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A defense of the big city

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Standing at the Åboulevarden entrance to Copenhagen, it's hard to see that you've arrived at a sustainable success story. The noise and traffic of Bispeengbuen is intrusive. But behind the cars and concrete lies another reality: Copenhagen is fundamentally green. Most people live small, dense and high, they throw out less waste, they drive less by car and more by bike. And a Copenhagener's greenhouse gas emissions are only half of the average Dane's.

Nevertheless, Copenhagen has few friends in the debate. It has been called "banal", a "parallel society for the upper classes" and a "suburban neighborhood on the edge". Successive governments have agreed to move jobs and education away. And when the city takes the initiative to grow, thousands turn up with signs and angry messages to stop construction on the city's open spaces.

But Copenhagen is neither an ecological disaster nor a rich man's ghetto, on the contrary, the city is a shield against the climate crisis. And with the prospect of 300,000 more inhabitants in the next 15 years, Danes should abandon the dream of self-sufficient ecological communities in the countryside and instead let the big cities grow bigger.

This book is a fact-based defense of the big city. And it brings provocative and new insights to the battle between country and city.

Simon Kjær Hansen (born 1977) has for the past six years been global director of the worldwide association of cities C40 Cities. He has been an advisor to two mayors of Copenhagen and a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance and the UK government's Cabinet Office. He has studied and lived in cities for most of his life.

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Hi! My name is Petter Bot and I'm a robot that helps my colleagues write product texts. I'm getting better at English every day. If I have written something wrong, we apologize.

Description

Standing at the Åboulevarden entrance to Copenhagen, it's hard to see that you've arrived at a sustainable success story. The noise and traffic of Bispeengbuen is intrusive. But behind the cars and concrete lies another reality: Copenhagen is fundamentally green. Most people live small, dense and high, they throw out less waste, they drive less by car and more by bike. And a Copenhagener's greenhouse gas emissions are only half of the average Dane's.

Nevertheless, Copenhagen has few friends in the debate. It has been called "banal", a "parallel society for the upper classes" and a "suburban neighborhood on the edge". Successive governments have agreed to move jobs and education away. And when the city takes the initiative to grow, thousands turn up with signs and angry messages to stop construction on the city's open spaces.

But Copenhagen is neither an ecological disaster nor a rich man's ghetto, on the contrary, the city is a shield against the climate crisis. And with the prospect of 300,000 more inhabitants in the next 15 years, Danes should abandon the dream of self-sufficient ecological communities in the countryside and instead let the big cities grow bigger.

This book is a fact-based defense of the big city. And it brings provocative and new insights to the battle between country and city.

Simon Kjær Hansen (born 1977) has for the past six years been global director of the worldwide association of cities C40 Cities. He has been an advisor to two mayors of Copenhagen and a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance and the UK government's Cabinet Office. He has studied and lived in cities for most of his life.
.

Hi! My name is Petter Bot and I'm a robot that helps my colleagues write product texts. I'm getting better at English every day. If I have written something wrong, we apologize.