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On-board the Climate Express from Brussels to Copenhagen

Amid the bustle and throngs of passengers at Gare du Midi, Brussel’s main station, climate change activists were getting to work to urge negotiators to agree to an ambitious deal at COP15 that could save the planet from the destructive effects of global warming.

“There has been a lot of negativity surrounding these talks, but the amount of people taking the Climate Express is proof of the concern about climate change,” Rémi Gruet from European Wind Energy Association said before boarding the train. “This train will arrive at its destination, but will the Copenhagen summit?” Gruet questioned.

During the 14-hour journey, travellers will be able to attend climate talks by the WWF, UNDP, IPCC, European Commission and other specialists. There will be workshops on climate change and a screening of the ‘age of stupid’ plus discussion with the film’s director Franny Armstrong.

Jazz, a DJ and tasty organic food are among the other attractions on-board.

The train, travelling via Cologne and Hamburg, will arrive in Copenhagen at 23:00 for a pre-summit reception opened by Connie Hedegaard, Danish minister for climate and energy.

Denmark, climate summit host, tops table of fighting climate change with wind power

Wind power fights climate change. It is an abundant energy resource. Wind energy is a real alternative to emission producing fossil fuels and, crucially, can be deployed and begin reducing CO2 emissions immediately. Wind energy is already fighting climate change: in 2008, wind power in the EU avoided the emission of 91 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2.

In the run-up to the crucial climate change talks in Copenhagen, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has published a league table showing which EU countries are best at exploiting CO2-cutting wind energy.

Top of the table is Denmark, with the highest amount of wind energy capacity per square kilometre of national territory. Germany comes a close second and the Netherlands third. Spain, in fourth place, has half the wind power density of Germany. Portugal and Ireland are above the EU average wind power density.

Italy is not far below average, while France and the UK each have less than half of the EU’s average density of wind power capacity. Romania, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus are floundering at the bottom of the league with next to zero wind power generation per km2.

www.ewea.org