Winter Cities will take a leading role in climate debate

As cities sharing the characteristics of cold weather, heavy snowfall and therefore consuming a great deal of energy for heating and snow removal, the members of World Winter Cities Association of Mayors, WWCAM, contribute to the increasing emissions of CO2. And that's why the mayors of these cities recognize their duty to take a leading role in global society and pledge to call upon their collective wisdom and take joint initiatives to reduce the global warming.

That is the main message in the Nuuk Declaration 2008 which mayors from the 11 participating cities at the mayors' conference in Nuuk, Greenland, adopted this Sunday morning, when it was signed by the mayor of Nuuk, mr. Nikolaj Heinrich and the WWCAM president and mayor of Sapporo, mr. Fumio Uedo.

The declaration marked the closing of the 13^th international mayors' conference in WWCAM, which is an organization of cities with a cold winter climate in e.g. Alaska, Norway, Estonia, Lithuania, Canada, China, Japan, Korea and Greenland. For three days approximately 200 delegates have been gathered discussing the overall conference theme "Climate Changes in the Arctic".

The effects of warming are experienced firsthand by local residents of areas with distinct winter weather, and the increase in temperatures has a significant impact on daily life and traditional culture. Therefore the mayors of Winter Cities recognize their collective obligation to send a global message highlighting the severity of global warming, it is said in the Nuuk Declaration 2008.

Beside the adoption of the declaration, a concrete result of the conference was the establishing of a subcommittee to survey environmental conservation activities by municipalities to reduce climate changes. The subcommittee's secretariat will be placed in the city of Anchorage, Alaska.

The late mayor of Nuuk, mrs. Agnethe Davidsen, who four years ago proposed Nuuk to host this conference and suggested "Climate Changes in the Arctic" as the overall theme, was granted with honorary membership of WWCAM.

The whole event, which besides the mayors' conference has included the exhibition EXPO and Forum - a number of lectures from scientists - closes this Sunday afternoon with a torchlight procession through the streets of Nuuk.

The next World Winter Cities Conference for Mayors will be held in 2010 in Prince George,  Canada.