(Photo: One stop from Bella Centre where the Queues stretched to all day.)Tuesday afternoon meetings with cycling federation and city adminstration in Copenhagen were fruitful.
Imagine a city of half a million people saving 90,000 tonnes of CO2 every year due to cycling instead of car and bus journeys. That's what Copenhagen achieves through a staggering 37% of journeys to school and work being done in the saddle.
I've learned so much of practical benefit to us back home at the Climate Change Summit, or more precisely on the fringes and through arranged meetings in the city. So why can't we do such ground breaking health promoting travel here? No reason why not. The Holyrood Committee enquiry into cycling and walking has to be practical for our climate. So its a sobering thought that 80% of normal cycle journeys continue in winters in Denmark. They just clear the snow from cycle lanes before they do the roads.
Also the Climate Parliament gathering in Christianhaven brought elected parliamentarians from Iceland to India and from Scotland to Sweden in a discussion on huge energy grids to serve all of Europe. There's so much to discuss on this it will require a longer note.
Meantime Patrick managed to hold the train for 1 minute to let me get a ticket and sprint down the ramp to catch the 11.48pm train to Malmo. Now I can say I've been to Sweden and Denmark three times each, on subsequent day. A frequent visitor on a superlative electric train service.
More on snowflakes and Klimaa Forum later. Can't see the big talks making substantial money available to make this accord on Friday a truly historic event. We'll see...
RG
Imagine a city of half a million people saving 90,000 tonnes of CO2 every year due to cycling instead of car and bus journeys. That's what Copenhagen achieves through a staggering 37% of journeys to school and work being done in the saddle.
I've learned so much of practical benefit to us back home at the Climate Change Summit, or more precisely on the fringes and through arranged meetings in the city. So why can't we do such ground breaking health promoting travel here? No reason why not. The Holyrood Committee enquiry into cycling and walking has to be practical for our climate. So its a sobering thought that 80% of normal cycle journeys continue in winters in Denmark. They just clear the snow from cycle lanes before they do the roads.
Also the Climate Parliament gathering in Christianhaven brought elected parliamentarians from Iceland to India and from Scotland to Sweden in a discussion on huge energy grids to serve all of Europe. There's so much to discuss on this it will require a longer note.
Meantime Patrick managed to hold the train for 1 minute to let me get a ticket and sprint down the ramp to catch the 11.48pm train to Malmo. Now I can say I've been to Sweden and Denmark three times each, on subsequent day. A frequent visitor on a superlative electric train service.
More on snowflakes and Klimaa Forum later. Can't see the big talks making substantial money available to make this accord on Friday a truly historic event. We'll see...
RG
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