EU seeks Rocky's global-warming advice for forum
Already he has been a key speaker at two United Nation's climate-change summits and recently advised the G8, whose annual summit this year will focus on global warming.
Now it's the European Union that is knocking at City Hall's door.
Wednesday, a pair of European Parliament members, who serve on the 732-member group that governs the European Union, made the trek to Salt Lake City to invite Anderson to a roundtable discussion on global warming in Washington, D.C., next fall, probably in November.
Parliament members Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Germany, and Ignasi Gaurdans, Spain, said they have been impressed by Anderson's local leadership on climate-change issues. In fact, on a world stage there is no greater local global warming advocate than Salt Lake's mayor, Lambsdorff said.
"He's really made a name for himself," Lambsdorff said during an interview at a downtown restaurant Wednesday. "I would have a hard time finding any mayor in Germany who would be that well-known for any similar initiative. It's quite remarkable."
The initiative Lambsdorff refers to is Anderson's drive to reduce Salt Lake City's greenhouse gas emissions. Under Anderson's leadership, the city has converted many of its vehicles to run on natural gas. It's also replaced many of its light fixtures and traffic signals with energy-efficient bulbs.
And Salt Lake City has been a leader among 153 American cities that have pledged to live up to at least parts of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol, which calls for participating countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a certain percentage by 2012. If it were participating, the U.S. target would've been a 7 percent reduction.
The Washington roundtable is being hosted by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe — the centrist or moderate European Union party to which Lambsdorff and Gaurdans belong. With 89 of the 732 European Parliament members belonging, it's the third-largest party in the parliament.
The party is putting on the roundtable — which will include U.S. and European leaders — to help educate other cities on how they can combat global warming, which is a major concern in Europe. Also, because the party is interested in fostering greater dialogue between the United States and Europe, the roundtable will serve to educate Europeans about what many local and state governments in the United States are doing to combat climate change.
Many Europeans are angry because they feel the United States is turning a blind eye to the problem. While that may be true on a national level, where President Bush has declined to sign off on Kyoto, many local and state governments are doing their part, and Europe needs to know that, they say.
Anderson told the EU contingency he would be happy to attend the roundtable. There he may even be able to present results from his Sundance Summit — an environmental congress of at least 44 American mayors that will be held in Salt Lake City and at Robert Redford's Sundance Resort July 10-12.
At that congress, Anderson and Redford hope to equip local mayors with the tools they need to combat greenhouse gas emission on a local level.
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com
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