The Alps have the potential to outperform Kyoto on climate protection and become a model climate region for the world. CIPRA wants to prevent measures being taken in the name of climate protection which would then have a negative impact on the environment or society. "For instance climate response measures must not reduce biodiversity nor waste precious resources of water and energy," says CIPRA Director Andreas Götz with reference to the challenges that cc.alps faces.
On 21 May CIPRA will appeal to successful climate projects to take part in a competition endowed with substantial prize money. Climate experts will help CIPRA to gather knowledge on climate response measures and assess their sustainability. In June key players from the area of politics, administration, planning, industry and NGOs will contribute their know-how as part of a round-table. In a subsequent project phase CIPRA in co-operation with other institutions will publicise the knowledge gained throughout the Alps using workshops, publications and the electronic media. Pilot regions in all the Alpine countries will be assisted in implementing sustainable climate response measures.
cc.alps was launched in February with a term of 18 months and a budget of €1.2 m. The transfer of know-how and its implementation will be part of a follow-up project lasting two and a half years. cc.alps is financed by Switzerland's MAVA Foundation for Nature. With its cc.alps project CIPRA is following on from the success of its Future in the Alps Project, which ended in December 2007.
More information on cc.alps: www.cipra.org/cc.alps.