by Dr. Donna Charlevoix, GPO Climate Research Campaign Coordinator
Well, today is my last day here in Copenhagen, unfortunately. The Climate Conference is such an interesting meeting and there is so much to learn. However, it is not possible to stay the entire two weeks. As I reflect on my short time here I am struck how the entire city of Copenhagen and the Danish government has built upon their already eco-friendly infrastructure to provide a “green” experience for those of us attending the conference.
well marked bus routes
Upon arrival at the airport, staff was in place to direct us to a free shuttle to the Bella Center. Once I registered and entered the conference, I was provided with a free transportation pass – courtesy of the local government. This transportation pass provided access to the Metro, all buses and trains. This made all of us in attendance feel better about the fact that many of us just flew half way across the world, leaving a trail of significant greenhouse gas emissions in our wake.
As I was taking the shuttle to the Bella Center one morning I was amazed at the number of people riding bicycles, presumably to get to work. I’ve lived in two very bicycle friendly cities in the U.S. (Davis, California and Boulder, Colorado) but they’ve got nothing on Copenhagen. The city has a system of free bicycles available to anyone for use. Going somewhere? Grab a bicycle from a nearby rack and then upon your destination, return it to a local bicycle rack for someone else to use.
electric-powered hotel transport
A group of automobile manufacturers were promoting alternative fuel vehicles just outside the Bella Center entrance. Tuesday afternoon I was provided free transportation back to my hotel from an all electric-powered Mini Cooper. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to test out such a vehicle but discouraged to find that while the Mini is not yet in production, when it does go into production for the U.S. market they will make it larger to appeal to the American market. (Can they still call it the “Mini” then?) As a bonus the driver gave me a short driving tour of downtown Copenhagen – what a lovely city!
balloon containing one tonne of CO2
The city had clearly well prepared for the influx of people interested in climate issues by making very visible reminders of the impact of CO2 on the Earth. This photo of a large “balloon of CO2” is one of many stationed around the city. The photograph depicts visually the impact of one tonne of CO2. A very powerful image!
I write this from the airport, preparing to return to the GLOBE Program Office. I am excited to return home to share with everyone more details of my travel to the conference and to provide more information to the GLOBE community on how what I learned will help shape the GLOBE Student Climate Research Campaign. I want to extend thanks to the GPO staff for helping to ensure these blogs were posted in a timely manner and for posting other information from the conference to the SCRC web page.
I hope that the few entries I have posted provided you with an insiders’ glimpse to one of the largest international environmental conferences of our time. I will be monitoring the conference from home and asking others I know who are in attendance at the conference to provide some insights to share with all of you. Thank you for following my short journey. Please post any comments you might have, I would love to have a dialog with all of you!
