Venezia (Italy)

Policies and actions of the City against climate change

Since several years the City of Venice is promoting many initiatives against global climate change be it on a local as well as on an international level. The administration has often confirmed its will to proceed, also unilaterally, with the goals fixed by the Kyoto Protocol to reduce the green house gases, also adhering to the Climate Alliance and to ICLEI and its campaign signed by more than 500 cities to reduce 20% the emissions between 2005 and 2010. The City of Venice further promoted an important international initiative: an appeal made by the Mayor to his counter parts of the most important coastal cities of the world (Dublin, Rio de Janeiro, Beirut, Dubrovnik, Dakar, Seattle, Fukuoka, Dhaka and Rabat ) to sign a letter addressed to George W. Bush that invited the president of the United States to reconsider his ideas about the commitment taken for the Kyoto Protocol. In the letter the mayors moreover promise to engage themselves in the fight against global warming.

Locally the municipal administration’s engagement takes concrete form in actions in the energy sector. The aim is to favour energy saving policies and to further the use of renewable energy sources. In October 2003, the Urban Energy Plan was approved with which the administration is trying to exercise a conscious and active role in local energy policies. The Plan has been elaborated after a participatory process which involved many municipal departments and offices, economic sectors, service suppliers and citizens in the definition of the relevant actions to undertake on the territory for the reduction of energy consumption. At the end of this process, working groups have been established to manage the Protocols that have been signed between the administration and some stakeholders present in the territory as part and co-producers of public interest policies. These agreements state the convergence on energy savings as a basis for common actions, which will be undertaken to reach the agreed goals.

The policy of energy saving and the use of renewable energies policy, decided by the City Council took shape also thanks to the appointment of the local Energy Manager and the constitution of a European Agency for energy savings (in the context of the SAVE II Programme).

Contact

City of Venice
Ms Alberta Basaglia
S.Polo – Riva del Vin, 1098
I – 30125 Venezia
fon: +39 041 274 7650
email: alberta.basaglia@comune.venezia.it