free travelling in the centre encouraged people to leave their cars outside and take the tram, less emissions were in the air, everyone was happy.

So what could have generated then the adoption of a new measure this year that annihilates the old one? It may have to do with the economic crisis, but the city council just argued that it is not fair to not pay for a service that is offered to you. But what about the taxes people pay? What about how it worked all these years, when there was still economic crisis? Anyway, the unfortunate thing is that again the environmental considerations were left aside. People just accepted the situation and moved on, in the honks of cars that crowded up again in the centre.

A pity, yes, but not all is lost. Short as it may have been, the tram-dominated car-free centre of Zagreb will remain a testimony of good practice, creating a precedent for environmental argumentation when the time comes again for a change.

Moving to another part of Europe, in Bucharest, Romania, the picture is completely different. A large, noisy, polluted city with over 2 million people moving around, Bucharest is not as lucky as Zagreb with its nice tram system. Sure, Bucharest has all forms of public transport: buses, trolleys, trams and metro. Still, the amount of mostly single-passenger cars is huge, even if parking spaces are scarce. The above-ground public transport is simply overwhelmed by the traffic, people are annoyed with the travel times, a general discontent floats in the air.

A few years ago some “fanatics” started using bicycles to move around the city easier, squeezing themselves among cars. This generated a whole debate about Bucharest lacking biking lanes and in a desperate attempt to escape the angry citizens, the City Hall decided to draw some paths. Just a hasty solution, as all of them were placed on the already thin side walks (that became thin because an extra lane was added for the cars in the years before), where people and parked cars together made it impossible for bikers to have a smooth ride.

Still, the number of bikers increased every year. Some gave up the idea of travelling through the city by bike, but were just enthusiastic about  riding it, so they started to crowd the parks. Bicycle renting centres appeared and were a success. NGOs promoting biking did not loose momentum and, together with appropriate sponsors, came up with a great idea: rent a bike in the park for free. It's quite easy and fun actually. You just need to leave your ID there and you can have a bicycle for free for one hour. Practical, too: if you damage the bike or do not bring it back, they know where to find you.

So, this is how the bikers community is growing every year and how the parks are getting packed with riders. Eventually something good will come out of this: either the authorities will design proper bicycle lanes or they will have to build more parks (and Bucharest desperately needs them as well).

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Citizen Participation

by Livia Minca

Citizen involvement in environmental activities is an important driver of change in shaping mentalities and promoting sustainable practices. However, getting people to take part in campaigns, events or environmental programmes can be quite challenging because it depends on a lot of factors such as education level, income or social and political background.

There are several approaches to involve people, ranging from voluntary work to offering incentives, like prizes or stimulants; from local actions that mainly target one community to global campaigns that  cover a large number of countries; from one-day events to programmes that span over several years; from aiming at direct effects in communities to focusing on capturing as much media coverage as possible in order to spread the word.

No matter how they are organized, all these campaigns have one particular goal in common: to raise awareness among citizens with regard to a certain environmental issue. Basically the aim is to make citizens move from a mindset where they “hide”under different excuses (“I don't have time”, “This is too much for me, I cannot do it”, “I don't care”) to building up a confidence that it is all right to just do what they can and that this already makes them a part of the solution. This way, people will feel included without being pressured and it is likely that they will respond positively when asked to do a bit more, or even start including on their own more environmentally friendly actions in their daily routine.

Differences can be spotted when looking at citizen participation in various countries. Citizens in developed countries have acquired, besides a higher average life quality that allows them to think more about environmental issues, a better sense of organizing themselves and getting involved more easily in public actions. From a very distinct perspective, in ex-communist countries for example, people are still shadowed by the old habit of never questioning the authority and just complying with what is given.

This is why campaigns that involve public participation should take into consideration the location of the target group and adapt the contents to address the special needs and mindset of the region where they are developed. This is likely to lead to a higher impact and better results.

Here are the examples of two different environment-themed events, where citizen participation was the main ingredient. Both took place on the 24^th September this year.

Moving Planet

The idea for Moving Planet came from 350.org, a global campaign and network that works with grassroots organizers in 188 countries to mobilize against climate change and for a just future. Moving Planet is a collaborative effort of many organizations, movements, and individuals. Inspired by the democracy movements in Egypt and elsewhere this year, the organizers wanted to show that people power is stronger than the fossil fuel industry’s power and can move action on climate change that has felt stalled since the UN Climate meetings in Copenhagen, 2009.

The goal was to get moving beyond fossil fuels—both symbolically by pouring into the streets in the thousands on foot, bicycle and other means of sustainable movement, and politically by bringing powerful demands to leaders to move beyond fossil fuels to a 350ppm world.

The organizers encouraged their partners to adapt the idea for Moving Planet to what was most appropriate and strategic locally. Actions ideas around the world ranged from mass bike rides or marches, bike or walk to school/work days, to a march or bike ride from a problem (e.g. coal plant) to a solution (i.e. solar plant), a mass march or bike ride to encircle a government building/deliver a petition, non-violent direct action at fossil fuel targets, and a long multi-day march or bike ride to demonstrate commitment.

The Planet certainly moved on 24^th September as over 2000 events took place at the same time in more than 175 countries worldwide. Now that's global action!

Let's Do It, Romania!

“Let's do it, Romania!” was a national day of action aimed at cleaning up the whole country from garbage in a single day. The original idea belonged to Estonia, which organized such a day for the first time in 2008. Several countries started implementing it thereafter and Romania was this year at its second edition.

Besides the actual cleaning, the project also aimed at convincing public authorities to raise the issue of waste infrastructure in Romania higher on the agenda and make local institutions more responsible in organizing controls (both on tourists and economic agents) and better enforcing the rules and regulations to prevent the country's tourist attractions to be overtaken by trash.

The concept was simple: during the year people could register on the website locations of the garbage piles (through GPS coordinates), that were compiled in the end in a garbage map. When the action day approached, the people organized themselves in teams and were allocated a pile that they had to clean up. When the action was over the garbage bags were picked up by partner waste collecting companies from the respective locations. As basic as it sounds, the project involved a large number of volunteers, NGOs, companies and institutions who worked together to put everything in place for the big day.

But the most important thing was the mobilization of citizens. No matter if they came with their work colleagues, with friends or through organizations, people did show up in large numbers. In fact, this year more than 250,000 citizens responded to the call for action in every corner of the country, with 50,000 more than last year. This is a great achievement. Hopefully next year the number will be even higher but the garbage that they'll have to collect will be much less.

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October newsletter for schools now available also in Romanian

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Raising awareness through music / Romania

The beginning of July marked several milestones for Nektarina - ending first twelve months as a 10:10 hub and beginning our ECI Youth Forums. Is there a better way to celebrate, then at a great festival?

During our March visit to Romania, we met with Romanian musician and artist Zoli Toth, who is Earth Hour Ambassador for Romania, and we discussed ways and possibilities to work together on raising awareness on climate change and environmental issues across Romania.

Zoli was kind enough to invite us to participate at the B'EstFest Festival . BestFest is a music festival taking place annually in Bucharest, Romania. The first edition was scheduled in July 2007, at the Romexpo, lasted 3 days and had an audience of almost 50,000 people.
It was a great opportunity to meet young people from Romania, chat with them, raise awareness on climate change issues and deliver our message - every one of us can help fight climate change by changing just one thing : start recycling, use energy efficient light bulbs instead of the ordinary ones, consider carpooling, take the bicycle instead of a car, opt for train instead of a plane, eat less red meat... so many options and ways to do the positive thing toward the environment.

Music festivals have always been a great venue for raising awareness on issues and important topics. The use of music to support a message or raise money has always been around, and everyone would agree that music can be a powerful medium.

B'EstFest Festival was also a great way for us to promote our 10:10 Teen Project and to engage our great volunteers organized by our Romanian friend Catalina Neagu. Here is what she wrote after the three-day event:

Dear  readers,

My name is Catalina and  I  was  the 10:10 hub agent for Romania during Best Fest in Bucharest this July.  Although I must admit that I do not know much about rock music, this was truly one amazing experience.

First of all, we had a handful of NGOs that shared with us their experiences, whether they had recycling programs for SMEs, or art projects for young people. We also enjoyed the presence of a very famous Romanian rower- Ivan Patzaichin (a quadruple Olympic winner) that supports sustainable development  in the Danube Delta. And then we also had a small team of volunteers that gave out 10:10 flyers and stickers at the festival.

Who did we listen to? SKUNK ANANSIE, TOULOUSE LAUTREC, ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION, HOUSE OF PAIN – just to name a few. So as you may have already guessed, we rocked the city for 3 days in a very green way. 

Check out the full set of photos here.

Best from Romania,
Catalina

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Creativity and environment / Romania

In May this year we partnered with Cutezatorii teen magazine, and they are helping us promote our projects in Romania .

They featured our logo and ECI Youth Forums announcement in the electronic version of their catalogue that features the best works of the children and teenagers that participated in Eco Fun Contest, 2011 edition, titled “Riding the bicycle helping the environment”.




The winners of the Eco Fun Contest were announced late May at a fab event in Bucharest, Romania:


"Children, teenagers, parents and teachers from all over the Romania gathered last Saturday, May 28 2011, at the University of Ecology in Bucharest, for a different kind of event: an environmentalist experience. The University amphiteathre hosted for the fourth year in a row the event Eco Forum. As always, the children and the teenagers were the most convincing and best prepared speakers. 
A weekend out of the ordinary, in an academic environment, an unusual day at the university – this is how we can sum up the event, after spending five hours at the University of Ecology in Bucharest. Over one hundred children and teenagers between the ages of 8 and 18 years old participated at this event. Some of them were the winners of the National Contest Eco Fun “Riding the bicycle helping the environment”, while others worked really hard to show their skills by doing different activities, such as: short speeches focused on the main issue of the event – the bicycle - , the pantomime „Trees”,Quilling Art, building a bicycle out of recyclable materials, singing, etc.
 
All of the participants are readers of „Cutezatorii” magazine, the organizer of the event and received 10:10 poster."

Check out  lovely photos from event on our CEE Facebook Page and here below:

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