Campaign staff for Al Gore’s ‘The Climate Project’ to visit Amsterdam
Yesterday evening, Amsterdam’s Alderwoman for the Environment, Marijke Vos, welcomed more than 100 staff members from the global campaign for Al Gore’s The Climate Project to the Dutch capital. Vos presented the campaigners Amsterdam’s ambitious climate programme, called New Amsterdam Climate. The staff members are in Amsterdam as part of a three-day visit to the Netherlands. On Wednesday, 15 October, they will attend a lecture in Amsterdam by Al Gore himself.
Visit by Al Gore
On 14 and 15 October, Al Gore will visit the Netherlands to lecture on how climate change can be dealt with. His motto is: “We can solve it”. The lecture is a supplement to his film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, which set the problem of climate change on the political agenda in 2006.
Amsterdam’s recently released climate programme complements Al Gore’s programme, in which solutions and action are given high priority. In New Amsterdam Climate, Amsterdam states that by 2025, the city’s total CO2 emissions must be reduced by 40% with respect to 1990 levels. Amsterdam can only reach this goal if businesses, citizens and the administration work closely together. That is the core of Amsterdam’s approach.
In addition to his visit to Amsterdam, Gore will address a large assembly in Aalsmeer on 14 October. A delegation of the city council is representing Amsterdam during the speech of Gore. Preceding the programme in the big venue, Mayor Cohen and Alderwoman Vos will install a Board of Climate Advisors. This board consists of a number of influential business people, who will advise the City of Amsterdam on their climate programme, and in their network draw attention on shifting towards sustainable and CO2-low businesses.
Global challenge
With New Amsterdam Climate the city acknowledges the international character of the climate change challenge: this challenge affects all of us and we can only deal with it by pooling our strength. Cities throughout the world are experiencing similar problems. International programmes and networks, like the Connected Urban Development programme, enable cities to share their experiences and copy one another’s successes.
Around the world, Amsterdam appeals to the imagination, as it lies more than four meters below sea level. The measures we are taking in our city are as ambitious as they are necessary. The pursuit of innovation is essential for sustainable growth from the perspective of the environment and quality of life as well as the economy (people, planet, profit), particularly for such a densely populated area as Amsterdam. New Amsterdam Climate clearly shows that the climate change challenge offers plenty of opportunities. Amsterdam’s distinguishing features, such as its strong knowledge infrastructure and its location on the largest continental internet hub, make the city a successful breeding ground for innovative sustainable development.
New Amsterdam Climate
Al Gore's The Climate Project
Press release - City of Amsterdam - 14 October 2008
- Tell a friend