- Cities all over the world
are bursting with people.
More than half of us live in cities now,
and by 2050 that number jumps to nearly 70%.
That's a lot of people.
So how do we grow cities sustainably?
And with the climate crisis,
figuring out how we do that
is more important than ever before.
But there's one city that may be doing it better
than any other place on earth.
- We want to become the first
carbon-neutral capital city by 2025.
- So we packed up our gear
and headed here to Copenhagen, Denmark to find out how.
(upbeat music)
It's not surprising to learn
that two-thirds of the world's carbon emissions
come from cities.
That number is getting worse
as more of us move into cities,
which means a higher demand on infrastructure and resources.
So Copenhagen is on a mission to cancel out
all of their carbon emissions.
- My name is Frank Jenson,
and I'm the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen.
When I became mayor we started this process,
we decided that we want to become the first
carbon neutral capital city by 2025.
- What is carbon neutrality actually mean?
For a city, it's creating more renewable energy
than the dirty energy it uses.
It's all about achieving a net zero.
And their plan is focusing
on mobility, pollution, and energy.
- We have introduced a lot of new solutions
in Copenhagen.
Our bicycle infrastructure is world famous
because today 62% of the Copenhagener's use the bike
for daily transportation.
- Everyone in Copenhagen bikes.
And I mean everyone.
So the city is leaning into that.
In the last 10 years it has invested nearly $300 million
to improve biking infrastructure.
All that money has paid off.
There are more than five times the amount of bikes
than cars in the city.
That goes a long way when cutting down on carbon emissions.
But the effort doesn't stop there.
Copenhagen has totally transformed their waterways too.
Only a few decades ago, the harbor was contaminated
with industrial waste, oil spills, even dead fish.
- When I moved to Copenhagen back in 1987,
this harbor was so polluted,
you could never dream to have a swim in this harbor.
But today you can swim.
We have a harbor bath where people can have a swim
with their kids after school or after job.
- Though Copenhagen has made huge strides
with their mobility and pollution efforts,
by far their biggest focus is on energy use.
It makes up about 80% of their carbon neutral plan.
To cut down on their consumption,
Copenhagen uses one of the world's largest
and most successful district heating systems.
It works by using a network of pipes
to capture left over heat from electricity production,
then delivers that heat to homes across the city.
- 99% of all households in Copenhagen are linked
to our very efficient district heating system.
We have also introduced district cooling,
where we take the cold out of the water in the harbor
and distribute cold in pipes
beside the district heating pipes.
So you can reduce temperature in buildings,
in server rooms, in factories.
We can reduce electricity use for cooling down buildings
for 70%.
- To come up with these kinds of sustainable solutions,
Copenhagen collaborates with partners across the city.
Like Copenhagen Solutions Lab.
An incubator for smart city initiatives.
- What Copenhagen Solutions Lab does
is actually solving some of the bigger problems
in the world by using technologies
in order to accelerate this transition
into a carbon free economy.
So for instance, a problem of air quality,
people in cities are dying too early
because of bad air.
And that is a global problem,
not just here in Copenhagen.
Getting rid of our waste, measuring air quality,
managing traffic, we're trying to solve
these problems down in Street Lab.
- Contrary to how it sounds,
the Street Lab really isn't a laboratory.
It's a two kilometer long chunk of downtown Copenhagen
that serves as a testing area.
- Placing a lab such as this downtown,
in a real urban environment,
makes it very realistic.
Everything we're testing here
will be able to survive in other parts of the city
and will be able to be scaled to a city-wide level.
This is a new generation of technology
that makes it possible to measure air quality
by a sensor.
And now we're looking into mounting sensors
actually on a Google Street View car
to make it possible to measure each and every street
of Copenhagen.
- With these sensors, the city can better locate
the source of pollutants
to help improve overall air quality.
The technology has already proved so useful,
that Marius and his team are shipping sensors
to countries like Norway, Mexico, Austria, Greece,
and the US.
Though Copenhagen is leading the way
in sustainable smart city solutions,
experts and policy makers will tell you
that the true secret to the city's transformation
is the people.
The residents here actually want to help
build a sustainable city and are willing to work for it.
- The citizens of Copenhagen,
they demand a high quality of urban life.
They are willing to do a lot themselves.
They want to sort their own garbage,
they want to bike to work.
Citizens involvement is key to the way we think
in Denmark and in the Nordic countries.
And that's a huge driving force behind
being a carbon neutral city by 2025.
- Since I became mayor in 2010,
we have had a growth rate in the number
of citizens with 20%.
And even that, we have cut our emissions with 42%
in the same period.
So we show that you can have growth
with green transformation if you do the right investments
in the city.
- Copenhagen's transformation hasn't been easy.
And of course their size and wealth helps.
But they've made it work for their city.
Regardless if they hit their carbon neutral deadline,
their ultimate goal is to serve as an example
for cities everywhere.
- The green transformation of cities and livability
and also very important, good economy.
Goes hand in hand.
I see Copenhagen as a front runner
to show for my colleagues and decision-makers,
you must go green.
Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed our series about the Future of Cities,
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