2009

More than 100 participants took part in the SPARE seminar which took place on 5th Dec in Varna, Bulgaria. The seminar was organized specifically for the schools of Eastern Bulgaria due to the huge interest for the program.

National meeting of the school eco-clubs took place in Sofia on Nov 25th. Representatives from over 30 school environmental clubs were present – from the capital Sofia and from the rest of the country. The SPARE project was presented and materials were handed to the young environmental activists.

The SPARE program started very promising in Sofia. It was met with interest and curiosity by the teachers who were enrolled in the project in Bulgaria. The first SPARE seminar took place in Sofia on 21st Nov. More than 80 teachers from the entire country took part in the training.

Representatives of several organizations active in SPARE are present in Copenhagen. The main task of the organizations is to influence on their national delegations policies and positions in the negotiations, and to bring information back to their home countries on the negotiations.

29 of October Friends of the Baltic NGO have organized Festival of Youth Environmental Projects and Initiatives, where SPARE schoolchildren presented their creativity works on climate change, energy and resource saving. Festival was supported by Committee for Youth Policy and Public Organizations of St.Petersburg Government, Norwegian Society for Conservation of Nature, and Municipality “Sennoy Okrug”.

In Barda, a city 300 km from Baku there was held a practical seminar on the topic «Using solar barrel in local condition», in framework of the international school project of SPARE. The seminar organized by the Azerbaijan Youth Union (AYU) at school № 8. Leader of the seminar was Ilja Melikov, the coordinator of programs on power efficiency and renewed energy sources Ecological Movement "BIOM", Kyrgyzstan. Organizational support gave by local NGO "ARAN”, who has a wide experience in various areas.

Macedonia became member of SPARE in March 2006 and during the implementation of the projects “Energy efficient municipality” in the period between March 2006 and March 2009 the Spare educational programme was completed. Till March 2009 SPARE programme in Macedonia was implemented locally in three municipalities, Municipality of Jegunovce, Shuto Orizari and Gazi Baba. The experiences gathered indicate a future logistical step in improvement of the programme - an official ratification from the Ministry of Education and Science. The Bureau for Development of Education was consulted at the strategic workshop held on 7th November 2008. One of the activities indicated and agreed by the participants was organizing a SPARE conference.

Norges Naturvernforbund/Friends of the Earth Norway has for several years cooperated with NGO partners in EECCA region on education, practical projects and policy development around energy and climate issues. We have now got the possibility to invite most of our NGO cooperation partners to Oslo, and on the 3rd of June we use the opportunity to arrange a conference on energy and climate in the Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA-region).

In a unique partnership project SPARE contribute to unite governmental and non-governmental organisations in a makeover for environmental education in Belarus. 26th of March SPARE was launched as a national project on energy and climate education in Belarus.

Novograd-Volynskiy (Zhytomyr Region), Dolyna (Ivano-Frankivsk Region), 26-27 February: SPARE-Ukraine has conducted two workshops in cooperation with UNDP-led Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme in its partner municipalities of Novograd-Volynskiy and Dolyna. Over 50 local teachers participated in the workshops and learned how to educate secondary school students on energy-saving.

The Little Earth, an environment organization which is implementing a program on energy conservation and renewable energy sources has decided to set an example of utilizing the solar energy. Last week the Little Earth staff finished installation of solar panels that will supply their office with energy in case of power outages.

A round table on renewable energy issues took place in Khujand city, Sudg oblast at 20 of February 2009. The event was organized by “Little Earth” Environmental organization with support from Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature and assistance from Youth Group on protection of environment (Khujand).

On February 16-17, 2009 in the Small Academy of Science’s National Environmental Naturalistic Center for Schoolchildren the IV Ukrainian Final Round of the International Youth Contest for energy effective projects “ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT” will take place. The Contest’s slogan is: “We can reduce the greenhouse gas emission”. The Contest’s results will be announced in the Kyoto Protocol’s anniversary day. The Contest aims to engage talented Ukrainian schoolchildren, students and teachers in scientific and practical activities related to energy efficiency and climate change mitigation.

SPARE and local coordinators in Georgia from EcoVision has rebuilt the minor wing of school number 7 in Gori, Georgia. All the windows were blown out when a bomb hit nearby the school during the war actions in August. 1500 pupils have since the war had to attend education in regional schools.

Beginning from 11th November AYU attended International energy saving weeks within the international school project. The actions held in the period of two weeks took place in Baku and in other regions of the country.

“However Azerbaijan is famous for its oil, the climate here makes it possible to apply the potential energy of sun and wind as alternative energy resources. Fast development of agriculture actualizes the application of biogas for heating the houses”. These opinions were discussed during the seminar “outlook at future resources of energy” held by Azerbaijan Youth Alliance, within the international energy saving weeks, for teachers and Methodists, in Gabala.