Low-carbon cities In the past few years, people and authorities have become more conscious about our

environmental problems. The reason is clear as the Intergovernmental panel on climate change concluded, Global Warming is taking place and that human combustion of carbon containing fossil fuels is in part to blame. They also said that continued warming could cause rising sea levels, stronger stormsas well as prolonged and severe drought and mass human, animal, and plant migration (Mazurek 6). After that, many projects and initiatives have been created to reduce the problem, some of them came from private sector, others from nonprofit and also some of them from government, the last being the more inefficient, in U.S. It was in 2000 when a new political economy came from California legislators. The California Climate Action Registry (CCAR) emerged as a model for voluntary programs to encourage companies and other organizations to voluntarily limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The main idea was good, but it seemed that California wasnt ready for this kind of programs; all these Voluntary Environmental Programs are still falling because there is no sanction and oversight mechanism, and good will has to fight against companies, environmental, and public official interest. It is important in order to archive this goal to examine the role that politics and interest groups play in a programs design because they have the idea that institutions are designed by principles of good governance. In order to solve theses problems with programs like CCAR, it is essential to understand the different interests in the political process and just after that, inform congress how to design mandatory policies that can be Politically acceptable. Also, the magnitude of the problem is simply beyond the scope of individual state action, so authorities of countries have to handle this matter. The lack of

mandatory regulations of greenhouse emissions are also increasing US dependence on foreign energy sources (Shaikh and Cashdan 88). Although the results werent what they expected, there were some positive points that came with this program; it encouraged what at that point wasnt common, that companies calculate their carbon emissions, and thus US multinational companies started to prepare for Kyotos first compliance phase, and this program gave pass for a new mandatory system to cap and trade carbon gases (Mazurek 8). In another part of the World, and with better results, Birmingham, Englands second city, where in 2010 the Birmingham City Council (BBC) launched the Big City Plan, which Hartman describes as a thoughtful urban design frameworks that aspires to knit the city together and identifies priority development areas (18). With this plan, the city is trying to reduce emissions, exceeding national targets, and also, they want to brand itself as a low-carbon innovator to attract investment. The last point is the key of their success, in other words, their ability to work with the private sector, as stated by the author, quoting Chris Murray, director of the Core Cities group, the fact the city has been able to share risk with private sector partners has unlocked millions for development (19). The city planted four main initiatives in which they based their strategy: district heating, generation of energy from waste, residential retrofit and electric cars. Aside of using private sources to succeed in this project, Birminghams government is using the Tax Increment Financing (TIF). Everything looks good so far, but the problem comes when you see the reality in which cars are still dominating the streets, and this could be a problem if your aim is to slash your energy bill by half by the term of ten years, as Birmingham did. The Council believes that

all vehicles should be electrically powered or run on liquefied petroleum gas by 2015 (Hartman 20). Apparently the European Union (EU) is taking the Global Warming problem very serious because some countries started taking action to reduce emissions, such as the case in Germany, which is at the forefront of green building within the EU. The city council of Freiburg has taken the Vauban area as an exemplar project. The German governments strategy is to make lowinterest loans available to builders and purchases of new low-and zero carbon homes, which has stimulated the use of green building techniques (Baker 86). The use of photovoltaic panels is widespread in Vauban, and an important aspect of Vaubans project is that they are proposing residential units, instead of a house, with commercial and mixed-use structures; this could be an important detail to minimize distance and maximize space. The Insituto Cerda, a private independent foundation based in Barcelona is working in cooperation with the Spanish government in the evaluation of 36 different building models according with the 12 different climate zones of the country. The highest priority should be raising the legal minimum building requirements for energy use, suggested Elizabet Valadomiu, director of sustainable building at the Instituto Cerda (Baker 88). Aside from their governments project, the capital of the Basque region, Vitoria Gasteiz, is working in a large-scale multifamily residential project which contains four bioclimatic towers using solar radiation, a way of supporting other energy efficiencies in reducing the carbon footprint of new developments. Governments arent the only ones taking care of the planet; the private sector is taking action to help the reduction of CO2 emissions, such as in the case of Aedas, an international architectural firm. They are working in a model of sustainable houses, and with this, they are betting not just to reduce emissions but also be able to measure how much carbon dioxide they

produce. Their idea is through a Green Book. They will provide a showcase for Aedas projects, current research and practices procedures, as well as sustainable materials, construction and compliance with legislation and standards (Hartman 6). These architects really want to do something; their purposes are minimizing the environmental impact of the projects and creating design solutions that make a measurable contribution, exceeding legislative requirements. There is only one problem: it is that in order to succeed with this program it is crucial to help architects liaise better with engineers (Hartman 42). The reason of this interest is because architects by themselves can just do sustainable designs but they cannot provide carbon emissions in terms of numbers. Concluding, in many parts of the world more people and organizations are taking action, but they obviously still need more support of governments and also more conscious people. It is unknown why U.S. government is not taking the problem seriously that the world is facing. The idea of low-carbon cities is a massive and ambitious project that is giving positive results in the old continent where people seems to be more engaged with their environment. Hopefully, this positivism will be contagious in America and Asia soon because they are some of the largest carbon emitters.

Works cited Mazurek, J. V. (2008). The politics of counting carbon: Lessons from the california

climate action registry. University of California, Los Angeles). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304656301?accountid=7122

Shaikh, Sabina L., and Daniel M. Cashdan. "The Race to a Low-Carbon Economy." Urban Land. 68.2 (2009): 88-90. Print.

Hartman, Hattie. "A Greener Way of Working." Architects' Journal. 227.11 (2008): 40-43. Print.

Hartman, Hattie. "Birmingham's Low-Carbon Vision." Architects' Journal. 232.14 (2010). Print.

Baker, Brian. "Europe Targets Energy Efficiency." Urban Land. 66.6 (2007): 86-89. Print.