Challenging issues such as greenhouse gas emissions and Climate Change may seem very remote, but there are ways that can help to better perceive our contribution to such problems. And that is where a new mobile application – mobGAS© – comes into play.
mobGAS© will be the first mobile application about climate change with wide distribution in Europe and world.
mobGAS© aims to make the connection between daily activities and the emissions of Greenhouse Gases and when possible suggest changes to improve individual performances. It is a kind of diary of users’ behaviour through the emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHG). The application includes several icons representing activities or appliances that are usually used every day (more than 60). These activities or appliances may be set along the day reflecting users’ daily choices. This will finally be converted in individual emissions of GHG that may be compared with the weekly average or with country and world average. Further more the application includes an animation reflecting the user contribution to the Kyoto target. Not only this is a process of self-reflection, but also tips are given on how the users’ behaviour may improve.
With this type of indications it is expected that the users reflect on their behaviour and possible changes, and ultimately demand for technology and climate related policy improvements. Being an application to run in mobile phones, it allows the user to have an easy and fast access to the application and respective information at any time of the day.
The importance of the individual actions to fight climate change was already well recognised by the European Commission campaign, "You Control Climate Change" launched in June 2006 by President José Manuel Barroso and Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.
mobGAS© will challenge individuals to make small changes to their daily routine in order to achieve significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
It will be developed for the 27 EU countries, and available in 21 languages.
Draft of mobGAS© layout
Why mobile? It is everywhere; is an accessible technological platform and is always with us. Nowadays mobile phones are much more than devices to talk. They have an enormous potential to be a source of information in those few ‘dead’ moments (seating in the bus or waiting for an appointment). It is these slots of time that mobGAS© intends to take.
