Venerdi' 30 ottobre: Conferenza Etichetta Per il Clima, Opportunita' per la Responsabilita' Sociale d'Impresa

Venerdi' 30 ottobre, in occasione della visita in Italia di Stefania Omassoli, Strategy Manager presso il Carbon Trust, http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/about si terra' a Milano una conferenza dal titolo:

Etichetta Per il Clima, Opportunità per la Responsabilità Sociale d'impresa

L'evento e' organizzato da Legambiente, in collaborazione con l'Ambasciata Britannica di Roma, il Consolato Britannico Generale di Milano e la Rappresentanza del Parlamento Europeo in Italia.

L'ingresso è libero, previa registrazione a questo indirizzo: http://adesioni.legambienteinnovazione.org/eventi/etichetta_clima.

Le aziende che lo desiderano avranno la possibilità di intervenire sul tema e sulle politiche climatiche aziendali.

Venerdì 30 ottobre ore 14:30
Sala del Parlamento Europeo - Corso Magenta, 59 - 20123 Milano

Programma

Saluti introduttivi del Consolato Generale Britannico di Milano

Intervengono:
Stefania Omassoli (Carbon Trust)
Roberto Cariani (Istituto di Ricerche Ambiente Italia)
Annalisa Corrado (AzzeroCO2)

Coordina: Andrea Poggio (Legambiente)

Interventi delle aziende interessate

Per maggiori informazioni:
Veronica Caciagli
Climate Change Officer
British Consulate General Milan
Tel +39 02 72300246 Mob +39 340 5801614
veronica.caciagli@fco.gov.uk

La mappa UK dell'impatto dell'aumento di 4° della temperatura globale

Ieri nel Regno Unito il Ministro degli Esteri e il Ministro per l'Energia e i Cambiamenti Climatici Ed Miliband hanno lanciato la UK Met Office Hadley Centre’s 4 Degree World Map, una mappa che illustra alcuni dei possibili effetti in caso di aumento delle temperature medie del pianeta nella misura di 4 °C (7 °F) al di sopra della media preindustriale. La Mappa, realizzata dal Met Office Hadley Centre con finanzimenti pubblici, ha lo scopo di far comprendere quale potrebbe essere l’impatto sull’uomo di cambiamenti climatici sostanziali e quindi cosa succederebbe se non si riuscisse a concludere un accordo a Copenhagen. La mappa riporta i dati scientifici più aggiornati su quest’impatto e dimostra come gli effetti dei cambiamenti climatici si faranno sentire in tutto il globo.

Come utilizzare la mappa: questa versione interattiva della mappa di 4 gradi permette di selezionare il tipo di impatto che si vuole vedere, di zoomare su particolari località geografiche ed accedere ad ulteriori informazioni sui dati scientifici sui cui è basata la mappa. Cliccare sulla mappa per attivare i comandi. Una versione interattiva si puo' trovare sul sito www.actoncopenhagen.gov.uk.

Barbara Mariani
Climate, Energy & Environment
British Embassy Rome

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

How much can do a blog? A little step. How much can do more than 10,000 blogs together? A lot of little steps!

This is the basic idea of the Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change.

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day, with the aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. This year about Climate change.

This year 13,196 blogs from 155 countries with more than 17 million readers participated. Also blogging were the governments of the United Kingdom and Spain along with The White House. For a full round-up of the event, click here.

Veronica Caciagli

Thinking about Climate Change, by Dr Bristow-Smith, British Consul General Milan

All of a sudden, it seems that everyone is talking about climate change. It’s been there for years, but it is only now that people are starting to realise how important a subject it is; only now people starting to think that they might actually be able to do something about it by changing the way they live...


In many respects, that is the problem – making the connection between the problem and everyday life. It’s twelve years since the first big climate change summit in Kyoto. The Kyoto Protocol will actually expire in 2012. There is to be another huge conference dealing with climate change in Copenhagen later this year. For the British Government and for many other governments across Europe and throughout the world, climate change has become a major political problem.

But that’s the point. Most people would now accept that there is a problem; that if the Greenland ice cap melts, then London and New York are in serious trouble and Venice is a lost cause. But just how do you move from understanding the general idea to taking personal action?
I was amazed to read the other day that if you average out gas and electricity usage per person across the whole country, it means that each person is responsible for nearly three tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. And every car is responsible for something like one-and-a-half tonnes. Multiply that by the number of people in Italy – or the UK for a matter – and that is an awful lot of CO2. A low carbon economy suddenly seems like a very good idea indeed.

I’ve never been an activist (except possibly during the Vietnam War and that was a very long time ago). I’ve never really believed that scaring people makes them behave in a different way. But I admit that during this summer, having been subjected to articles in the newspapers, programmes on television and a certain amount of persuasion from members of the younger generation, climate change has risen quickly up my list of priorities, Perhaps it is time that we started to change our behaviour.

Dr Laurence Bristow-Smith
H M British Consul General
& Director General for Trade & Investment

Article appeared in Hello Milano. October issue, page 2

The Italian consumer? Very environmentally conscious - word of Eurobarometer

The 2009 Eurobarometer depicts a very environmentally conscious Italian consumer. According to the recent report ‘Europeans’ attitudes towards the issue of sustainable consumption and production’, to 54% of Italians (3rd in Europe and well over the EU average of 34%) a product’s impact on the environment is very important when making purchasing decisions. This is reflected in the 55% (European average 47%) of Italian consumers who state that eco-labelling plays an important role in purchasing decisions. It could therefore be argued that there is a very large and above average market for green products and carbon footprinting / eco-labelling services in Italy, which has to date been overlooked.

Across Europe large supermarket chains have tried to adapt to consumer demand by providing more information to consumers who can make a more informed choice. Tesco in the UK worked in partnership with the Carbon Trust to provide detailed information regarding the total carbon footprint of each of their own brand products through eco-labelling. Spain is also moving in this direction but in Italy no such information is to be found on labels despite 80% (the same percentage as in the UK and above the 72% European average) of Italians believe it should be mandatory.

There are however positive signals from proactive retailers who are doing what they can to give Italians the environmentally friendly option. A perfect example of this is the completely “green” supermarket opened in Milan on September 11th 2009 by SMA, part of the Auchan Group. The supermarket is supposedly eco-friendly in every way. From an energy efficiency point of view interventions have been made so as to save 296,800 kWh yearly. The electricity used will all be obtained from renewable sources (hydroelectric). All the furniture and materials used in the store are recycled, and most products and packaging are eco-friendly. It will be interesting to see how Italian consumers respond to this kind of offering, but chances are this is the beginning of a change in consumer habits and retail trends.

Producers and retails could be said to be making the first steps to jolt the market.

Paolo Ghiringhelli

Trade Adviser

British Consulate Milan