The Climate Change Forum (Forclima) was launched this Tuesday (November 4th) by the City Hall of Fortaleza. The meeting is part of the actions to promote sustainable development that the municipal administration, through the Secretariat of Urbanism and Environment (Seuma), is carrying out in partnership with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.

The Forum's objective is to raise awareness and mobilize society to improve strategies and discussions on problems arising from climate change and to promote sustainable, inclusive, and low-carbon development. This initiative is part of... Urban LEDs Project, in which Fortaleza participates as a model city.

In August of this year, Fortaleza presented its first Greenhouse Gas Inventory, with a study of the gases emitted in the capital of Ceará in 2012. The survey presents all activities that emit carbon into the atmosphere within the municipality, thus allowing for greater control of these emissions and helping to improve the climate across the planet.

According to Águeda Muniz, head of Seuma, this moment is to present the problems with pollutant emissions and bring society together to discuss strategies to reduce them and improve the quality of life. “Through the inventory, we realized that, of the carbon dioxide emissions in Fortaleza, 61% is due to transportation and, subsequently, to discarded waste. We need to launch strategies to reduce these numbers,” says the secretary.

According to Wigor Florêncio, environmental sustainability manager at Seuma, one of the actions is to combat the main pollutant. “What the population needs to do initially is change their culture. Leave the car at home and go to work by bus or bicycle. And, it's essential that we start walking again. We should avoid using private transport for short trips, of two blocks, for example, if we can do the same route on foot,” he says. Therefore, Wigor reminds us, the Fortaleza City Hall is developing policies that encourage the reduction of cars in the city, with the implementation of the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit), replacing the bus fleet with air-conditioned models, creating bike lanes, among other actions.

ICLEI supports municipal governments in building sustainable growth strategies. According to ICLEI's climate change manager, Igor Albuquerque, the inventory helped to outline a perspective on carbon dioxide emissions in the city. "The first part has already been done, and now we will develop specific actions to address climate change in Fortaleza," he says.

Source: City Hall of Fortaleza