Should we Seattleise Copenhagen?

Norwich Green Party councillor Rupert Read has suggested it is time to Seattleise Copenhagen, as any agreement is likely to be even worse than Kyoto, but when I put this to the panel from Greenpeace and Action Aid who were giving us an update on the negotiations at Klimaforum on Tuesday evening, they were against the idea, as we don't have time to wait around - they thought there was still hope something better could come from Copenhagen

Copenhagen

I've finally arrived in Copenhagen, having had to do the last bit on the train, since they don't allow you to cross the bridge to Zealand (the island on which Copenhagen sits) on a cycle, so my trip wasn't completely zero carbon.

But I think this is an important illustration that individuals alone cannot defeat climate change - the reason why I could not cycle on the bridge is a political one, and it is a combination of individual action and politics that will be effective.

The rumours here are that a Copenhagen agreement, if we do get one, will be even worse than Kyoto, retaining its bad aspects - the offsets which mean there can be no true cap on emissions, and removing the good ones - the binding emission reduction targets, which would be replaced by voluntary ones.

Tomorrow I am making a presentation (10am to noon) and a press conference (3pm) on my journey and the solutions I have discovered, at the Klimaforum .

Aabenraa

Finally left Flensburg today, to travel into Denmark - the end of a great time with Clemens, Sam and Julian, the three students of energy and environmental management I've been staying with for the past couple of weeks.
I've now joined up with Kim Nguyens and his group.www.rideplanetearth.org Kim has cycled all the way from Australia, but the rest of us have been shorter distances.
We got as far as Aabenraa today, but we've got a 75 km ride tomorrow, and my gears aren't working.

Dirkshof

On Friday I cycled 50km across northern Germany to the North Sea coast, to visit Dirkshof, the first publicly owned wind farm in Germany, started 20 years ago by farmer Dirk Ketelsen, who has many of his neighbours as shareholders in an extremely profitable venture bringing 10% per annum return on investment thanks to the German renewable energy law with its feed-in tariffs

Zero Carbon Sonderborg

At last I have found it - a place bold enough to make the case for zero carbon emissions (not just low carbon emissions, which is a fairly meaningless term since it can be used to mean almost anything, including 1% less than business as usual).
Zero Carbon Sonderborg has extremely ambitious proposals to get to zero emissions by 2029, and they have been carefully worked out in a plan which is about to be published.
They have a number of innovative initiatives on how to do it, including zero families; a zero plus house, which generates more energy than it uses (so you get a cheque from the electricity company, not a bill - that should go down well with the public!); Bright Green Youth which organised a conference in August this year to come up with climate solutions, which will be presented to the COP in Denmark, and implemented in Sonderborg this year; zero farming, involving energy saving ideas and using manure to generate energy; zero municipality; and business (Bright Green Business).
I meet with managing director Peter Rathje and his assistant Christian, and they explain the ideas behind Zero Carbon Sonderborg.They have solved the problem of transportation without using oil by going electric - the same idea promoted by the Centre for Alternative Technology in their Zero Carbon Britain report

Waiting in Flensburg

I have been waiting to cross the Danish border for several days now, staying with a group of energy and environment students who are planning to sail to the COP in Copenhagen - sadly, they won't be leaving in time to get me there by 8th December so I can do my presentation at the alternative Klimaforum09.
Instead, I am going to join up with Kim Nguyen, who has cycled all the way from Australia. He will arrive here at the end of November, and will reach Copenhagen on 6th December .
But I haven't been wasting my time here. I've been to an anti-nuclear, anti-'clean' coal demo, and attended a talk by Ingrid Nestle, newly elected MP for the Greens, and their speaker on energy economics. We discuss energy scenarios afterwards. She agrees that a zero carbon world is certainly possible, though we disagree on how soon; she thinks it can't be until around 2040, I think it could be much sooner, if only we had the political will.
I've also visited Energie aus Wind und Sonne . They are one of the biggest suppliers of renewable energy in northern Germany, and have a large warehouse full of solar panels, for which they are acting as wholesalers, as well as being involved in wind,solar thermal and wood-pellet-fueled central heating systems. They can source the wood from factory waste, using only 10% of it, to provide heat for 100,000 homes. There is clearly room for a lot of expansion, but a simple calculation shows that this can only be part of the solution (100% would be only one million homes), and we need to look for other forms of heat/insulation.
Last night I attended presentations by some of the students on the energy and environment course at the University of Flensburg. They were very interesting, covering means of liberalising energy markets and increasing the proportions of renewables, and the potential of wind and solar technologies. They were also in English, very useful for someone who hasn't studied German for over 40 years!
It seems that there is enough technical potential for wind power to supply seven times Germany's energy supply, and 18 times Europe's, but other factors, such as opposition from NIMBYs, and cost, cut this down.
I went to a talk by Prof Dr Olav Hohmeyer, from the University of Flensburg, and former chair of the IPCC Working group III (adaptation) last night. He said the way forward is to use renewables and energy efficiency, not nuclear power, because of the dangers of accidents and nuclear proliferation, and not carbon capture and sequestration because the available storage for CO2 will be needed later this century for storing CO2 captured from biomass burning, which will be necessary to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere

Artefact

Artefact is a truly amazing place - a little like the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, but smaller, with far fewer tourists, they concentrate on training people in areas such as photovoltaics. They also have strong connections with the Global South; there were people there being selected as volunteers over the weekend; they also showcase examples of techniques developed in the South, such as a building from Africa which is constructed so that it requires no air conditioning.
One of the men on a photovoltaics training course had studied political science, doing his dissertation on the German renewable energy law on feed-in tariffs.
While I was at Artefact I attended the General Meeting of INFORSE-Europe (INFORSE is short for the International Network for Sustainable Energy). Paul Allen from the Centre for Alternative Technology, project director for the Zero Carbon Britain report which was the inspiration for the Zero Caravan, was present, and the meeting decided to recommend 2030 rather than 2050 as a date to aim for zero carbon by.

Bremen

Arrived in Bremen after a 65km ride through the valley of the R Weser - stopping to be photographed for the local paper at a hydro power site on the journey.
I was accompanied all the way; Johanne, Kurt and Helmut - members of BUND (Friends of the Earth) Nienburg, came to Achim, where they handed me over to Christian Gudz of BUND Bremen, who took me on to Katja Muchow's house, where I am staying the night before travelling on tomorrow to Bremerhaven where I am taking part in an event at Klimahaus.
Katja works for BUND Bremen, and her husband, Jörn, is a mathematician working on models of climate change. We have an interesting conversation about tipping points.

Nienburg

I was accompanied all the way from Hannover to my next stop in Nienburg (so even I couldn't get lost!) by members of the ADFC (the German cyclists' club), with Heiko taking me from Hannover to Neustadt along a beautiful route through woodlands (where he had to push me up a steep muddy bank) and along the River Weser, and Berthold and Ralf (on recumbents, Berthold on a bike and Ralf on a trike) taking me on to Nienburg, where we were met at the Umweltzentrum (environment centre) by Johanne, Günther, Helmut and Mechthild from BUND (Friends of the Earth) Nienburg. Johanne teaches cooking, and she had cooked us a delicious meal of pasta, cheese and spinach with a tomato sauce, followed by tiramisou (not that I needed much encouragement to eat after a 65 km bike ride).
I spent the night at Helmut and Mechthild's house, and the next day more members of BUND Nienburg joined us - Johanne and Günther again, and also Manfred and Kurt. We put the world to rights, and finished off the remains of my birthday cake.
Helmut had done a good job with the press - there was a nice story about me in the local free Sunday newspaper, and I practised my German translating it (with a lot of help - it's over 40 years since I learned German at school)
Before I left Nienburg on Monday morning I met the mayor. He isn't in a political party, and is directly elected by the people. He is very keen to do something about climate change, and was very interested in my journey. He asked if I had noticed any differences between the countries I had travelled to, and the first thing that came to mind was cycle tracks - virtually non-existent in Britain; quite a few, but often very narrow, in Belgium; the best in Holland; and a lot in Germany, but sometimes not with very good surfaces.

Hannover

After a beautiful journey over the hills passing through woodlands changing into their autumnal colours I arrived in Hannover, where the local groups of BUND (the German branch of Friends of the Earth) and the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club (the German cyclists' club) had organised a joint press conference, which resulted in an article in the Hannoversche Allgemeiner Zeitung.

Afterwards I was taken by Heiko Schulze, head of the Hannover regional office of the ADFC, to the Raederwerk cycle shop http://www.raederwerk-gmbh.de, where they have a greater variety of bicycles and tricycles than I have seen anywhere else, and they build "Milan" velomobiles http:www.milan-velomobile.de ("built for high speed travelling over long distances"). The Milan is an all-weather vehicle (if it is raining, close the roof and you stay dry) - I only wish I could afford one (they start at 6,500 euros!).

In the evening BUND organised a birthday party, complete with cake, and gave me a large amount of chocolate as a birthday present (ideal for a quick transfusion of energy when long distance cycling), for my birthday is the next day (on Halloween!)

Hameln

Hameln can also be spelled Hamelin, and its claim to fame is as the setting for the tale of the Pied Piper. I began my visit with a meal in a local restaurant with members of the local BUND group, arriving at 6.57 for a time of 7pm - after a journey of 80km! Next day I was taken on tour of renewable energy facilities in the locality by Rainer - they are extremely varied, including wind, solar and biogas

Bielefeld

I continued the punishing succession of 70km rides again on Sunday, travelling from Muenster to Bielefeld. Somewhat surprisingly my knees seem to be standing up to it quite well - I'm hardly getting any pain, probably because I'm mostly cycling in a low gear. Knees can easily become stressed on a recumbent, because you can brace yourself against the backrest, putting a lot of pressure on the pedals, but also the knees. (Sadly, my back tyre wasn't as tough as my knees, and I got not one, but two punctures, so on Monday I went to a shop with a good range of bikes, and got a more puncture resistant tyre!) I had made a special effort to include Bielefeld in my journey, because they are the second city in Germany to become an official transition community, and I had met Gerd Wessling, the main organiser of the transition initiative there, at a meeting in Brussels over three weeks ago. Silke Berger from the local BUND (Friends of the Earth) group was an enormous help, organising a meeting and a place to stay with Ursula Gindele-Berendonk and her husband (who had to come out an find me when I got lost late at night trying to find my way back after the meeting.) The meeting, at the Umwelt Zentrum (environment centre), was attended by representatives of both the local papers. I described my journey and reasons for doing it, so I hope the people of Bielefeld wake up to the importance of the Copenhagen talks.

Muenster

After spending Friday night with Elly and Ariane, I had another long day on Saturday - a 70km ride over the border into Germany to Muenster. It was strange to think that such national borders had had such significance in the past; now I hardly even noticed it. Elly accompanied me over the border, and said she often goes shopping there.

We passed through a nature reserve which is being considered for Natura 2000 status, before I went on alone on the long road to Muenster. I arrived at the youth hostel where I had been intending to stay to find it full, but they directed me to a cheap hotel nearby, where I indulged myself by switching on the TV when I awoke early in the morning (I haven't owned a TV myself for several years). To my surprise I found myself watching a discussion on the Copenhagen climate talks I am aiming for - it just goes to show that the media are waking up to their importance, so maybe we might just get a good deal there - we have to keep putting on the pressure anyway.

Enschede

I haven't been keeping the blog up to date recently because things have been far too hectic, with lots of long journeys and not many days in one place.
The journey from Zwolle to Enschede was about 70 km, I was accompanied by Huib Poortman, and we were interviewed for both radio and television by RTV Oost. http://www.rtvoost.nl/nieuws/default.aspx?nid=102858

On the way from Zwolle to Enschede we passed through the Salland National Park, a beautiful piece of heathland to the west of Enschede, before arriving in Buurse, just to the south of Enschede, where we were treated to a delicious slow food meal by Elly and Ariane. They had also invited Daphne Dertien, a Groen Links councillor on the regional council, and we had an interesting discussion about her work as a councillor, before Huib had to depart to go back home to Rotterdam. Huib has now accompanied me for several days, but this is the last I shall see of him; I shall miss his friendly advice.

Zwolle

The journey from Dronten to Zwolle was pretty rough - lots of rain and a cold north easterly wind - I begin to wish I had bought the velomobile in Ghent, as it was an all weather vehicle, even having a hood to put on when it rains, but the rain eased off, and I was put in a much better mood when I met Herman Reuvekamp from the Groen Links and we went for a warming bowl of soup - when Herman explained what I was doing the restaurant (Olde Vismarket) let me eat for free. Had a marvellous time with the Groen Links group in Zwolle, visiting a sustainable housing development run by the local authority, and a restaurant in an earthship (a building constructed from waste materials).

Flevoland - A positive vision of the future

At last I have found an area where wind has been fully embraced without hesitation.
The flat landscape provides a lot of wind power (enough to blow my trike along when I left it unattended without the brake!) and wind turbines were everywhere, providing an amazing 60% of the region's energy.
I recorded a video, and couldn't resist adding a caustic comment about the number of schemes blocked by NIMBYs in Britain, and the number of lives this has cost.
I took a picture of Frans van Schoot in his velomobile next to a wind turbine - the future of energy and transport - I hope!
While I was in Flevoland Frans also took me to an ecological housing development. The houses have solar panels and insulation and the gardens are carefully designed to be kind to the environment.
In Dronten I visited one of the few factories where velomobiles are manufactured . It is a shame there are not more of these; I think they have the potential to act as a substitute for a car - you can go quite fast, as long as you are reasonably strong, and it isn't too hilly, and with some of them you can put a roof up when it's raining so you stay dry

agriculture and climate change

I met prof rob van haren of Kiemkracht on monday, at the stadsboerij organic farm. Rob advises the dutch government on how to use agriculture to prevent climate change. We discussed a number of ideas, including using lupins to provide protein, as a substitute for soy beans, saving a lot of co2 emissions used in soya import, and also improving soil fertility as it fixes nitrogen; and the use of biochar to sequester carbon in the soil. Biochar needs to be researched carefully, as there are potentially some serious negative consequences, and it should certainly not be brought into carbon trading schemes and used as an excuse to emit more fossil carbon. We were also shown around the farm, and it was explained to us how organic farming increases carbon in the soil

bushcraft training weekend

i spent last weekend learning a bit of bushcraft - how to identify a few edible mushrooms and herbs, how to make a shelter from wood and leaves (i didn't volunteer to sleep in it though, because i didn't want to ruin my down sleeping bag by getting it wet).
What has this got to do with climate change? Well, if civilisation collapses (which it might well do if we hit a tipping point and the temperature suddenly shoots up seversl degrees in a few years like it did at the end of the ice age) such survival training could come in handy

Green inventions in Zeist

I am now in Zeist, just to the east of Utrecht, staying at the home of green inventor Erik Groen in a beautiful location in the woodlands.
Erik has invented some fantastic machines - cycles with wind turbines and solar power, to make the point that vehicles can be producers of energy rather than consumers (the solar PV roof on one of his bicycles actually produces all the power for running his lights, and this computer); bicycles in a gym which produce electricity for running computer games (a good solution to the obesity crisis currently afflicting some of us in the UK!); a bicycle to produce the electricity for powering a concert (which can be supplemented by solar power); a bicycle running a machine that blows bubbles as a way of getting young children interested in cycling; a solar powered candle; and a solar powered robot which not only races around but talks and laughs as well.
It is creativity such as this which will defeat climate change.

Utrecht

Huib Poortman cycled with me from Rotterdam to Utrecht, taking me through 'the green heart of Holland', a rural area which is protected from development. It was hard going as we faced a stiff north easterly breeze; Holland may be flat, but cycling can still be tough when the wind is against you.

In the evening of my arrival I was met by Bram, who took me to a meeting of Transition Voordorp. Voordorp is a district in the suburbs of Urtrecht, and they are just beginning with the process of transition - this was only their second meeting. They showed a film about Peak Oil and 'A farm for the future' and brainstormed ideas about how they could take things forward.


Utrecht is a really green city, and the next day I met a group from Groen Links who introduced me to Jacques, a local entrepreneur who has invented the cargo hopper, a sustainable method for the short distance transport of goods which is powered by solar panels located on the roof, ideal for making deliveries to local shops in the city centre. I did a video interview.

In the afternoon I met Wim Bot from Fietsersbond, the cyclists' organisation and I recorded an interview for the website about their activities and what they are doing about the Copenhagen climate negotiations. They are part of a very broad coalition of Dutch organisations demanding an effective treaty, including environmental and faith groups as well as lots of others such as trade unions.

Holland will be providing OV bikes (public transport bikes) for the participants in Copenhagen. These are bikes which are available for hire cheaply at railway stations, the idea being that you cycle to the station, leave your own bike there, take the train to your destination and hire an OV bike (there wouldn't be much room left for pasengers if all the Dutch took their bikes on the trains!)


Cycling is very popular in Holland, with many different sorts of bicycles, including one very popular model which can take heavy loads on the front, and is used by many parents for taking their children to school. It would cut congestion a lot in Britain if parents used these instead of driving their children to school