Foreword

LIFE ENVIRONMENT |LIFE and Climate CHANGE mitigationThe beneficiary expects the project will lead to a 343tonne/yr reduction in CO 2emissions.The Julia 2030 project developed online CO 2calculatorsto enable Helsinki’s citizens to calculate theirwaste and mobility-related carbon footprint. Thesewere accompanied by tips for changing behaviourto reduce emissions.Citizen involvement can be fostered in other waysas well and LIFE has developed useful experienceof working with groups of citizens who voluntarilyact as intermediaries between the general publicand civil society. These ‘mitigation messengers’help deliver awareness raising or training actionstargeting fellow local residents. As members ofthe community they can create a sense of trust inthe validity of mitigation measures and encouragewider uptake and support.One example of this comes from the CLICC project,which used ‘climate coaches’ to run trainingsessions for participating households on mobility,waste, and energy savings. For the EKO-LIFEproject, the climate mitigation message was deliveredby so-called ‘change ambassadors’ who havehelped to develop scenarios that demonstrate tothe citizens of Vorarlberg (Austria) that it is possibleto make more climate-friendly choices in theireveryday lives concerning mobility, food, consumptionand housing.Soria CO2Cero in Spain created a ‘network ofterritorial guards’ whose role included convincingresidents to perform eco-audits in order tofirstly understand their own carbon footprint,and secondly to reduce it. The ‘territorial guards’were also involved in promoting eco-investmentsamong Soria’s citizens, such as the creation of abiomass plant and a new district heating systemthat brought considerable energy savings and CO 2reductions.Another useful set of ongoing LIFE experiences inthis area is being developed by a nationwide Italianproject tasked with changing citizen behaviour. ThisEcoLife initiative is being carried out in 30 localcommunities. It promotes low-emission lifestylesand is being piloted in selected communities inadvance of a broader expansion throughout Italy.Citizens will be able to monitor the effectiveness oftheir new lifestyles using information about individualand collective contributions. All such data isbeing made available on the project’s website andthe beneficiary predicts CO 2emission savings of upto 500 kg/yr for each inhabitant – leading to a totalreduction of 5 000 tonnes/yr in the pilot area.Future opportunitiesThis review of LIFE’s support for LRA planning inclimate change mitigation confirms LIFE’s potentialas a useful source of co-finance for LRAs, especiallywhen it comes to stakeholder engagement. Althoughthe number of LIFE projects that have helped LRAsin their climate action planning has been relativelylimited, there is scope for further funding in thisarea, particularly of projects that build capacity anddevelop monitoring and modelling tools to make iteasier to adopt and implement such plans.The ROMAPERKYOTO project led to the approval and implementation of Rome’s climate mitigation planPhoto: LIFE04 ENV/IT/00045324