372 cities want a cleaner Europe; New York's Bloomberg supports the plan

Budapest is one of the cities that have signed the Convenant of Mayors
(AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

More than 350 European cities have pledged to go beyond the EU’s energy objective of reducing 20% carbon emissions by 2020. They are not alone. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg addressed his EU counterparts by video link during the signing ceremony, saying he backed the EU plan and that his city would aim to reduce emissions by 30 percent by 2020.

“Most of the energy produced in Europe is consumed in urban areas”, said Energy Commissioner Piebalgs. “The battle against climate change will have to be fought and won in the cities”.

The Covenant of Mayors commits cities as Paris, Riga, Milan and Budapest to submit a sustainable energy action plan within the year following adhesion. The cities will then report the results both to its citizens and the European Commission once every year.

But closing down the equivalents of 20 coal-fired 50MW power plants or removing more than 35 million cars from the streets are costly. Participants in the World Economic Forum in Davos last month concluded, for example, that clean energy investments of $515 billion per year was needed between now and 2030 for carbon emission not to reach levels deemed unsustainable by scientists.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) - EU’s long-term lending institution has, however, announced that it will be working with the European Commission to set up a Euro 15 million grant fund, about $19 million, to support the development of energy efficiency in European cities and regions.