City councils with few lights

While some city councils are advancing the lighting of Christmas lights, Ecologistas en Acción urges to reduce it for its environmental damage. They emphasize the Climate Change, with recent alarming data for Andalusia, and advise to follow the recommendations of the Councillor José Fiscal while launching proposals for administrations and civil society.

One more year, some city councils choose to bring forward the implementation of Christmas lighting, as well as increasing its dimensions, a trend followed by much of the public. Beyond what may like these ornaments, Ecologistas en Acción wants to draw attention to the energy waste involved in this type of ornamentation and the period in which it is placed, which it considers too broad. There are powerful reasons to consider the excess of lights as unsustainable and in need of a strong reduction. It is overwhelming to think of the amount of energy that can be consumed so superfluously throughout the developed world during those times. And although electricity bills are paid by each municipality (ultimately by the citizenry), the environmental bill in the form of climate change, acid rain, nuclear waste or pollution is paid by the whole planet. In this sense, Ecologistas en Acción urges public administrations, faced with the emergence of the problem of Climate Change, that, like the citizenry, are committed to reducing consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases.

According to the study Local Scenarios of Climate Change in Andalusia updated to the fifth Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), presented by the regional administration, it is clear that during this century it is estimated that temperatures will grow between 3.6-6.5 ºC, with an extremely hot and dry climate and a reduction in precipitation of 17%, results that would generate a sub-desert climate.

It should also take into account the statements of the Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning of the Junta de Andalucía, José Fiscal, when presenting the report in Huelva last November 7. The Minister stressed that those engaged in politics "have an obligation to take measures to minimize the phenomenon. The possible scenarios will depend on "how climate change evolves", where citizens play a key role. Among the measures that administrations can take is to "reduce all greenhouse effect emissions" and to do so drastically reduce energy consumption, "abandon fossil energies for renewable energies and produce less waste. It should not be forgotten that one of the main reasons why this lighting is carried out is to encourage consumption at Christmas time. This consumption is framed in a model in which there is an overexploitation of resources and an unsustainable generation of waste.

Ecologistas en Acción believes that the best gift that municipalities can make to their municipalities and global citizenship is to reduce this absolute waste of energy and not contribute to Climate Change. It is a waste of energy, a luxury that only enriched countries can afford as long as the majority of Humanity continues to live completely in the dark.

Therefore, Ecologistas en Acción encourages city councils and traders to:

Restrict Christmas lighting to strictly designated days.
Reduce lighting hours to midnight.
Use fewer lamps, even if they are LEDs.
Limit lighting to shopping streets in the centre, the cost of which should be borne partly by the merchants and not at the expense of the citizens.