About
Located on the western coast of the green island of Zealand, Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark. With its close geographical, historical and cultural ties to Norway and Sweden and with the Øresund bridge now linking Copenhagen to the Swedish city of Malmø, our Danish capital is often considered the capital of the whole of Scandinavia.
The city has more than one thousand years of heroic and at times bloody history behind it. Home to one million engaged citizens who are continuously helping to shape the current form and feel of our city, we continue to thrive on our long and proud democratic traditions.
A great part of the medieval city centre has been preserved, with its old houses and cobbled streets intact. This district combined with world famous, modern Danish architecture and the sea and waterways surrounding and traversing the city give Copenhagen a rare and unique urban environment: these features plus harbour waters so clean that Copenhageners swim in them during the summer!
So, here you have some of the reasons why we in Copenhagen are known throughout the world for our green politics and eco-friendly life style.
The Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy recently honoured Copenhagen by making it “Energy City 2008”. There are good reasons behind that honour:
- Since 1990, we have reduced our CO2 emissions by 20%.
- Just outside Copenhagen harbour, we have a wind farm with wind turbines reaching high into the skye
- We have the world’s largest district heating system covering 97 % of all city households.
That’s the way we reuse surplus heat produced when generating electricity instead of wasting it by sending it into the air.
We also have a waste management system, which allows us to reuse about 90% of all building waste, as well as incinerating about 75 % of all household waste.
Furthermore, our citizens are very environmentally conscious and show it in many ways: most significantly perhaps by 36% of the population cycling to school or work every day. This makes Copenhagen the second largest cycle capital in Europe.
We are naturally very proud of all the facts, initiatives, implied attitudes and ways of life listed above.
However, by 2015, we will have reduced our CO2 emissions by a further 20%, and turned Copenhagen into an inspirational climate capital. This climate capital of ours will demonstrate to other cities how a greener urban environment can both enhance the quality of life in practical terms, and at the same time offer a prosperous and attractive environment for private companies
But that is not all. We are currently developing a Climate Action Plan for the City of Copenhagen, thereby taking even further steps along the road towards CO2 neutrality in the future.
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Strategy
Copenhagen wants to become the climate capital of the world, to secure a sustainable urban environment for its citizens and to offer a prosperous and attractive environment for private companies. We will thus prove that high living standards, economic growth and environmental consciousness can go hand in hand.
Specific Goals by 2015:
- At least 50% of citizens will cycle to their place of work or educational institution
- Copenhagen will have become the climate capital of the world
- The city’s CO2 emissions will be reduced by at least 20% compared to 2005
1. 75% of the CO2 emission reduction will come from reductions in the energy supply by means of wider use of sustainable energy such as, bio-mass, solar cells, geothermal energy and wind power.
2. 10% of the CO2 emission reductions will come from the transport system by means of improving the public transport system, the facilities and safty for cyclists, congestion charges, green zones, parking restrictions, etc.)
3. 10% of of the CO2 emission reductions will come from buildings by means of a wider use of energy consumption control systems in buildings, improved renovation practises, low energy buildings, improved energy consumption control of all public buildings 4. 4% of the CO2 emission reductions will come forom buildings by means of engaging and educating our already very environmentally conscious citizens
The Way Forward:
The details of how we are going to take this giant leap forward in the near future, will be described here in detail as soon as our Climate Action Plan has been endorsed in the summer of 2009.
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