Actualidad

Ihobe, the environmental management agency of the Basque Government, has published a comprehensive guide for personal action and commitment. The guide invites Basque citizens to embrace 52 Tips to Combat Climate Change to cut greenhouse gases.

The document divides these 52 tips into five effort levels, from “very easy” to “very difficult”. It also includes a table on a scale from 1 to 5 to check the impact that complying with the tip has on the environment.

These 52 actions are aimed at complying with the Climate Change Strategy of the Basque Country – Klima 2050, which sets the target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the Basque Country by 80% by mid-century. Each individual currently emits a total of 8.7 tons of CO2, while the EU average is 8.5 tons.

Unveiled at CONAMA

The guide will be available for the first time at the National Environment Congress (CONAMA) next week, which will be held in Madrid between 26 and 29 November. The Congress is the main sustainable development event in Spain and is organised every two years. The Guide with the “52 Tips to Combat Climate Change” will be available from the stand that the Basque Government will share with ACLIMA, the Basque Environment Cluster.

The publication to fight climate change includes everyday actions such as buying household appliances with energy rating A, correct management of waste and its recycling and setting the heating thermostat at 20 ºC among the “very easy” tasks. Thanks to the first action, you can achieve energy savings of up to 60% in household electricity consumption. Just by putting tins and cans in the yellow bin to be recycled allows 90% of the energy needed to produce a new can to be saved. And, in the case of heating, your bill will drop by 5 and 10% by lowering the temperature at home by just 1 ºC.

In addition to these everyday tips, there are another 10 actions including using e-billing, turning off the lights at home or using the dishwasher’s low temperature programmes.

The second of the five levels of difficulty include actions that imply a greater level of personal commitment, but are still easily assumable. These include using public transport, eating more fruit and vegetables rather than meat (livestock production accounts for nearly 15% of total emissions), using crockery and reusable bags rather than disposal ones, and turning off household appliances completely and not leaving them on stand-by.

The third level takes a further step and encourages the general public to use organic waste containers to produce compost, to buy local produce from local stores to avoid the energy consumption associated with transport, and to cut the amount of bottled water drunk.

The fourth level, rated as difficult, implies an active personal commitment and includes actions such as buying certain food loose, correctly managing mobile phones in terms of their service life, battery recharging and recycling, using LED light bulbs and choosing accommodation with eco-labels.

The guide finishes with a fifth level, where the citizens take on pro-active tasks to protect the environment: taking part in reforestation project, contracting electricity from renewable sources, and fostering the growing of organic food for their own consumption.

This initiative to fight climate change is similar to others such as the one promoted by the European Union, 52 Steps towards a Greener City, and the 52 Tips for Biodiversity document, also published by Ihobe.

International Conference on Climate Change

The edition of the guide 52 Tips to Combat Climate Change is one of the actions that is part of the preparations for the Change Change International Conference on Climate Change, which will take place from 6 to 8 March 2019 in Donostia / San Sebastián (Basque Country).

600 delegates and 50 of the world’s leading climate change experts are expected to gather at the 3-day event. The Conference will be structured into 8 thematic panels that will address the planet’s health, the role of the regions, the urban environment, sustainability, energy transition, the economy, education and women’s leadership. It will also showcase the “heroes and heroines of the planet”, with thought-provoking talks by people at the cutting-edge of climate change in different areas.

The Conference is part of the Basque Country’s Climate Change Week, when a wide range of activities with something for everyone will be organised in the three provinces. The aim will be to call the general public on the premise that any action, however small, makes a difference.