Summary
The Dutch government has made a new set of agreements, of which the general goal is to improve the effectiveness of public policy by setting very clear and concrete targets.
Within this Agreement, goals are also formulated for climate policy. These goals have been worked out in the so-called Climate Menu for regional and local authorities. The aim of the Menu is to integrate the climate targets in all policy areas of the municipality, from traffic and transport to agricultural policy, and to remove the barriers for the implementation of the climate policy.
Several municipalities have used the Climate menu successfully. It is expected that in the next five years about 80% of the Dutch municipalities will launch the Climate menu approach. Municipalities are stimulated to do so by a subsidy of the national government that is based on the climate menu.
The next step is to develop a Climate menu on a European scale for all European regional and local authorities. For this purpose, Ecofys has launched the European project EU Climate Menu in the framework of the Altener program. This project will start in 2003.
Results
Generally in The Netherlands, local authorities use the Climate menu to achieve their share of the Kyoto CO2 targets. This target is for the Netherlands 6% CO2 emission reduction in 2010; local targets are in line with this percentage. Renewable energy is one of the themes in the climate menu. Depending of the possibilities of the local municipality renewable energy targets varying form 1-10% of the local energy consumption are defined. In Tilburg, the first windpark is now planned which will produce the equivalent of the electricity consumption of more than 1000 households.
The Climate menu also helps to quantify the manpower needed to implement local energy policy. For example, the municipality of Tilburg appointed two extra persons for co-ordination of the implementation of the Tilburg climate policy. The follow-up projects will certainly lead to extra jobs in the Tilburg region.
Concerning behavioural changes, in both Tilburg and Amstelveen the climate policy is now integrated through the work of the whole municipal organisation instead of concentrated in the work of one official.
To find similar reports, click on a keyword below:
ALTENER II Programme 1998-2002
: Agriculture and Forestry
: Decision Makers
: Local Government
: ManagEnergy
: Planning issues
: Regional Government
: Sustainable Transport
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Climate Alliance Klima-Bündnis / Alianza del Clima e.V
Stadt Gelsenkirchen (Gelsenkirchen city administration)
APEA - Provincial Agency for Energy and the Environment, Potenza
Regional Energy Agency of Värmland
Case Study (36 KB PDF)