From Kansas to Copenhagen: clean energy beacons around the world

Copenhagen

Cyclists use a cycle lane to travel past the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, in Copenhagen, Denmark. [Photo/Agencies]

If the western world, with its cities built on billions of tons of carbon emissions, is to do its fair share to defeat climate change then it must look to the Danish capital as a model for the future. Copenhagen ranks as the greenest city on Earth in the Siemens/Economist Green City Index and was Europe's Green Capital in 2014.

But beyond the rankings, Copenhagen is truly breaking new ground. It is set to be carbon neutral by 2025. This will involve halving its emissions and offsetting its remaining carbon use by producing more renewable energy than it consumes.

By focusing on building standards and energy efficiency, the city believes it can make large inroads into its energy consumption. Dolf Gielen, a director at the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), said cold cities with large heat energy requirements are counter-intuitively well placed to shift their heat to renewable sources because they often have large scale centralised heat plants – rather than boilers in every home. By 2025, the city says 75% of all journeys will be by foot, cycle or public transport.

Copenhagen is now considering how it can transition away from fossil fuel use altogether by 2050. This will go a long way to helping the Danish government achieve its national goal of independence from fossil fuels in the same time frame.

Professor Brian Vad Mathiesen, who authored a report on Copenhagen's 2050 strategy, said the goal was possible and, most importantly, replicable.

"The vision we created for Copenhagen as a city based on 100% renewable energy in 2050 can be seen as a paradigm that many other ambitious cities can copy around the world," he said.