The Climate Debate intensifies

From the metropolitan area to the outskirts and in every municipality throughout the country the climate is dominating the agenda. Denmark is undergoing major changes due to generating green and clean growth.

The Island of Samsoe is already fare beyond its own and national goals. A broad collaboration of locals has managed to convert its energy production from fossils to 100 % renewable energy. The Island of Bornholm is the future national ‘test site’ for implementing an energy efficient ‘Smart Grid’ overlaying the entire island. Kalundborg is at the forefront when it comes to recycling and reestablishing cyclic flows in the use and production of clean energy. And in the Municipality of Ringkøbing-Skjern the locals stand together aiming to generate sustainable growth.
 

Multiple initiatives are proposed and implemented throughout the country, yet multiple questions are left unanswered: What are the results of these domestic changing flows? How will the urban space and rural area look in the future? Denmark is replacing its entire use fossil fuel with renewable energy coming from solar energy, wind power, and sustainable centralized power plants within the year of 2050.
 

The past week brought several memorable events in the field of sustainable development and green energy production. Wednesday 29 September the Danish Climate Commision released its findings and proposals in a comprehensive rapport entitled 'Green energy – the road to a Danish energy system without fossil fuels.' The rapport is a summary of two years work, results and recommendations of the Climate Commission on Climate Change Enactment in Denmark.

29 and 30 September the conference ‘World Climate Solutions’ was held in the Bella Center, Copenhagen. The fourth Climate Solutions conference was planned to bring together the most important stakeholders in the field of energy recycling, clean energy production, and green business and cities as such in Northern Europe in particular to meet with other experts, buyers and innovators from various key markets internationally such as China. The way in which the stakeholders, innovators, and officials from all over the world were negotiating and exchanging view points and best practices instead of contesting as competitors, makes me conclude that not only is regional and bilateral collaborations and public-private partnerships a growing tendency, but a demand due to sole the present economic, social, and environmental challenges that every county and every city around the globe are facing these days. 
 

Meanwhile the challenges and the debate increases, the way in which we perceive and act according to these challenges changes too. Sustainable Cities™ increases the debate even further aiming to facilitate a platform for networking and knowledge sharing among stakeholders, planners, and city officials in the field. The goal for our database is to provide knowledge and inspiration on sustainable urban planning practice from all over the world. Explore our website and get inspired. You can also attend one of the two following conferences on sustainable planning that are taking place in the beginning of November, 2010.
 

Framtidens byer, (Cities of the future) Drammen, Norway, 2 - 3 November, 2010
’Framtidens byer’ (Cities of the future) is a national conference on climate friendly urban development aiming to create open dialog while increaing the attention on the climate and sustainable growth as such. The goal of the conference is to involve variuos stakeholders and establishing interdiciplinary networks between different related fields. 
 

Bæredygtighed i Bevægelse, (Sustainability in Motion) Aarhus, Denmark, 4 - 5 November, 2010
Architects, engineers, scientists, planners, and politicians from all over the world are invited to participate in a open dialog on innovative initiatives for public health and sustainability in the urban space. The conference is hosted by the Danish Architects Association in collaboration with the Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities.