A new plan made by the city of Copenhagen shall make the capital of Denmark the first CO2 neutral capital in the world within 2025 including that emissions must be reduced with 20 percent within 2015.

All seven mayors in the Copenhagen municipality agree on the project and are eager to see if they receive any competition.

Capitals around the globe account for 80 per cent of the CO2 emissions and to get other capitals in the game, Copenhagen has taken the initiative to a summit for capitals before the climate top meeting. Together they are to find new ideas on how they can help to reduce the CO2 emissions.

The city plan that shall make Copenhagen neutral consists of various initiatives:

-          An ambitious windmill project = reductions 375.000 tons of CO2 per year.

-          Renovation of schools, institutions and sport facilities = reductions of 50.000 tons of CO2 per year.

-          Initiatives so cars can run on electricity or hydrogen= reductions of 50.000 tons of CO2 per year.

-          Education of a new climate generation = reductions of 20.000 CO2 tons per year.

-          New houses must be build as the lowest energy class = reductions of 5.000 tons CO2 per year.

-          Green spaces as green roofs in the city will create climate adjustment.

The above initiatives will only reduce the emissions by 1,1 million tons and Copenhagen is at the moment emitting 2,5 million tons. Therefore initiatives will include investment in windmills, planting of forests or buying CO2 quotes from other places in the world like Africa.

It is an illusion

According to the Danish Minister of environment, it is not realistic for a capital to become totally CO2 neutral all by itself. ”It is an illusion”, says Klaus Bondam. But the city wants to motivate other cities around the world to try to limit their emissions. 

The will of the companies

Still, it will be difficult to reach the goal by 2025. Copenhagen must request the energy companies to collaborate. At the moment 13 percent of the electricity in Copenhagen comes from renewable sources. To reach its goal of being emission free, energy companies have to have the will to participate. They are the ones who construct the mills and pay for them. The two parties have a dialog and the municipality is hoping that the legalislation allows it to buy big shares in the windmill parks. They are still researching to find out if this can be legal in any way. If not it is very limited what they can do. Therefore they are trying to reach the goal from other entries as well. By informing and communicating with the inhabitants they can directly choose green electricity from their provider, which will result in more pressure on the energy providers.

COP15 is being held in Copenhagen and therefore it should not be the last in line to make promises or take initiatives. It would be admirable if the municipality in their eagerness to become CO2 neutral could include even wider changes like changing the handling of waste or a changing the heating sources which could push the reductions made in Denmark further. After all neutrality that has been bought abroad has both limitations and include problems. Unfortunately they are not able to take a wide range of initiatives such as meat tax or making it expensive to enter the city in car without the consensus of the government. And years of combat on the latter shows that the municipality of the party the Social Democracy have a hard time trying to push the government to accept changes that could  help combat climate change in the capital.