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the EU requirement of 120), favouring the use of biofuels, and phasing in an electric car pool system.


For the emissions it can’t avoid, Arendal is committed to buying offset credits or “Certified Emission Reductions” through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol—each tonne of CO2


emitted by the city is


matched by a tonne kept out of the atmosphere by a project it has helped to finance in a developing country.


With its partner authority Aust-Agder county, Arendal is helping to develop a CDM project in its “friendship city”, Mwanza in Tanzania. It involves collecting the methane produced from a waste landfill site, and flaring it—so what goes into the atmosphere is carbon dioxide, less than one- twentieth as powerful as methane in its heat-trapping effect. Eventually, the hope is to produce energy from the methane as well. If this project is validated through the UN system, the local authorities will have a direct link with the credits they are buying to offset their emissions and complete their claims of carbon neutrality.


“Their main motivation is to develop goods and services for tomorrow’s low emission markets.”


—Svein Tveitdal, Arendal City Climate Adviser


The issue of choosing offsets is a critical one for many involved in the climate neutrality process, as it can affect the credibility of the claims being made by a company or public organization.


For Svein Tveitdal, adviser to the Arendal government on achieving climate neutrality, confining offsets to UN-validated carbon credits through the CDM is an important safeguard. “We stick to CDM projects as this is the obvious choice when you are following UN guidelines,” says Tveitdal. “Through buying the credits from Tanzania, Arendal can contribute to the further development of its friendship city, as well as offsetting its CO2


.” 8


“If there is a surplus for the city as a CDM investor, this will be transferred back to Mwanza for development purposes under the friendship programme.”


Public suspicion about the legitimacy of offsets has hampered the development of climate neutrality in the private sector, according to Per Otto Larsen of the Norwegian company CO2focus, which advises companies on the issue.


“The debate around emission credits and the lack of trust in ensuring the climate effect of using offsets have to some extent delayed many companies in their decision process toward climate neutrality,” says Larsen.


“This is counteracted by clear guidelines from national authorities, but there’s still a way to go to persuade public opinion. The first wave of climate neutrality initiatives involved a lot of non-official offsets and ‘voluntary standards’.”


Even after it has “neutralized” all its own emissions, Arendal’s government will have accounted for only around 5 per cent of the emissions originating from the city. Like many involved in the climate neutrality process, Arendal sees its influence well beyond the emissions for which it is directly accountable – for example through the policies it sets.


So the city government has also set a target for reducing total emissions in Arendal to 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2025. One way it is hoping to achieve this is through setting up what it calls the UN City Climate Partner Network, bringing together local companies with a commitment to conducting an analysis of their climate footprint and making plans to reduce it. So far, it has 19 members, with a total of 6,000 employees and a combined turnover of nearly 1 billion US dollars. Many UN City Climate Partners are also members of the UNEP Climate Neutral Network.


“Their main motivation is to develop goods and services for tomorrow’s low emission markets,” says Svein Tveitdal. “They love seeing their business contribute to sustainable development and want to be on the right side of a social development they see coming.”


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