The Climate Express from Brussels to Copenhagen arrived at Copenhagen Central Station with more than 400 EcoPassengers on 5 December.More than 400 climate change negotiators, business leaders, environmental activists and journalists will board the CO2-free Climate Express train on 5 December to the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.They will be hosted by Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General of the International Union of Railways (UIC) and the initiator of this special train, along with Achim Steiner, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme and James P. Leape, Director General of WWF. The passengers will also be joined by the British Council's Young Climate Champions from all five continents on their trip to the Copenhagen conference, which kicks off on 7 December.
The aim of the journey is to support and encourage decision-makers to deliver a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the first international effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Its purpose is also to send out the message that the next-generation climate agreement and its supporting policies and procedures need to address the transport sector's growing emissions
Also boarding the Climate Express train is the Climate Expert Team, which started the symbolic train journey 3 weeks ago in Kyoto - the birthplace of the current Climate Change Protocol. The journey took them among others along the Trans-Siberian route, organised by Russian Railways (RZD), with Copenhagen as their final destination. The Team will bring a special message from the rail community: a global position paper entitled "Keeping Climate Change Solutions on Track: The Role of Rail".
During their journey to Copenhagen via Cologne and Hamburg, the passengers will take part in a wide range of activities on the train, including high level discussions aiming to raise awareness of the transport sector's influence on climate change. Achim Steiner, James Leape and Pr. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will also take part in a panel discussion on 'Updating Climate Science: What is at stake?'.
On board the train, the workshops and round-table discussions on the various aspects of sustainable mobility and how it can be addressed in a post-2012 agreement will be a key opportunity for passengers on board to discuss the crucial climate talks ahead.
The journey will be a totally CO2-free journey, as the power drawn for the locomotive comes entirely from renewable sources of energy. If the same group of people flew to Copenhagen, they would produce 115kg of CO2 per person.
The Climate Express will be welcomed upon arrival in Copenhagen by Connie Hedegaard, the Minister for the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen and Commissioner for Climate Action, Søren Eriksen, CEO of the Danish Railways (DSB), and Kim Carstensen, Leader of WWF International's Global Climate Initiative.
The Climate Express train will be the final leg of the 'Train to Copenhagen' project, organised by the International Union of Railways (UIC) with the support of the UN's Seal the Deal! Campaign and WWF, the global conservation organisation.
