By the end of the session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on The UN in Sofia should clarify the guidelines for the next big report No. 7, which ends in 2028 and for the report on cities and climate, which will be completed in 2027. The delegations should decide on the general parameters, because the reports collect scientific knowledge from all over the world and are complex to build. and be objective. This was said by the former minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Julian Popov, in an interview with BNR.
„I hope that by the end of the conference the delegations will reach an agreement. Because as soon as the reports are published, political attitudes change”, he added.
All week, Sofia is hosting the conference of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is extremely important, and especially the panel on climate change.
Bulgaria's hosting is an extraordinary achievement, because here are delegations from 150 countries and the world's climate policies are determined. One of the four topics is the relationship of cities with the climate, how to reduce greenhouse emissions and limit greenhouse emissions, and also how to adapt cities to the already existing climate changes, said Julian Popov.
Yesterday it was discussed where Bulgaria is in this global process and what municipalities and mayors should do.
"The first is climate change mitigation - using less gas, coal, ash, etc., which mitigates and the second is adaptation. The main things with cities are heat islands, the greater heating of the city than the temperature around the city. The cities are concreted and insufficiently forested, they heat up more than other places," explained the former Minister of Ecology.
And he added that modern technologies make it possible to determine the heat islands themselves and the scale, to understand the dynamics of warming, to calculate and analyze the risks that are serious for health and biodiversity“, recommended Popov.
And he praised cities with a well-developed heat island monitoring system – Burgas.
"There are many measures by which heat islands are mitigated. For Sofia, it is the restoration of the city's rivers to a more natural state. Now the troughs are concreted and heated, and there is little water. This is a serious risk during the summer months. When a river recovers, at least partially, the water to overflow, is enriched with oxygen and the idea of being a heat island, becomes a cooler and becomes a cooler. The other is that the roofs are grassed and it is against precipitation and good insulation. Afforestation is a way to control temperatures in the city," Popov recommended measures.
According to him, more and more mayors realize what an incredible asset rivers are in cities, but strategies for afforestation are also needed, but with adequate, non-invasive vegetation.
„There is great interest in improving the urban environment and opposing heat islands,” Yulian Popov concluded from the participation of representatives of over 120 municipalities.
As for the financing of climate projects, he explained that it is expensive to correct the riverbed, but it is not expensive to clean it and have control. It is the same with afforestation when citizens are involved.
„It is not an expensive regulation when it is being built to impose conditions and you force the investor and the builder to comply. The activity of the mayor is very important“, said the former Minister of Ecology.