In line with the theme, I have chosen Copenhagen. Copenhagen, Denmark's capital, appears in many lists as the world's most sustainable city. The city has even been named by the New York Times as the world's leader in urban sustainability. In addition to that, Copenhagen was European Green Capital 2014. But what exactly is sustainable development and how does Copenhagen implement strategies towards it?

Sustainable development is economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources. In the city of Copenhagen, sustainable development is embraced as the City Council and the locals come together for the betterment of their city. For instance, in 2005 the Nordic Council of Ministers initiated the New Nordic Food manifesto as a way of boosting the production and consumption of traditional food products. Tired of the low quality and tasteless yet clinically perfect food that had come to pass for Danish food, the chef Claus Meyer sought answers by studying the history of agricultural production.

In 2009, the City Council of Copenhagen adopted the CPH 2025 Climate Plan: a holistic plan with a collection of specific goals and initiatives within four focus areas i.e. energy consumption, energy production, green mobility and city administration initiatives. With this initiative, many sustainable city solutions have been created and implemented. Some of these solutions include:

i) Increased mobility through integrated transport and cycling  solutions. This has reduced congestion significantly and improved health of the citizens. Since 2005, one billion DKK has been invested in bike lanes and super cycle highways and 45 % of the Copenhageners are biking to work or school every day.

ii) Cleaning the harbor. This has lead to attractive urban areas with better quality of life, improved local business life. It has also created jobs and generated revenue in the area. The harbor is now so clean that Copenhageners swim in it.

iii) A very efficient district heating system where 98 % of all households are connected.

iv) A new district cooling system where cold is taken of the harbor water. It saves 70% of the energy compared to traditional air-conditioning.

v) Use of cow dung, wind power and large scale solar thermal plant installations to produce clean energy. Copenhagen aims to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and thereafter, completely do away with them.

vi) Mandatory green roof policy.

vii) Investing in the clean tech sector. Clean technology, or cleantech, is a broad term that spans products and services in the energy, environmental and sustainability industries. It includes renewable energy, energy storage, smart grid, energy efficiency, sustainable design, waste reduction and much, much more.

These urban green solutions are already being implemented on a large scale and used by citizens. The city solutions have had significant effects on CO₂ emissions and at the same time, they have increased the liveability in the city. These green solutions go a long way into achieving carbon neutrality, an ambitious goal that Copenhagen is set to achieve by 2025. Carbon neutrality, or having a net zero carbon footprint, refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset, or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference. The ambitious goal is supported by the CPH 2025 Climate plan. A midterm goal was to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2015, which is a goal Copenhagen already met in 2011. Since 1995, Copenhagen has reduced carbon emissions by 50 percent. Copenhagen is thus on its way to become the first carbon neutral capital in the world.

In addition to these urban green solutions, Copenhagen also has solutions to deal with climate change. From an interview with The Guardian, Lykke Leonardsen, a city planner, says, " We've looked at how climate change will affect Copenhagen in the long-term future. For Copenhagen, the most serious effect of climate change will be increased precipitation, so we've developed a plan that addresses how to catch all the rainwater in the city." Lykke and 9 other persons make up a 10-person team who work solely on long-term climate adaptation, planning all the way to the year 2100. As Copenhagen is a seaside city, it will face risen sea levels and super-storms as adverse effects of climate change. The obvious challenge is to create infrastructure that will withstand these effects and even alleviate them. Lykke's team envisions lowering the level of a local lake, thereby freeing space around its shores. This space will then be turned into a park, with playgrounds and running paths. When a super-storm hits, the lake and its surrounding park will be used for water storage. Convex streets are also being designed as the main thoroughfares to capture water from storms and flooding and direct it to the harbour. The plan also includes featuring smaller streets with plenty of trees so as to slow down anticipated flooding and pocket parks which will absorb heat and can be turned into water storage during weather emergencies. This plan recently won the Index Design Award and is set to come to completion in 2033.

I chose Copenhagen not only because of its strategies, but also because its inhabitants work hand in hand with the City Council to bring these plans into life. Furthermore, the City Council of Copenhagen is quite democratic, as opposed to the governments of other green cities such as Singapore and Kigali, Rwanda that are both facing controversy over claims that their leadership is totalitarian.

References.

1. State of green.

2. The Official Website of Denmark.

3. The Guardian.

N.B. All images uploaded with this document were gotten from a Google image search of Copenhagen.