Whatever happens in Copenhagen today, we should take heart from the message city mayors around the world sent to climate-change negotiators earlier this week. More than a hundred mayors held their own summit in the Danish capital and told their respective country's ministers to be brave and commit to tough carbon-reduction targets because cities could deliver.
Copenhagen aims to become the first carbon-neutral city by 2025; it plans to reduce carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2015, with a total of 50 initiatives to push it down to zero a decade later. For example, the city will build a new geothermal power plant, use more wind and biomass power, increase district heating and experiment with district cooling, as well as roll out hydrogen and electric vehicles.
Pedestrians and cyclists already have the right of way on roads designed to make life as smooth and speedy as possible for them. Whether in pleasant summer or freezing winter, Danes cycle - because it is the fastest way to get around. The mayor of the city, Ritt Bjerregaard, waxed lyrical about how children are encouraged to cycle from an early age, and how the city is constantly thinking of ways to make biking an even better experience. For example, very soon, cyclists will be able to use PDAs to tell friends where they are on their bike - a sort of Facebook for cyclists.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it wasn't practical to wait for national governments to act because cities have to get on with the job of solving problems. Last year, New York pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 30 per cent in 10 years.
He said his city had copied Copenhagen, and now had 260 kilometres of cycle paths. Still more will be created, because New Yorkers want them. Moreover, America's largest city is working hard to retrofit old buildings to improve their energy efficiency; this is where the city has the best potential to reduce carbon emissions. Bloomberg stressed that thousands of jobs were being created through the mandating of building upgrades. All public buildings will be retrofitted, and it is estimated that the work will have paid for itself, with improved efficiency, in seven years. All buildings are now required to carry out energy audits and publish the energy-efficiency data online. This will give owners and tenants information and transparency, which in turn should result in more-energy-efficient buildings.
Hong Kong, like New York, also needs to focus on its buildings since they consume 89 per cent of electricity generated locally. The government has just introduced legislation on building energy codes, but lacks a retrofitting plan as aggressive as the Big Apple's. Hong Kong, without a mayor, was represented at the summit by environment minister Edward Yau Tang-wah. He talked about the government's HK$450 million 'matching fund' for carrying out carbon audits; in eight months, 7,000 buildings had been registered to participate - representing one-sixth of the buildings in Hong Kong.