Interview with Frank Jensen, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen

Copenhagen has become the model city for mobility through cycling and the Danish capital has now set its sights on becoming the first carbon neutral city by 2025. William Thorpe talked to the Lord Mayor about his ambitious plans to reduce emissions.

Most politicians start out their career in local politics and then move to the national stage. You, however, began at the national level, became a minister, and then moved to the private sector. What brought you back to politics, and in particular, made you to want to become mayor?

Becoming Lord Mayor of Copenhagen has been a great and extraordinary challenge for me. Politics in a big and diverse city as Copenhagen means creating solutions that affect the everyday lives of many people. As a mayor, I can strive to improve the quality of life for Copenhageners and generate growth and new jobs in Copenhagen and Denmark.

I had a very interesting and fulfilling job in the private sector, and it was a great experience to see society from a different point of view from what I did as a politician. But when I was asked to run for Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, I also realised that I love politics. I missed the opportunity of having a positive impact on peoples’ lives and working for my party, The Social Democrats. To me being in politics is a tremendous gift that I cherish. The private sector taught me a lot–but my heart is in politics.

Copenhagen has often led the national debate on issues in which the rest of the country then follows. Do you think as Mayor, you have a greater long-term influence than the Prime Minister?

I see my influence as a Mayor as different from the influence of the Prime Minister. Local politics are close to peoples’ everyday lives. I work hard to secure that all citizens have equal opportunities and can enjoy life, no matter where they were born, what education their parents have, or what their income is.

The city has come under the spotlight as it sets out an ambitious plan to become the world’s first CO₂ neutral capital by 2025. What policies and programmes are in place to work towards this and is neutrality really achievable?

We have launched a plan that will realise the ambition of becoming the world’s first CO₂ neutral capital by 2025. It is a realistic and economically viable plan. But if we are to reach our goal we also need support and investments from the citizens of Copenhagen and the private sector. So we are working very hard to make these important partnerships work.

Extensive retrofitting of buildings, reorganisation of the energy supply, more wind turbines and a change in transport habits are some of the many initiatives that we plan to implement to reach our 2025 goal.

Part of the goal is to reduce CO₂ emissions by 1.1 million tonnes. Is it possible to improve economic growth, cut emissions and still keep both business and citizens happy? How are you including business and citizens in that process?

True, a key challenge is to create a city that can maintain economic growth and at the same time reduce CO₂ emissions. In Copenhagen we can and we do both. We will continue to design a city where people enjoy living because it is clean and healthy and where the city offers attractive surroundings for families and for both the young and old. At the same time, we are stimulating economic growth for example, in the clean tech sector.

From 2005 to 2011, we were fortunate enough to achieve both economic growth and a reduction of our CO₂ emissions by 20 percent. So I do believe that it is possible to cut down emissions dramatically.

Our climate plan has been developed in close cooperation with the citizens of Copenhagen, NGOs and knowledge institutions.

The plan will require municipal investments of around DKK 2.7 billion (US$473 million) before 2025. In the same period, there will be new private investments of DKK 20-25 bn (US$3.5 billion), creating employment of approximately 35,000 man-years. The environment, climate and economy will all profit from these investments and Copenhageners can look forward to savings on their electricity and heating bills when the climate plan has been implemented. So it is a winning formula for everybody.

Is having cycling as a top mobility choice feasible in your city’s harsh winters?

I am happy to say that more than half of Copenhageners use their bikes on a daily basis getting to work or to school. Eighty percent of them even do so during winter. The business case is very good: we save €0.16 for every kilometre which is cycled.

During your tenure as President of EUROCITIES a main priority was trying to get greater involvement of cities and regions in shaping and delivering strategic priorities, such as Europe 2020, cohesion policy and the future EU budget. What successes did you have here?

Copenhagen is a member of the C40 Climate Network and EUROCITIES. As president of EUROCITIES, I was deeply involved in creating an international network as cities are crucial to solving global problems such as reducing CO₂-emissions.And I firmly believe that networks between cities can provide platforms for developing new solutions. That is why Copenhagen joins in projects with other cities.

You teamed up with C40 last year to lead a green growth network of cities, particularly in attracting business support and investment. What type of support have you gained from businesses?

I consider these networks crucial for two reasons. Firstly, cities can learn a lot from each other. We share many of the same challenges and there is every good reason to exchange good and viable solutions between us. Secondly, we can learn a lot from each other when it comes to attracting investments and creating a strong, green sector.

I believe that partnerships between municipalities and the private sector are the future of green investments and the best way to gain new knowledge and develop more sophisticated technologies. In Copenhagen, we maintain close cooperation with businesses, and we are in a constant dialogue with them. We believe that both parties will profit from being partners and allies.

Fortunately, Copenhagen has a lot to offer in green growth. Our long term investments in sustainable solutions have generated a strong, green sector in Copenhagen. From 2000 to 2012 the sector has had a 330 percent growth rate. The OECD has used Copenhagen as a model city in a study of green growth, and we have been named the world’s best place for clean tech start-ups by the WWF.