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Focus on Focus Earth: Why Copenhagen?

Because residents there already know what it's like to live green.

By Rachel Cernansky
Fri Dec 18, 2009 16:59

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A bicycle in Copenhagen...of course.
Kevin Forest/Getty Images

Copenhagen has 40,000 more bicycles than residents, but the city's Bicycle Program says it's still not enough. They're aiming higher, and want to get to the point where 50 percent of commuters are getting around by bike. That shouldn't be too hard, considering that 80 percent of summer riders already are in the habit of continuing their riding through the (harsh!) winter season.

It seemed only natural, then, to provide bicycles for delegates at the COP15 conference—and it worked! Delegates took the hint and have been riding around town on two wheels. Once it's all over, the bikes will be refitted and sent to Tanzania to help transport patients to health care centers. (They won't be shipped off for another two years, however—in the interim, they'll be available for rental at the Copenhagen branch of Ikea, the furniture company that sponsored the bicycles.)

Electric bicycles have also been such a hit that a local dealer has only one left, and people have been experimenting with all kinds of innovation on their own bikes, as well.

But the city's green lifestyle transcends the bicycle. In the last ten years, Copenhagen has reduced its CO2 emissions by 20 percent, has the ambitious goal of another 20 percent within five years—and wants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025.

The country is working hard to push clean tech and energy solutions, and already uses biogas in addition to wind and solar energy.

The Ministry of Education is working climate change into school curriculums.

And the government is working to integrate green practices in every other arena, from IT to civil society organizations.

The average Danish home is already much more efficient than most in America or other parts of Europe, and the country regulates the amount of energy newly-constructed homes are allowed to consume, but some residents are voluntarily working to beat even those limits by weatherizing their homes.