The recent raised awareness around climate change and the greenhouse effect, has indeed been followed up by a lot of initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions or increased supply of renewable energy. On international and national level this is translated in overall goals , based on limited global warming at around 2 degrees since pre-industrial times. General targets defined at the international policy level are in the order of 20 % reduction of emissions and 20% increase in Renewable energy supply ( already adopted by the EU).

Countries are picking up this trend, end we found one that has defined more far reaching targets: Sweden wants to be free of fossil fuels by 2020, mainly translated in being independent from oil by 2020. Four main reasons are cited:

-The impact of oil prices on Swedish economic growth and employment;

-The link between oil, peace and security throughout the world;

-The great potential to use Sweden's own clean renewable energy resources in place of oil;

-The threat of climate change resulting from the extensive burning of fossil fuels.

Remarkable is that for instance depletion is not mentioned as a threat…

Japan has a official definition however more broadly defined: In the Third Basic Environment Plan, which was adopted during the Cabinet meeting in April 2006,: a "sustainable society" is:

"a society where we are able to ensure global and local protection of a healthy, nature-rich environment, protect human well-being for individual citizens and hand over such protection to future generations." In order to build such a society, we need to solve existing problems regarding (1) limited resources on the Earth and (2) the limited ability of nature to manage human-caused pollution.

A very interesting definition, since it combines cause and impacts, in stead of only impacts as is the case with most CO2 aimed policies.

There is a few more countries with targets announced, but these are in most countries less challenging either in the target itself or limited in sectors addressed.

Regions and cities

However what we see is that the real quest is taken up increasingly by regions (like California) and cities, and these go beyond the 20% targets: to become 0 or neutral in energy, CO2 or even "climate" is hot nowadays. And especially the municipalities are fast becoming the main actors in stimulating a transition for fossil fuels or CO2 emissions towards renewable energy and CO2 offsets. . And a first round of inventory reveals a wide range of claims , with and mostly without clear targets and definitions .

Newcastle in the UK has attracted attention with its claim of becoming carbon neutral, and the website has that name: http://www.carbonneutralnewcastle.com/home/

However, no definition is to be found on the pages,. Only if we open the page html source, we find some detail in the "meta tag" :

Newcastle wants to be the world's first CarbonNeutral city; by reducing and offsetting the CO2 we create, we can save money, ensure a secure energy supply and make our city cleaner and greener - bringing benefits to you, your business and the community.

It wants to be no less then the worlds first, however no data or results so far are public. It also includes offsetting in being neutral. The question also remains, how big is a city, if you claim to wanting to be the first city ? Since there are already successful examples.

The town of Güssing in Austria ( 4000 inhabitants) has already established its goals, which is to become a energy autarkic community. It produces more (bio-) fuels as it needs, more heat as it needs, and more electricity as it needs. Its of course mainly biobased, with large forests surrounding the village. But so far it consumes only 20 ct of the yearly harvest ( from within its municipal boundaries) to establish this autarkic situation. And at the same time has created many jobs. At the moment the initiative is broadened for the region.

Not all communities of course are in the position of having large forests within their boundaries, but nevertheless it's a huge achievement.

Another example is Samso, a Swedish island. It has become already the 1st 100 % Renewable energy Island. It exports more (renewable) energy then it needs. It has an offshore windpark which mainly creates this favourable position.

Apart from these smaller towns, many cities have specified targets, to reach CO2 or energy neutrality somewhere in the near future.

Back in 1996 Växjö , Sweden, already committed to become a fossil fuel free city. However the claim is in fossil fuels, in practice the result is measured in "emissions", and mainly CO2. So far 30 pct reduction compared with 1993 has been established, by 2010 it should be 50 pct and in 2025: 70 pct.

Another example from Sweden is Kristianstad (75.000 people): In 1999 the executive committee of Kristianstad municipality unanimous decided to declare its will to become a Fossil Fuel Free Municipality. Primarily by the change for renewable energy sources, not so much by reduction programmes. Reduction in 2010 should be (measured by fossil fuels) of 50.000 tonnes, representing 10 % of CO2 emissions. A targeted date could not be found in the documents.

In the Netherlands many cities have Carbon neutral or energy neutral strategies in mind, and the initiatives of three cities were combined in a Carbon neutral pilot programme. This programme investigated the potential targets, strategies, and definitions, To predict achievable dates when CO2 neutrality could be established. Several cities have committed to the strategies, and are building up activities for implementation: Heerhugowaard has a "roadmap, to lead to energy neutrality in 2030, Tilburg implements activities to become climate neutral in 2045, and Apeldoorn energy neutral in 2020 (only for the built environment).

Other cities are also willing to become neutral. It's this program that led to discussion on systems, definitions and targets, the basis for this paper.

Another example comes from Masdar, Abu Dhabi [x]. This is not an existing city, but a entire new one, to be constructed the coming years. The city development has adopted the World Wildlife Fund's principles, named 'One Planet Living principles ' [x]. These include overall sustainable goals, but for energy its defined as: Zero Carbon: Achieve NO? net CO2 emissions from One Planet Living developments, (mainly buildings and infrastructure) and for transport its defined as to 'achieve major reduction of CO2 emissions from transport '.

A last example is a new city, or suburb called Dongtan, near Shanghai, PRChina. Which has maybe the most far reaching targets for new developed areas: not only 0-energy, but also a ecological footprint that completely balances nature's supply and human demand, combined with hydrogen based transport. If its realised that way, is to see, but at least the start is promising.

Kalmar region

One level up, we come to regions. And the example here is the Kalmar region, in Sweden again. By 2030, Kalmar County intends to become a fossil fuel free region. And so far this limited round of exploring initiatives, this region shows to have the most concrete and detailed plan and targets set.

There are 3 main targets: 1 energy and the environment as growth factors; 2 becoming a fossil

fuel free region by 2030; and 3 decoupling economic growth from increased fossil fuel usage. Regarding the second target, the following details are provided: By 2010, the county will decrease its emission of greenhouse gases by 15 percent compared to the amount emitted in 1990. Carbon dioxide emissions attributable to transport shall also decrease by 20 percent compared to the amount emitted in 1995.

Furthermore, all automobiles purchased or leased by the public sector shall be eco-cars.

By 2020, all buildings will be heated by renewable energy sources. The county's production of renewable electricity shall equal or exceed its electricity consumption. All transports funded by taxpayer money will be made in eco-cars or using fuel from renewable energy sources. By 2030, there will no longer be net carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels in Kalmar County.

Although very challenging targets are included, in the end also in this case result is measured in (net) CO2 emissions.

Related initiatives:

Of course there are many more examples of cities achieving interesting results, but not having a direct target or definition available. In the C40 programme, the Clinton Climate initiative for cities, many examples are available [x]. Of which Freiburg in Germany maybe has the most interesting results in implementation so far. [x]. There is also the Solar city programme, which mainly focuses at new extensions to the cities.[x] Some more are listed in the references.

Overall sustainability is of course the ultimate target, ( as Malmo in Sweden and Curitiba in Brasil are good examples) But for this paper the focus is on those cases that have targets and definitions set for carbon related or energy results.