After two weeks of intense negotiations, the United Nation Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen concluded with the Copenhagen Agreement. Rated far below expectations, qualified by many participants as “a disappointing compromise”, the agreement acknowledges the necessity of cutting greenhouse gas emissions so that, in the future, global warming increase will not exceed two degrees Celsius and stipulates the allocation of $ 30 Billion in resources (EUR 20.9 Billion) for 2010-2012 and another $ 100 Billion (EUR 69.7 Billion)annually until 2020 that the developed countries should grant to support the measures necessary to this action. However, the document doesn’t include clear and precise objectives and doesn’t tell where these funds will come from either and how they will be divided and the signing of the agreement is not mandatory for participant countries. “The Copenhagen Agreement is not what everybody hoped it will…but is an important beginning”, declared the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, given the fact that another negotiation round to establish a new treaty that will replace Kyoto Protocol is scheduled for November 2010 in Mexico.
The Mayors Climate Change Conference, held in the Danish capital at the same time with the climate summit during December 14-17 with the slogan “Cities take action”, represented an alternative to the misunderstandings occurred between the countries: Cities, responsible for up to 75% of the greenhouse gas emissions, must commit in fighting against climate change for a cleaner life. “It is important to help our citizens understand the climate change impact and, at the same time, give them opportunities to do something about it”, declared Klaus Bondam, Mayor of technical and environmental administration in Copenhagen.
Copenhagen itself, with its project of becoming an ecometropolis by 2015, is an environmental example. The main objective of this environmental programme of the Danish capital is reducing CO2 emissions by 20%. And, in 2007, 518,000 tonnes of the 2.71 million CO2 tonnes were generated by transport, road traffic being the main polluting factor. Consequently, public authorities are mainly focusing on improving environmentally enhanced public transport modes even after 2015.
Presently, Copenhagen is served by a 21-km long automatic underground network, a network of trains (S-tog) owned and managed by DSB which link the city centre and the suburbs, a railway line(Øresundbanen) which provides connection to the Swedish city of Malmö and other long-distance regional trains. Almost half of the over 700,000 passengers who use public means of transport every day in the Danish capital use the underground or trains.
The recent measures taken to improve services resulted in a bigger number of passengers. The number of passengers who use the underground increased in 2008 by 15% as compared to the previous year, also because in 2007 a new section was open connecting the city to the airport. Despite the economic crisis, in the first nine months of the year, the number of passengers increased by 1% in the S-tog network to the detriment of road traffic, at the same time the percentage of train delays dropped from 5.4% to 3.7%. Aside from these significant works, other initiatives serving the same purpose were developed: for example, DSB introduced free Internet access on the S-Bahn network and posted a series of podcasts in English showing the architecture along the network for attracting tourists to choose the Copenhagen X underground. It also provides a similar series of podcasts for the S-tog network for the moment only in Danish.
Aside from works for improving signalling, station access and rolling stock reliability or line modernisation, the key elements in increasing the number of passengers remain network extension to cover a wider area and the optimisation of interconnectivity between public transport modes. Therefore, it is estimated that once the new 15-km long circular underground line, Cityringen, will be put into operation in 2017-2018, the underground networks and the S-tog will be so dense that 85% of the capital’s houses and buildings will be less than 10 minutes away from an underground or train station.
After two weeks of intense negotiations, the United Nation Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen concluded with the Copenhagen Agreement. Rated far below expectations, qualified by many participants as “a disappointing compromise”, the agreement acknowledges the necessity of cutting greenhouse gas emissions so that, in the future, global warming increase will not exceed two degrees Celsius and stipulates the allocation of $ 30 Billion in resources (EUR 20.9 Billion) for 2010-2012 and another $ 100 Billion (EUR 69.7 Billion)annually until 2020 that the developed countries should grant to support the measures necessary to this action. However, the document doesn’t include clear and precise objectives and doesn’t tell where these funds will come from either and how they will be divided and the signing of the agreement is not mandatory for participant countries. “The Copenhagen Agreement is not what everybody hoped it will…but is an important beginning”, declared the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, given the fact that another negotiation round to establish a new treaty that will replace Kyoto Protocol is scheduled for November 2010 in Mexico.
The Mayors Climate Change Conference, held in the Danish capital at the same time with the climate summit during December 14-17 with the slogan “Cities take action”, represented an alternative to the misunderstandings occurred between the countries: Cities, responsible for up to 75% of the greenhouse gas emissions, must commit in fighting against climate change for a cleaner life. “It is important to help our citizens understand the climate change impact and, at the same time, give them opportunities to do something about it”, declared Klaus Bondam, Mayor of technical and environmental administration in Copenhagen.
Copenhagen itself, with its project of becoming an ecometropolis by 2015, is an environmental example. The main objective of this environmental programme of the Danish capital is reducing CO2 emissions by 20%. And, in 2007, 518,000 tonnes of the 2.71 million CO2 tonnes were generated by transport, road traffic being the main polluting factor. Consequently, public authorities are mainly focusing on improving environmentally enhanced public transport modes even after 2015.
Presently, Copenhagen is served by a 21-km long automatic underground network, a network of trains (S-tog) owned and managed by DSB which link the city centre and the suburbs, a railway line(Øresundbanen) which provides connection to the Swedish city of Malmö and other long-distance regional trains. Almost half of the over 700,000 passengers who use public means of transport every day in the Danish capital use the underground or trains.
The recent measures taken to improve services resulted in a bigger number of passengers. The number of passengers who use the underground increased in 2008 by 15% as compared to the previous year, also because in 2007 a new section was open connecting the city to the airport. Despite the economic crisis, in the first nine months of the year, the number of passengers increased by 1% in the S-tog network to the detriment of road traffic, at the same time the percentage of train delays dropped from 5.4% to 3.7%. Aside from these significant works, other initiatives serving the same purpose were developed: for example, DSB introduced free Internet access on the S-Bahn network and posted a series of podcasts in English showing the architecture along the network for attracting tourists to choose the Copenhagen X underground. It also provides a similar series of podcasts for the S-tog network for the moment only in Danish.
Aside from works for improving signalling, station access and rolling stock reliability or line modernisation, the key elements in increasing the number of passengers remain network extension to cover a wider area and the optimisation of interconnectivity between public transport modes. Therefore, it is estimated that once the new 15-km long circular underground line, Cityringen, will be put into operation in 2017-2018, the underground networks and the S-tog will be so dense that 85% of the capital’s houses and buildings will be less than 10 minutes away from an underground or train station.
Share on:
