Make a Change is the motto of the pan-European campaign organised by Bulgaria’s representation in the European Commission (EC) and Time Foundation, also in Bulgaria.

The campaign aims to explain to the youngest members of society what each person can do to reduce the consequences of climate change. It has been created in the most attractive and fun way, EC representative in Bulgaria Zinaida Zlatanova said in an interview on private broadcaster bTV on August 8 2008.

Events will take place between August 11 and 17 in the Black Sea towns of Pomorie, Bourgas, Nessebur, Albena and Varna.

“In the city centres will be installed an inflated balloon that has the form of the Earth and is called a ‘mobile classroom’,” Zlatanova said. She explained that many games and activities and spontaneous discussions about environmental problems and the climate change would take place in the area around the balloon.

“Turn off, decrease, walk” was the leading sentence that the EC selected for that campaign, Zlatanova said, explaining that the European Union was the global leader in the fight against climate change and that they were trying to encourage all other countries around the world to contribute to the reigning in of global warming, she said.

On January 1 2008, the EC adopted a package called Energy and Climate Change, which included three main aims: to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent until 2020, to increase renewable energy sources used by 20 per cent and to achieve a considerable increase in energy efficiency in all EU member states.

Bulgaria is the EU member with the lowest energy efficiency, Zlatanova said, but she noted that the country is also the second in preserved biodiversity and natural habitats. “I strongly wish that, in the very near future, Bulgaria can be mentioned as a country that has succeeded in preserving those things, rather, to preserve nature we need to take care, to undertake measures, to be energy efficient,” she said.

Zlatanova quoted a Eurobarometer survey that found that 56 per cent of Bulgarians were ready to decrease their energy consumption, given the environmental problems and the challenges caused by the world fuel crisis.