Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the long term. This is not only appropriate advice for governments and companies
to rapidly improve their levels of sustainability by making it a real priority through
all administrative levels. Increasingly, individuals, or rather groups of individuals in
at least some towns are also recognizing the need to combine their efforts to develop
their own sustainable policies, rather than waiting for governments to do so, as will
be shown in the review of grass-roots movements, such as Transition Towns, in
Chap. 7. Given the need to improve levels of sustainability in towns and cities, and
the many examples of workable and efficient practices, it is rather sad to realize that
we have the technical tools, but not sufficient political will, to create much greater
degrees of sustainability. Far more places need to follow the example of Rhein-
Hunsruck in south west Germany, a district of 102,000 inhabitants that generated
over 200% if its electricity needs by 2014 from solar, wind, biomass and hydro
installations, selling its surplus to the German grid (GHP). These installations, plus
earlier efforts to improve building efficiencies, including district heating for public
buildings, have led to 25% and 5% reductions in heating and electricity demands
respectively, and a 64% decrease in CO2 emissions since 1990. The district has
also ensured that energy issues and the problems of climate change are taught in the
schools to ensure students are brought up to be environmentally conscious.
Acknowledgment
I appreciated permission from the members of the GWL-Terrain project to
reproduce a photograph of the area (koepelverenging. GWL-Terrain) as Figure 6.3.
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