Covers environment, transportation, urban and regional planning, economic and social issues with a focus on Finland and Portugal.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Award

I received an award from the finn mathematician Lekahe! Kiitos! Now, it's time to pass on the award, and... Ladies and Gentlemen, the winners are:
Be The Blog award
From Portugal, from Algarve to Trás-os-Montes, the great team of Regiões , António Felizes, Castanho, Sérgio, Lopes, Trigo e Fonseca!

From Helsinki, Finland, the cool team of the Lusofin community, António, André, Diana and Teea!

From Seattle, US, the great Suxmonkey!

And from a tropical island in US, the fantastic Graviplana!

(And there would be many more people to add)
The code for the badge can be found in MeAndMyDrum by Mark, whose idea this award is.

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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Ranking of the Human Development Index: Iceland "best country to live"

The upcoming Human Development Report entitled Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world, was launched today (27 November 2007) in Brasilia, Brazil. The launch event was paralleled by multiple launches in cities around the world.
According to the report, Iceland has overtaken Norway as the world's most desirable country to live in, and puts again AIDS-afflicted sub-Saharan African states at the bottom.
Rich countries dominate the top places, with Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada and Ireland the first five but the United States slipping to 12th place from eighth last year.
Launch of the 2007/2008 Report

Read more

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
The HDI measures achievements in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income

HDI rank/High human development
1 Iceland
2 Norway
3 Australia
4 Canada
5 Ireland
6 Sweden
7 Switzerland
8 Japan
9 Netherlands
10 France
11 Finland
12 United States
13 Spain
14 Denmark
15 Austria
16 United Kingdom
17 Belgium
18 Luxembourg
19 New Zealand
20 Italy
21 Hong Kong, China (SAR)
22 Germany
23 Israel
24 Greece
25 Singapore
26 Korea (Republic of )
27 Slovenia
28 Cyprus
29 Portugal
(...)

World map indicating Human Development Index (2007)
Countries fall into three broad categories based on their HDI: high, medium, and low human development.The 2007/2008 edition of the Human Development Report was published on November 27, 2007
Image from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UN_Human_Development_Report_2007

North America - US must climate-proof growth to prevent human development reversals
The 2007 Human Development Report calls for 80 percent emission cuts by 2050

San Francisco, 27 November 2007—The United States has a unique responsibility to“climate-proof” its growth not only to protect Americans but also to prevent catastrophic reversals in health, education and poverty reduction for the world’s poor, according to the Human Development Report (HDR) on climate change launched here today.

As the US prepares to join global leaders in Bali in December to negotiate future action against climate change, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) HDR, entitled Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world, stresses that a narrow ten-year window of opportunity remains to act.

If that window is missed, temperature rises of above four degrees Fahrenheit could see an extra 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa go hungry, over 200 million more poor people flooded out of their homes and an additional 400 million exposed to diseases like malaria and dengue fever.

“The carbon budget of the 21st Century—the amount of carbon that can be absorbed creating an even probability that temperatures will not rise above four degrees—is being overspent and threatens to run out entirely by 2032,” says Kevin Watkins, lead author and Director of the Human Development Report Office, “and the poor—those with the lightest carbon footprint but the least means to protect themselves—are the first victims of the developed countries’ energy rich lifestyle.”

As the world’s largest economy and one of the biggest CO2 emitter, the US has a responsibility to take the lead in balancing the carbon budget by cutting emission by 80 percent by 2050, according to the Report, in addition to contributing to a new US$86 billion annual global investment in substantial international adaptation efforts to protect the world’s poor.
Full Press Release (PDF)

World - OECD countries falling short of their commitments to fight climate change
The 2007/2008 Human Development Report calls for 80 percent emission cuts by 2050

Brasilia, 27 November 2007—Developed countries are failing to meet their targets forcutting greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, according to the UnitedNations Development Programme’s Human Development Report (HDR) launched here today. The Report calls for urgent action to align energy policies with a commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050.

With governments preparing for a key meeting in Bali, Indonesia to negotiate a successor to the current Kyoto Protocol, the 2007/2008 HDR, entitled Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world, notes that most OECD countries are off-track for the Kyoto targets. It highlights the discrepancy in many EU countries between politically agreed targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and current energy policies. The authors argue that rich countries are driving an ecological debt crisis which will impact earliest—and hardest—on the world’s poor.

While developing countries account for a growing share of global emissions, rich countries still lead in running up the carbon debt. If each poor person on the planet generated the same emissions as an average European, four planets would be needed to safely cope with the pollution, says Fighting climate change. That figure rises to seven if the benchmark is the emissions of an average Australian and nine for a North American or Canadian.

“Governments of rich countries negotiating the post-2012 framework to succeed the Kyoto Protocol need to take the lead and align credible national carbon emissions targets with any multilateral agreements around a ‘global carbon budget’,” says Kevin Watkins, lead author and Director of the Human Development Report Office. “We do not need high level communiqués reminding us that we have an urgent problem—we need solutions and practical measures to cut emissions.”
Full Press Release (PDF) ENG
Full Press Release (PDF) PT

Media Materials

Presskit (PDF)(English) [689 KB]

Press materials

Videos

The Report in the news

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Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Regionalização em "banho Maria" até 2009?

O défice

O controle do défice orçamental sempre foi um dos principais objectivos fixados pelo actual governo do PS. Nesse sentido, durante a presente legislatura, o executivo tomou várias medidas de curto/médio prazo, tais como, o congelamento das progressões na Administração Pública, a subida de impostos e os cortes no investimento público.

Continue a lerEsse objectivo foi alcançado, com Portugal a conseguir cumprir o défice de 3% do PIB (em dois anos houve uma redução de 3,1 %). Esta redução foi obtida, não só pelo aumento da receita fiscal, mas também, como os dados o demonstram, pela diminuição da despesa pública em percentagem do PIB, mesmo tendo em conta eventuais formas típicas de desorçamentação que poderão ter ocorrido no sector empresarial de estado.

A reforma da administração pública representa assim uma transformação estrutural crucial, uma medida com efeitos de médio/longo prazo, que pode contribuir decisivamente para a estabilização do défice orçamental e para uma aceleração do tímido crescimento económico verificado nos últimos anos em Portugal. Essa reforma da administração pública (PRACE) integra-se na estratégia socialista para a regionalização, estratégia essa que pode ser sintetizada nos seguintes pontos:

1 - Reestruturação dos serviços desconcentrados da Administração Central em 5 regiões com base nas NUT II, compreendendo a entrada em vigor dos novos sistemas de carreiras, a mobilidade e avaliação do desempenho e a reorganização das micro-estruturas da Administração Central.

2 -Reorganização do Associativismo Municipal por meio de novo regime jurídico, tendo em vista a reordenação dos municípios de acordo com as fronteiras das 5 regiões-plano e prevendo a criação de associações de municípios com base nas NUT II e III.

3 - Descentralização para os municípios de poderes detidos pela administração central, com os respectivos fundos (Fundo Social Municipal) e com efeitos a partir do Orçamento de Estado de 2008, ao nível da educação, da saúde e da segurança social.

4 - Realização de um referendo no início da próxima legislatura.

A reforma da administração pública está por executar

Há avanços no domínio do PRACE, pelo menos no que diz respeito à proposta da fusão de organismos e à concretização da Lei da Mobilidade. No entanto, o quadro legislativo ainda não está completo e falta o mais importante - passar da teoria à prática, executar.


Além da efectiva implementação das reformas encetadas, é necessário que haja um entendimento entre os dois maiores partidos políticos portugueses sobre 3 questões fundamentais:

- a data da realização do referendo obrigatório
- o mapa das regiões administrativas
- quadro institucional das regiões administrativas ( competências, órgãos e financiamento)

A primeira parece ser a questão decisiva, visto que, a partir do momento em que se calendarizar o referendo, todo o processo de discussão em torno da terceira questão será dinamizado com base no mapa das cinco regiões-plano, o qual parece ser consensual para estas forças políticas.
O processo de Regionalização está, pois, dependente dum entendimento entre as cúpulas do "bloco central".

Contudo, os últimos eventos políticos poderão significar que o processo de regionalização português não deveria estar excessivamente dependente do sistema político-partidário, sob o risco de ser eternamente adiado - é necessária uma transformação interna dos partidos políticos, adaptando-os às novas realidades sociais e económicas (e ambientais), hoje bastante diferentes daquelas que condicionaram o referendo de 8 de Novembro de 1998.

Mais recentemente o impasse confirmava-se:

O líder do PSD não tomará nenhuma iniciativa antes das legislativas - Menezes deixa Regionalização em "banho Maria" até 2009

O PSD não tomará nenhuma iniciativa que dê o pontapé de saída para a Regionalização antes de 2009. Para já, apenas avança o debate interno.

“Luís Filipe Menezes não tomará nenhuma iniciativa no sentido de dar o pontapé de saída para a Regionalização antes das legislativas de 2009. O líder do PSD incluiu a defesa das regiões administrativas na sua moção ao Congresso que o consagrou, mas não vê no tema uma prioridade política. Até às legislativas, o PSD apenas animará o debate interno sobre a questão.
Mendes Bota, um dos maiores regionalistas do partido e actual vice-presidente de Menezes, mantém em marcha a associação que criou em defesa da promoção de um referendo às Regiões. Para diz 7 de Dezembro está marcada a inauguração da primeira sede do movimento, em Faro. Em declarações ao Expresso, Bota reconhece, no entanto, que será cauteloso esperar pela revisão constitucional de 2009 para tentar desarmadilhar" a lei, nomeadamente acabando com a exigência de uma dupla maioria para validar o referendo”. - Ângela Silva
expresso.clix.pt

Será sustentável este adiamento?

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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

"Regiões, Sim!" vai inaugurar sede em Faro

O Movimento Cívico "Regiões, Sim!" vai inaugurar a sua sede no dia 7 de Dezembro, às 18h00, na cidade de Faro .A associação, que nasceu em Abril do corrente ano, é independente e apartidária.

Também no dia 7, o Movimento Cívico promoverá um jantar-conferência, em Albufeira, destinado a aprofundar a reflexão sobre a regionalização. Após as intervenções, será aberto um debate com a assistência, sendo o jantar-conferência aberto ao todo o público, que poderá adquirir bilhetes de ingresso através dos serviços de apoio do Movimento (e-mail: regiões.sim (at) gmail.com)

www.observatoriodoalgarve.com

www.regiao-sul.pt

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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Google Transit trip planning in UK, Switzerland and Italy

Google announced the launch of Google Transit trip planner in Europe. Now you can plan your entire journey using public transportation. So far Google has information for the following places and transport companies:

Read more1 - Traveline South East, UK
"The UK's No 1 website for impartial information on planning your journey, by bus, coach or train... or any combination of the three!"
Google Transit can plan trips on the following agencies in this area: Traveline Southeast, including national data for long-distance coach services.

2 - SBB, Switzerland (train, ferries and long distance bus coverage)

3 - VBZ, Zurich, Switzerland

4 - Turin, Italy (Gruppo Torinese Trasporti)

www.5t.torino.it/5t/en/percorsi

5 - Florence, Italy
(ATAF&Linea, AMV, ACV)

www.provincia.fi.it/mobilita/

www.ataf.net/travelPlan/calcolapercorso

You can try it yourself: type your start and end address in the "get directions" boxes. The default results are driving directions, but in the areas that Google has transit routing coverage, you can simply click on the "Take Public Transit" link.

Google believes this is an important step in encouraging people to use public transit. Google is hoping folks will decide to leave the car at home if they can easily discover a transit stop next to a business as they're searching for it, or if they realise it's easy to take a train as they plot their journey from point A to point B. Google is always looking to improve the coverage and work with more partners and they will keep you posted as more places and transport companies are added.

How to provide transit data to Google Transit Trip Planner

Recently we made a plan for a trip across the Europe, Lisbon - Helsinki. The aim was to see which of the schedules of the transit agencies might be integrated to increase the Google database, giving to the users a chance to check which would be the cheapest, probably fastest and most environmentally friendliest trip.

Lisbon – Helsinki trip plan
Start: Rotunda da Expo 98; Lisbon, Portugal
End: Mannerheimintie ; Helsinki, Finland
Travel: 4,069 km – about 1 day 20 hours (by car)

Transporlis is a multimodal information system of the metropolitan area of Lisbon.
It is a system that integrates the main transport operators of the metropolitan area of Lisbon, and that allows to optimize the use of their transports in function of the schedules of each company. It also integrates the flight schedules of the airport of Lisbon.

YTV door-to-door Journey Planner gives you advice on the best public transport connection to your destination within the Helsinki region.
The principal duties of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV) comprise transport system planning, regional public transport provision, waste management and air quality management for its four member municipalities (Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa).

We can say that the world integration of the public transit schedules (in its different transport modes) will surely be a great challenge . Once achieved, this previous example would be highly simplified, improving the schedule-based service. IT and modern real-time logistics are crucial keys for the design of future public transport.

So, to increase the integration it's necessary that the agencies have a public transportation data for their cities, and get it included in the Google Transit Trip Planner. The Google Transit Feed Specification describes how to provide transit data in a format that Google Transit Trip Planner can use, i.e. how a public agency that oversees public transportation can submit a feed to Google Transit Trip Planner.

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Sunday, November 11, 2007

28 Hours in Jyväskylä

IMG_12

Jyväskylä is a city located in central Finland, about 147 km from Tampere and 270 km from Helsinki, near the lakes Päijänne and Keitele. It is the center of the Jyväskylä Region. At the end of 2004, Jyväskylä city had a population of 83,582, while the Region of Jyväskylä had 163,420 inhabitants.

Read moreJyväskylä is known as a city of schools, the Athens of Finland, and is also famous for its many buildings designed by Alvar Aalto and for hosting the Rally Finland, which is part of the World Rally Championship. The city is home of the annual Jyväskylä Arts Festival.

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Friday, November 9, 2007

Google establishes New office in Portugal

Google establishes in Lisbon to attract national companies. Google will concentrate on the online publicity, attracting the portuguese companies to invest.
Google Portugal team has finally arrived to Portugal. Good news for a country that seeks an economic growth based on investments in new technologies.

Read more
It almost passed one year since a European delegation of Google came to Portugal to prospect the market, shaking the technologica
l sector and waiving with the hypothesis of doing purchases among the most technologically attempting ones.


But everything ended the best way: Google named a representative, Paulo Barreto, who worked from Spain until reaching the right moment for investing in Portugal.


We want the companies know that we are here”, explains Paulo Barreto in an exclusive interview to Diário Económico, some hours before receiving several dozens of potential customers in the heart of Lisbon.

Among the invited companies is PT, holding company of the largest Google rival in Portugal, the portal Sapo. “It is an event to present the office”, Paulo Barreto continues, nothing annoyed with the allusion to the competition between Sapo and Google.

What Google Portugal wants from now on , is to affirm in the online publicity market and to leave other wars for later. The small team of the structure, composed exclusively by portuguese professionals , was recruited along six months with the objective of creating one specialists team. Some came directly from the European headquarters of Google, in Dublin.

Paulo Barreto's mission will be now to lead his sales office totally turned for the online publicity , that just represents in Portugal 3% to 4% of the total of the advertising investment .

According to Barreto, Google can help the internationalizing of the portuguese companies. He's convinced that this publicity platform is actually the marketing form with largest return. The used system is the well-known AdWords.

Some customers of the system are, for example, Impresa, RTP and Cofina. However, Google believes that it has potential for much more.

The Portuguese office is integrated in Google EMEA (area 3), together with Spain, Italy and France.

Google has 2.500 collaborators in Europe and twelve R&D offices, spread by countries like United Kingdom, Israel and Switzerland, among others. Portugal won't be contemplated , for a while.

Links:

diarioeconomico.sapo.pt

www.jornaldenegocios.pt



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Thursday, November 1, 2007

The Arctic Quandry -- What Happens When The Ice Melts?

There’s no need to rehash what we already know. The Arctic is melting. It’s a fact that we are going to have to come to grips with. Shipping lanes are being changed, animals and natives are being displaced, and ice is disappearing(...)
So it’s no surprise to see five of the nations likely to be hardest hit up north — Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland — come together and issue a cry for help.
Full text: greenoptions.com

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Greenpeace: Neste palm-based biodiesel not so green

A full-page advertisement in Tuesday's Helsingin Sanomat by Neste Oil (which perhaps wants to be to biodiesel what Nokia is to mobile phones) promoting its biodiesel as an environmentally friendly option was immediately disputed by Greenpeace. According to the page advertisement, biodiesel reduces emissions of greenhouse gases.
Read more


Stockholm, Sweden - Sweden's Greenpeace organisation held a demonstration on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Swedish oil company OKQ8 to protest plans to buy bio diesel fuel produced by Neste Oil using tropical palm oil as the raw material.
Photo: Greenpeace / Ludvig Tillman

WATCH THE VIDEO


Harri Lammi of the Finnish section of Greenpeace:
"The production of palm oil is one of the greatest causes of deforestation in Southeast Asia. Neste Oil says that it imports the oil from Malaysia, but the company that they use plans to expand to Indonesia, where 80 per cent of deforestation stems from the production of palm oil"
Greenpeace calls the oil a "rain forest fuel", and says that the production of its raw material, palm oil, increases greenhouse gas emissions, rather than reducing them.

Jarmo Honkamaa of Neste Oil says that the palm oil comes from Malaysia from monitored plantations. The subcontractor is a company called IOI.
"Our palm oil can be traced back to the plantations. The plantations have been examined by a foreign company, and they have made a report. We didn't get top marks on every aspect, but there are no great causes for concern"
Honkamaa says that Neste Oil has been actively developing a certification system for sustainable palm oil production, called the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil, or RSPO.
"We will use certified palm oil as soon as possible, and IOI is also committed to this"

The certification system is not yet in use, and Lammi of Greenpeace says that Neste cannot claim in its advertising that a single drop of the palm oil that it uses is extracted without damage to the rain forests.
"It seems unlikely that certification would have any significance, because such a small proportion of producers will be a part of it"
"If demand increases, there will be more producers, and when the oil brings a good price, it will be produced in an unethical manner"

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