CO2-Busting Programme Launched in Slovenia
The Environment Ministry launched the "Slovenia Lowers CO2" project on Friday as part of celebrations of World Earth Day.
The project hopes to reduce CO2 emissions form cargo transport and promote energy efficiency, said Environment Minister Janez Podobnik.
The project is carried out in association with the British Embassy and British Council in Slovenia. It was launched as part of an expanded session of the Slovenian Committee for Climate Change, which met in Bistra pri Vrhnika to mark World Earth Day.
According to Podobnik, the key conclusion of the session "was that measures must be promoted to encourage a shift of cargo transport from our roads to the railway network, as well as to encourage people to use public transport," Podobnik told the press.
Measures to encourage people to use public transport will include taxes "and other means aimed at creating financial and other motives for people to turn to public transport use," he said.
Moreover, Podobnik said that the participants of the session concluded that energy efficiency was a key aspect of environmental policy.
According to Podobnik, Slovenian thermal power stations have lacked investment and are as such less clean than similar plants in the developed EU countries.
The average Slovenian thermal plant emits 1.2 kg of CO2 per kilowatt hour produced, which is 15% more than plants in the developed part of the EU, he said.
The solution lies in the introduction of new, clean technologies, for which the power producers must find suitable means of financing, Podobnik stressed.
Podobnik also said that the participants pointed to the need of introducing gas-powered electricity production and increasing the share of renewable resources in energy production.
The meeting lays the foundations for cooperation in a field that is important not only for current generations but for the future of humanity, British Ambassador Tim Simmons said on the sidelines of the meeting.
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