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Climate change: What are the regions doing?

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The 2015 edition of EUobserver's Regions & Cities magazine focuses on climate change and what cities and regions are doing.

SMART CITIES Helping to

SMART CITIES Helping to improve our lives and save the planet Smart cities use technology to improve the lives of their citizens, reduce costs, and become greener. The smart city, its supporters say, can simultaneously tackle the two challenges most cities face: population growth and climate change. By Peter Teffer Hobbit Bilbo Baggins of the famous J.R.R. Tolkien stories had a magical sword that lit up whenever there was a dangerous orc approaching. Such a cool invention, noted a speaker at a recent conference in Stavanger. But what if, she asked the audience, we could all have umbrellas that would light up whenever the city’s meteorological services expected rain in the area where the umbrella was, so that you would not forget to bring it? It was perhaps a rather trivial idea, one of many ideas being discussed at September’s Nordic Edge Expo in Norway’s Stavanger, but it showed how digitally available data could be connected to physicaldevices to make life easier. That notion is at the core of “smart cities”, the main 12 ––––– EUobserver Magazine 2015

Empty street in Warsaw. Street lighting is a substantial expense for city governments. Sensor-activated LED lights can help cut costs and reduce emissions. Photo: Ulbrecht Hopper, blog.uyora.com/author/svetlana/ subject of the Stavanger conference. The vogue word is being used to describe cities that use technology to improve the lives of their citizens, reduce costs, and become greener. The smart city, its supporters say, can simultaneously tackle two challenges most cities face: population growth and climate change. MORE PEOPLE TO LIVE IN CITIES In Europe, already three quarters of the population live in cities. The United Nations expects this to rise to 80 percent by 2050. Meanwhile, city governments realise they have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and become more efficient in their use of resources, to help prevent the worst effects of global warming. Take street lights, for example, “one of the biggest energy expenses a city has got”, Bas Boorsma of Cisco told the audience. “LED light, which is a revolution in itself, is already taking off 50 percent of the energy bill. If you make it dynamic - sensor-based - with lights dimming if there is no movement at the street, you get to save an additional 30, 35 percent.” He said Amsterdam and Copenhagen were already experimenting with this. Panel members from left to right: Jarmo Eskelinen (Helsinki), Param Singh (San Francisco), Gustaf Landahl (Stockholm), Tone Grindland (Stavanger). Photo: Bitmap AS EUobserver Magazine 2015 ––––– 13

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