A once-in-a-lifetime experience: Learning about Clean Energy in Copenhagen with the GreenSCENT Youth Assembly
Miguel Font Ligero, Participant in the GreenSCENT Youth Assemblies
From September 1st to September 3rd 2023, the youth assembly number one gathered in the city of Copenhagen for the first in-person meeting of this project. Aiming to learn about the environmental background of the city, as well as its ongoing projects to reach a sustainable development pattern and to fight the now evident signs of climate change, the group was led with the help of organisers Ida and Ditte to several local facilities.
The first day started by a welcoming session where all participants got to know each other. We later headed to have dinner at Flere Fugle at Demokrati Garage, a beautiful restaurant on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by livelihood and promising projects.
Demokrati Garage and the bakery and restaurant Flere Fugle. Picture from @FlereFugle on Instagram
Learning about Clean Energy in Copenhagen
On the second day, we visited Energy and Water Showroom, where we got to visualise the main goals of the city regarding the mentioned competences, as well as the main challenges and risks it currently faces. The visit successfully shared, in the most understandable and dynamic way, a great insight on the current situation for the city and allowed the group to share their thoughts and experiences about how their own countries handle similar scenarios.
Later on, we were led to ARC (Amager Resource Centre), a world class waste plant, where residual household and industrial waste is continuously converted to district heating and electricity. Moreover, we learnt about the ways in which the plant handles the such residues and the enormous range at which its benefits span across the city.
Finally, we took a bus ferry back to the core of the city, where we enjoyed it’s historical architecture, to later have dinner at Absalon, a colourful renovated church that is now a unique and heartwarming place for everyone who happens to be in the city to gather and share delicious food and charming company.
The bitter sweet goodbye
On the last day, we had a closing workshop at Læderstæde 20, after which we enjoyed preparing some of the traditional ‘open sandwiches’ (Smørrebrød in Danish).
The delicious meal was followed by a bitter sweet goodbye, after which everyone parted ways, having enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I am deeply thankful for what we lived over those three days. What I learnt and discovered exceeded greatly any expectations I could have had.
Mette Føns, Knowledge Centre & Showroom Coordinator, provided exciting and understandable insights on Copenhagen’s initiatives within sustainability and clean energy in the Energy & Water showroom.
At ARC, we learnt how to convert heat from burning waste into steam, and then from steam into electricity and heat for households. We also saw how carbon from burning waste is captured in ARC’s relatively new Carbon capture & storage system.
The bus ferry took the Youth Assembly to Nyhavn – the core of Copenhagen and a beautiful sight of the Copenhagen channels. Picture by Miguel Font Ligero