Committee on Sustainable Development: Climate change, energy crisis and indoor air quality on the agenda

02/03/2009 - Meeting on 2 March in Strasbourg, the Committee on Sustainable Development approved the reports on climate change and on indoor air quality.  The first demands that, in the perspective of the negotiations on post-Kyoto measures, due recognition be given to local and regional authorities’ role in combating climate change, as well as to the relevance of their action for achieving the national objectives of a new agreement on climate. The second emphasises the need to extend policies on air generally to the air indoors, and the need to lay down local policies on health and environment.

The Committee also discussed the energy crisis and reiterated its opinion that local and regional authorities must make a resolute commitment to energy efficiency in order to reduce their dependence. It talked about its current work on intra-regional transport as a factor of territorial cohesion, the extraction of energy from waste, and the sustainable management of mountain areas.