Copenhagen leading the eco-charge

Copenhagen has long been considered one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world. In 1973 Denmark was the first country in the world to implement a national Environmental Law, and this paved the way for a strong combination of national and municipal legislation aimed at limiting the cities carbon footprint.

According to Grist.com, the city is ranked 6^th as one of the most eco-friendly, and in 2006 Copenhagen won the European Environmental Management Award, which was largely due to the extensive efforts by local government to clean up many of the city’s waterways.

Because of this, Copenhagen is one of the only cities in the world where residents can swim safely in a working harbor.

It is also the capital of organic farming, 45% of foods bought are organic, and the local government has taken steps to increase this further.

Copenhagen news media recently reported that politicians had called for 90% of food purchases made in Copenhagen to be organic by 2015, especially those foods consumed in old age homes and in schools. In addition, policies are being implemented to increase the use of bicycles in the city to 40% among those commuting to work and back. Currently, this figure is around 36%.

The great failure of the city has been the volume of traffic. The city is still crippled every morning and every afternoon at rush hour by intense traffic jams, especially around the city centre. In 2000 steps were taken to rectify this with the development of the Copenhagen Metro, instead of extensive expansion of the roads. In fact, the construction of Nordhavnsvej a 3km road link between Nordhavn and Helsingørmotorvejen, which includes three tunnels under railway lines, is the biggest road expansion project in Denmark in the last 50 years.

The metro is part of the cities highly-integrated transport network. Before its launch in 2002, the city already had an extensive rapid transit system which involved the S-trains, Movi busses and DSB trains. The Movi busses service short-length trips with many stops around the major residential and commercial hubs of the city, while the S-train connect the city centre with residential city area, and the DSB trains carry commuters on longer journeys throughout the country and regional European areas.

Around 350,000 residents of Copenhagen use the S-trains every day, a further 137,000 use the younger metro every day, which services primarily the city centre with two lines, although there are expansion plans, which should help to ease the traffic situation. Copenhagen’s public transport system has been invested in heavily, as all major studies have shown that it is the most efficient way to transport large amounts of people with the best ratio between impact on the environment, and convenience and comfort of use, versus number of people carried.

Expansion of the metro is ongoing and it is expected that in 2018 the City Circle Line will open, this is a line that will circle the city and intersect with the current two metro lines. It will add an additional 15 stations to the existing 22, and will cover areas of the city, such as Nørrebro and Østerbro, according to plans released by Metroselskabet to Copenhagen news media.

This line is under construction and further lines are in the conceptual stages.

In these regards then the city is an environmental leader, it is no wonder most major environmental initiatives herald from Copenhagen and much of the world’s political summits on the environment take place here.