Nordic Climate Solutions, which was held on 8 and 9 September in Copenhagen, brought together this year more than 1000 producers, suppliers, customers and business partners as well as politicians and scientists and focus on market trends, drivers and barriers and framework conditions for transport, energy efficiency, renewable and intelligent energy.
In December 2009, the Danish government will host the 15th UN Climate Summit (COP15) with the goal of achieving a post-Kyoto agreement. As a frontrunner in renewable energy and effective energy production, and a host to a milestone Summit, all eyes will be turned on the Nordic countries. Looking towards and beyond the Copenhagen COP15, Nordic Climate Solutions gathered a significant number of business and industry leaders to showcase ready-to-implement solutions. This year the conference focused on transport, energy efficiency, renewable and intelligent energy, with the motto “Turn the biggest challenge into your greatest opportunity”.
UIC General Director, Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, participated to the conference, and took the floor during a session dedicated to the Transports on the theme “How to Achieve Sustainable Development in the Transport sector”. During this session the 3 speakers, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General, Magnus Heunicke, Member Parliament and Transport Spokesman / Danish Parliament and Michael Clausecker, Director General of the European Rail Industry (UNIFE) discussed about the fact that transport is causing around a quarter of the global CO2 emissions, despite technological advances. A modal shift to railway and public transport are crucial to reduce GHG emissions and seem to be the key to achieve the Kyoto targets and beyond.
Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux showed how UIC is daily involved to continuously improve the sustainability performance of the rail sector, including mitigation (how to reduce emissions) and adaptation (adapting to the consequences of the climate changes) to tackle the cause and effects of the global warming. He also highlighted the role played by Rail as part of the solution to global warming thanks to its low environmental impact.
He finally presented the “Train To Copenhagen” campaign, in the framework of the upcoming Conference of the United Nations (COP15), whose aim is to increase the awareness, among the delegates and media, of the transportation sector’s impact on climate change, and to promote rail as a solution to reduce the CO2 emissions in the transportation sector.
