The Carbon Dinosaur in Romania

Dates in Romania
>>	8 July 04 City of Bucharest Stand-in Romanian Transport Minister Miron Mitrea recieving the climate killer oscar for spectactular efforts to block sustainable transport in Romania e.g. through the construction of the Brasov-Bors motorway or the dismantling of the Romanian railway system.
>>	9 July 04 City of Ploiesti
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Romania will most likely reach its Kyoto obligation without taking any form of action. The decline in economoíc activity between 1989 and 2003 resulted in a reduction of more than 45%, way more than the required 8% under Kyoto.

In 1989, 83% of greenhouse gas emissions were produced in the energy sector. Still today, the main emission sources are energy production, manufacturing and transport. In 2001, the total amoung of greenhouse gas emissions was 148,202.41 Gg CO2 equivalent.

New investments in the energy sector in Romania were usually decided among suppliers and the government without public consultation. Often, the effects for the environment, public health and welfare were neglected. While nowadays decision makers seem to be more aware of the problems, they are still unable or unwilling to foster energy efficiency measures and internalising environmental costs into the price of energy production, or promoting the use of renewable energy sources and other projects and programs that trigger more sustainable development.

As one would guess, transport demand is increasing. The growth rate of the private car fleet has been particularly high in the large cities, mainly Bucharest. In 1990 the number of cars was 1.2 million, but ten years later it had almost tripled to 3.2 million. Accodingly, sales figures for new cars has doubled in the same period.

Romania faces many environmental problems and the situation is not likely to improve significantly over the next years. This is mainly due to the lack of environmental sensibility (as seen in many Central and Eastern European countries). Also, there is a trend to move back to the old fashioned paradigm of economy prevalence, promoted by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce and the Ministry of Transport. Clearly, the lack of familiarity with the EU legislation, but also a lack of clear division of competences in environmental administration and insufficient education on environmental issues add to the problems.

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