Renewable Revolution

Sami Grover (@samigrover)
Business / Environmental Policy
 September 29, 2016
 
Remember when Oslo said it would ban cars from the city center in the next four years? And we were impressed? Well, it seems that Norway's capital isn't satisfied with such small gestures. Reuters is reporting that Oslo has just released its new "climate budget", and it's aiming for nothing less than a 50% reduction in emissions in the next four years.

How, might you ask? Here are just some of the measures being proposed:

—Raise tolls for cars to enter the city

—Cut parking spaces

—Phase out fossil-fuel heating in homes and offices

—Run the bus fleet on renewables

—Build more bike lanes

Oh, and as if that's not enough, the city is also aiming to be at net zero emissions by 2030. It's worth noting that just because the city is planning on these cuts doesn't mean they'll be achieved. As the Reuters piece points out, no country has achieved more than 5% per year cuts in carbon emissions since we started paying attention to such matters, and that was when France shifted from coal to nuclear back in the seventies.

Still, to achieve big things you have to set big goals. And even if Oslo fell 50% short of its goals, it would still have achieved cuts at a scale and a pace not ever seen before.

http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/oslos-climate-budget-aims-halve-carbon-emissions-just-4-years.html