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The Sustainable Hour no. 426 | Podcast notes
In this week’s Sustainable Hour on 24 August 2022, we welcome Mik Aidt back from his two weeks in Denmark for a family reunion. Today the tables are turned on him as he becomes our guest.
Mik starts out by referring to two carbon emission records that were broken last year. After this, he rails against the number of coal and gas plants that are being built around the world, 114 of which are being currently considered by our federal government. At the same time, green and clean energy only makes up 14 per cent of the global energy portfolio. Looking at the escalating climate catastrophes around the world, something in our collective consumer and behaviour patterns obviously needs to change, and very quickly.
We then discuss what an all-of-society climate resilient development could look like. Scientists agree that for a sustainable, climate-safe world we need fundamental changes to ‘underlying values, worldviews, ideologies, social structures, political and economic systems, and power relationships.’ More on this can be found at the IPCC’s website.
We spend the rest of the program talking about values, power relationships, trust, and the huge social and infrastructural changes that Mik observed mainly in Denmark’s capital city Copenhagen since he was last there four years ago.
It soon becomes very clear that emission-aware, low-carbon living and a lifestyle focused on sustainability has become embedded in Copenhagen’s culture. Compared to there, we in Australia are quite a way behind. The big test for us is how long will it take us to catch up in how we design our cities to get them away from being car centred and carbon emitting. How we recycle… How we manufacture and transport our goods… What we buy… How we get around… and how we decide our streets and houses should be built.
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Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook has to begin in the USA where president Joe Biden this week signed into law the biggest climate legislation in U.S. history. It was a struggle against Republican opposition, and it took a bit of odd naming, but the curiously titled ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ commits $369 billion to put the US steadily on a path toward cutting emissions by 2030. Passing this bill was counted as an historic legislative feat in which every Republican voted against and every Democrat voted for climate action.
We then zoom to China where their ongoing drought has caused widespread crop failures and power cuts in parts of the nation’s dependent of hydro energy. It was significant that when recommissioning coal-fired generating plants, the Chinese Government made it clear that this was a temporary measure and it was still committed to action on climate change.
Following on to France where fires are raging, their drought has brought in water restrictions and some unusual moves from activists.
Then to Spain where the government has mandated for shops and businesses to not set their air conditioning below 28°C degrees – by law. It’s down to the police to visit businesses and check for how cool it is. The government has also said that it’s unnecessary for MPs to wear ties, and have encouraged people to wear cool clothing to work.
Down to Oz with two pieces of news: first, the east coast – that’s us – has been warned by the meteorological office to expect heavier than normal rainfall in spring and summer because their computer forecast predict another La Ninja summer – the third in a row, which hasn’t happened since the mid 1970s. They’re essentially giving advance warning of widespread floods and later fires because of advanced regrowth.
Exciting news from Australia is that a new electric vehicle start-up company is right now converting our big semi-trailer trucks and road-trains into electric heavy-haulers that will be powered by a quick-change battery network. The company is called Janus Electric. They have a factory on New South Wales’ central coast which has orders to convert 67 vehicles this year, maxing out its workshop space.
The system will in time be able to switch the country’s 100,000 articulated, semi-trailer and B-double trucks to a renewable electric platform that has the potential to wipe out significant carbon emissions from the notoriously dirty diesel motors. In Australia, trucks use about 23 per cent of road transport fuel, and it’s virtually all diesel. As well as transforming existing articulated trucks with a 720 horsepower electric motor and interchangeable batteries, Janus Electric is negotiating with service stations on the main highways between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to set up a network of large battery-swap terminals. The battery-change will be achieved with a fork-lift and will take approximately the same time as a normal refuelling stop.
The company hasn’t said yet how it will recharge the battery system but green power is on the agenda. The company is funding the network rollout by selling capital in the business intending to raise $100 million within the next 12 months. The trucks being converted in Janus’ workshop are not all for the same companies. They’re calling them ‘seed’ vehicles for companies which own fleets. The owner said: “What we’re doing is to say, we’ll put one truck in, we’ll change it to electric, you can see how it goes and then we’ll start converting the entire fleet over.”
Transport giant Qube and mining company OZ Minerals are already customers. Qube operates heavy-haulage transport at OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena copper mine in South Australia, trucking the ore to Whyalla. Both companies have partnered with Janus to fit out the country’s heaviest road-going electric vehicle, a super quad road train, which will be powered by renewable energy battery stations at each end of the route. And though new to Australia, the technology exists elsewhere. There are ‘Change and charge’ battery stations for heavy vehicles in China, and electric vehicle maker Nio has a swap system in Norway for its electric cars.
And finally, the world’s only carbon neutral sports team, Forest Green Rovers, had its match last week postponed because heavy rains caused a waterlogged pitch that was deemed unplayable. This week the team lost 1-3 to Plymouth Argyle, leaving it in 20th spot on the 24-team ladder. But with a lot of room to learn and improve.
Colin will be back with his important international roundup next week. Each week he starts us off in The Sustainable Hour with handpicked and unique news of events happening all over our amazing planet, the kind of stories that mainstream media fail to pick up.
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We’ll be back next week, doing our best to provide actual models of how our nation can transform in a similar future-positive carbon-negative direction as the Danes have managed to do it. We’ll be talking to people who have found their way to become active participants in the climate revolution. We hope they inspire you, our listeners, to do the same.
BE THE DIFFERENCE.
~ Anthony Gleeson
“Targeting a climate resilient, sustainable world involves fundamental changes to how society functions, including changes to underlying values, worldviews, ideologies, social structures, political and economic systems, and power relationships.”
~ IPCC Working Group 2, AR6
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We at The Sustainable Hour would like to pay our respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which we
are broadcasting, the Wathaurong People, and pay our respect to their elders, past, present and future.
The traditional owners lived in harmony with the land. They nurtured it and thrived in often harsh conditions for millenia before they were invaded. Their land was then stolen from them – it wasn’t ceeded. It is becoming more and more obvious that, if we are to survive the climate emergency we are facing, we have much to learn from their land management practices.
Our battle for climate justice won’t be won until our First Nations brothers and sisters have their true justice. When we talk about the future, it means extending our respect to those children not yet born, the generations of the future – remembering the old saying that, “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.”
The decisions currently being made around Australia to ignore the climate emergency are being made by those who won’t be around by the time the worst effects hit home. How disrespectful and unfair is that?
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“The prospects for effective action improve when governments at all levels work with citizens, civil society, educational bodies and scientific institutions, the media, investors and businesses and form partnerships with traditionally marginalised groups, including women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, local communities and ethnic minorities. In such a societal setting, scientific, Indigenous and local knowledge and practical knowhow can come together to provide more relevant effective actions. In addition, different interests, values and worldviews can be reconciled if everyone works together.”
~ IPCC Working Group 2, AR6
If everyone in the world cycled 1.6 kilometres per day like the Danes, it would save 414 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year.
Study published in Nature on 18 August 2022
100% green domestic flight route
The Danish Government has launched a plan to ensure a 100% green domestic flight route by 2025 – and that all domestic aviation will be green by 2030. The transition will be financed by imposing a flat passenger fee of 13 DKK (1.7 EUR).
→ Read more on StateofGreen.com
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The joy of going green in Denmark
“We love a sustainable travel destination – and Denmark makes it look so easy! Bikes, rooftop farms and even inner-city swim spots, what more could you ask for? Join Adrian Mackinder on a green tour of his adopted country.” Video produced by Zinc Media for VisitDenmark.
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The bicycle-mobile DJ’s audio equipment is home-built from recycled material.
Transcript of Mik’s report from Sustainable Copenhagen
From a climate perspective, there is something that makes Denmark stand out: Not a single municipality has signed on to the climate emergency declaration movement in Denmark.
In a neighbouring country, the United Kingdom for instance, there are 570 councils that have declared a climate emergency, and they cover 95 per cent of the British population.
But in Denmark, not a single council.
Why this difference?
What’s wrong with these Danes – what are they thinking? Is it like: “Everything is fine” and we should just continue with business as usual?
When I have been talking with Danish mayors and decision makers, in my attempt to try and convince them of the benefits and significance of declaring a climate emergency, the answer I’ve been getting from them is that they don’t see the need to scare anyone.
“People already get it,” they say. “Here in our municipality we are very occupied and concerned about climate change, and people are taking action, they are changing their behaviour. We all are!,” they say.
The Danes have been pioneers when it comes to creating wind energy – that started already back in the 1970s. But it is here in the last three-four years that the story really has changed, and that has happened without any declarations of emergency.
It took off when the summers began to get hotter and the snow disappeared in the winters, and the country had its first so-called “climate election” three years ago – where both the media and the politicians began talking about the climate issue, and in that way paved the way for a collective shift in the thinking.
Energy companies announced that they would be closing their coal-fired power plants and new regulations were put in place to stop the pollution from cars and buses. In with the community gardens, bicycle lanes, recycling and sorting the rubbish – climate awareness.
Especially Copenhagen has become a very carbon-conscious capital, actually it is buzzing with green inspiration, so – I feel it is like: if you’d like to see what a whole-of-society carbon-conscious future could look like in the rest of the world – this is what the world hopefully will one day will begin to look like when the story begins to change. It is openly out there, with trucks and busses driving around the city with these big, very visible slogans saying: “I’m 100% climate-friendly” – “I’m driving electric” – “I’m carbon-neutral…” The green buzzwords are visible everywhere in the Copenhagen cityscape.
And of course, yes, some of it is greenwashing – sure! But at the city hall, the aspiration is actually quite sincere – they’ve been working hard for years on making Copenhagen into one of the world’s first carbon-neutral capitals.
And from the look of how life rolls out at street level on a summer day in August, really it looks like it is not just the administrators at City Hall, but everyone who are determined to reach that goal of carbon-neutrality – it is the people on their bicycles, it is the commuters, the meat-avoiding consumers at the restaurants, the businesses with their signs in the windows, the community as a whole. That is the impression you get, at least on the surface, that the urban Danes have come together around the call for climate safety.
They drink TomorrowFriendly coffee, and they drink climate-neutral water in bottles produced with 100 per cent recycled plastic. Or plant-based plastic. They eat vegan gluten-free sustainable ice-cream. They work from home when they can and jump on bicycles and ebikes when they are going to work, and the Danes genuinely seem to subscribe to this slogan I saw in shop, where it said: “A richer life doesn’t have to cost a fortune”.
When you come to Copenhagen as a tourist, you are encouraged by the official authorities to use a bicycle or public transport to get around, and to refill and recycle, stop plastic pollution, to buy eco-friendly goods and to eat local produce.
But when the Danes themselves talk about climate and sustainability, they also talk about “Shaping a world of trust” – that was the exact title of a conference I attended which created a bridge between the threats of cybercrime, war and climate breakdown by focusing on the overall importance of safety, security and trust in the business world.
Trust is one of the key elements in the recipe for creating a society, where people feel content with their lives, according to those United Nations researchers who create an annual ‘Happiness Index’ and who keep placing Denmark up in the Top Three on the global list, year after year. It is trust, and the fact that the Danes feel safe, that makes that happen. That’s a precondition, probably, to the Danish story-change.
The Danes take pride in conducting their business with integrity and responsibility, so when it comes to climate, it is the same: it is about taking responsibility for solving the climate crisis, and joining a collective effort. The city of Copenhagen now even has a restaurant which has lifted this core value up as its name: ‘Restaurant Responsibility’.
The IPCC has stated that if we want a climate resilient, sustainable world, it is going to require “fundamental changes to how society functions, including changes to underlying values, worldviews, ideologies, social structures, political and economic systems, and power relationships.”
So that is a discussion we need to have. And when climate activists around the world are out there blocking traffic, and protesting, and writing letters to the politicians, and calling on our leaders to declare a climate emergency, what we really should be talking about is: how is that going to create those fundamental changes?
How is that going to change people’s underlying values, and worldviews, ideologies, social structures, political and economic systems, and power relationships?
How can we reach that state of togetherness around that we need to take climate action? – as it is seen in the streets of Copenhagen, where the overall story has completely changed, and everyone seems to be now on the same page when it comes to protecting and taking care of the climate.
The change we need to see is NOT going to happen until we find a way to change the story and unite everyone together around the new story.
There was a headline in Medium that stated it this way: “To Survive Climate Change our Collective Mindset Must Change”.
So taking that “mindset-conversation” out in the streets and spreading the words in media and social media about what the Danes have been able to do… – I don’t know, but maybe that could be a first step?
Our countries are different, of course, and our cultures are different. In Australia, we have a very powerful fossil fuel industry that has influenced the nation’s mindset – and the way that laws are made in this country.
The Danish government is actually in the process now of putting a real price on carbon, and it doesn’t like that is going to happen here in Australia – until we see some kind of a political revolution – a ‘Teal Revolution’, maybe – with more integrity in politics. We need to ban donations from industry to political parties here in this country, and we need to establish some sort of an anti-corruption body with teeth, so we can stop that flow of dark money that comes from the industry and goes out to private bank accounts in the Cayman Islands.
That’s those ‘power relationships’ that the IPCC is talking about we need to change.
So while it looks like that the Danes have been able to create that shift in the collective thinking without declaring a climate emergency, it still makes a lot of sense to continue calling for a state climate emergency declaration here in Victoria, and for a national climate emergency declaration in Canberra at the federal level, because that is also a way to change the story and to get people to come together around that we need a political shift and we need a collective mindset-shift. We really need to come together. Real change happens when we unite together.
~ Mik Aidt, August 2022
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→ Medium / Age of Awareness – 12 May 2022:
To Survive Climate Change our Collective Mindset Must Change
“A lot of the reasons we are not meeting the challenge of climate change is that the mindsets or ideologies that underly the systems we’re trying to use to fight climate change, aren’t up to the challenge.”
→ Phys.org – 8 March 2022:
Global carbon dioxide emissions rebounded to their highest level in history in 2021
“Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose by 6% in 2021 to 36.3 billion tons, their highest ever level. The increase in global CO2 emissions of over 2 billion tons was the largest in history in absolute terms.
“What we can do? Come together, in communities, and build all those systems, mental, material, social, emotional, that allow life to flourish.”
Umair Haque, August 2022
→ Eudaimonia and Co | Medium – 24 August 2022:
Surviving the Age of Dystopia
“Your Questions on Doom, Hope, Extinction, and the Future, Answered”
“Demand better. Alter our own societies, habits, attitudes, expectations. Transform our social contracts and economies and polities. Stop overthinking, cowering, debating, and get it done.”
Umair Haque, July 2022
→ Eudaimonia and Co | Medium – 18 July 2022:
We’re Not Going to Make it to 2050
“The Age of Extinction Is Dawning by the Day — And We’re Doing Too Little Too Late to Stop It”
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WorkForClimate’s Water cooler chat 🗣
The New York Times has published a fascinating breakdown of the Democrat’s new US climate legislation, and why it’s such a game changer. When the Supreme Court restricted the EPA from fighting climate change earlier this year, it said Congress had never given the agency enough authority to ditch fossil fuels. Thanks to this new legislation, that’s no longer the case. Read this if you enjoy the curious feeling of hope.
It’s the big question: how much meat can we eat? Or at least, how much meat can we eat sustainably? According to the Atlantic and The Guardian, who both dived into our diets this week, not much. Animal-based foods account for 57% of agricultural greenhouse gases – versus just 29% for plants. Still, it’s not as cut and dry as you might think. New research suggests that an all-vegan world might actually have a larger environmental footprint. Food for thought.
Melbourne author Jeff Sparrow has joined a growing chorus of voices arguing that the whole individual-climate-responsibility thing is a bit of a scam. It’s not that we as individuals don’t contribute to climate change – we do. It’s more that corporations have trotted out ‘individual responsibility’ to distract from and diminish their own impact. “By getting people to look at their own individual responsibility for climate change, it meant that people stopped focusing on corporate responsibility,” Sparrow says. The lesson here? Don’t “cripple [yourself] with individualised guilt.” Find another way to fight back.
“Vague goals to hit “net zero” by 2050 are like standing in the basement of a burning house, and agreeing to call the fire department in the morning.”
Umair Haque
“Do you have an Australian offshore location you want #AusGov to consider for oil and gas exploration as part of the 2023 Petroleum Acreage Release? Nominate before 1 September.”
~ Tweet from the Resources Division of Australia’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources
“We have a system primarily designed to serve the interest of fossil fuel companies, at the expense of our communities and marine life.”
Peter Whish-Wilson, The Greens senator
“Droughts are leaving editors high and rivers dry. Within the last week alone, Google presents more than 12 million hits on a ‘water crisis’ that spans from the Horn of Africa to the tip of the Nordics. Foreign Affairs states that the existing water threat of a Chinese drought would be a global catastrophe. New York Times and CNN continuously highlight the dangers of the coming water crisis on the US’ west coast, while World Economic Forum presents a slew of tremendous effects that record-breaking droughts entail around the world. The ever-present water challenge, due to prolonged hot weather and heatwaves, presents a new effect of climate change, which is hitting close to home for businesses, citizens and nations alike.
Not only are the ongoing droughts impacting lives and livelihoods, they are also highlighting immediate dangers to economies, electricity supplies and industries. Shipping delays on the Rhine, saltwater evaporation in France, the Italian state of emergency, and hydropower generation plummeting by 44% in Spain, are just a few examples. While the outlook seems daunting, technologies to fix the water crisis are in better shape than ever.”
~ Magnus Højberg Mernild, Editor, State of Green Weekly
“Change must start with the wealthiest and most powerful”
“For decades, climate change has been understood by the public as a crisis in which we are all implicated. Environmental campaigns exhorted us all to turn off our lights, buy more fuel efficient cars, recycle as much as possible – our consumption had to be adapted to minimise our impact on the planet.
But it is becoming increasingly clear that such efforts, while by no means unnecessary, are less than a drop in the ocean. Nothing drove this home more this summer than another Instagram post: Kylie Jenner’s picture of her and partner Travis Scott standing in front of two private jets, captioned: “you wanna take mine or yours?”
It was posted days after Jenner, it subsequently emerged, took her private jet on a flight that lasted just 17 minutes. That might not sound like much, but it was estimated to have belched a tonne of carbon into the atmosphere – about a quarter of the annual carbon footprint of the average person globally.” (…)
“The richest 1% of the world’s population are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the poorest 50% – 3.1 billion people – in the last 25 years, according to Oxfam. And as inequality continues to grow, so will their disproportionate impact. By 2030, Oxfam predicts, the carbon footprints of the world’s richest 1% will be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement.” (…)
“We cannot expect governments to do the work for us.
“All the governments I know of are beholden to these people, their taskmasters, if you like; the classes that they have to coddle the most,” Andreas Malm – professor of human ecology at Lund University, Sweden, and author of influential polemic How To Blow Up A Pipeline – says. “That makes it extremely hard to envision any government moving against precisely these people, because that’s the people that are closest to.”
“If governments can’t do attack the most egregious instances of luxury emissions, then ordinary people will have to,” he adds. “I think the next step for that kind of activism to go after private jets and super yachts and other monstrous machines for luxury emissions. It’s not that we’re done with SUVs, that campaign just needs to multiply and spread further and intensify. But there are more targets than SUVs.” “
~ Damien Gayle, in The Guardian’s Down to Earth Newsletter
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McKinsey: Seizing green business opportunities
“For business leaders, building green businesses is a priority—and a major opportunity. Ninety-two percent of executives say that they will build new businesses that address sustainability to some extent, and 42 percent expect to put sustainability at the center of their new businesses’ value proposition, according to Leap by McKinsey’s state of new-business building report. So what does green businesses mean for spending, output, and job creation for eight industries including steel, power, food & agriculture, and forestry?”
Check out McKinsey & Company’s series of interactive timelines by senior partners Hamid Samandari and Humayun Tai, and their coauthors, and explore what a net-zero transition could look like for each industry.
→ Read more
Spotting green business opportunities in a surging net-zero world
Explore how 8 industries may transition to reach a 2050 net-zero scenario, and how organizations can respond with new green businesses that create value along the way.
→ Be bold
Transition to net zero: Power
Unlocking value from the expansion of renewable- and low-emissions power generation may depend on managing volatility and dispatchable capacity, as well as the rising costs of electricity.
→ Level up
Transition to net zero: Fossil fuels
As the world turns to low-carbon energy sources, implementing a net-zero scenario would significantly cut the use of fossil fuels.
→ Reconsider hydrogen
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B Corps: Building a more inclusive workforce and tackling climate change
“With a two-prong mission to help environmental and community organizations attract diverse candidate pools while cultivating the next generation of environmentalists, Cream City Conservation is changing the face of conservation and addressing issues around climate change. Founder August Ball points to several practices and beliefs that reinforce the organization’s mission and helped the B Corp earn Best for the World workers recognition this year.”
→ Read more
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Events we have talked about in The Sustainable Hour
Events in Victoria
WEBINAR: VICTORIAN ELECTION 2022: CLEAN ENERGY FOR ALL
DATE: Wednesday 24 August
TIME: 6pm – 7pm
WHAT: A deep dive into how we are going to achieve the climate action we need this state election and how you can get involved!
Hear from me and Policy and Advocacy Manager Bronya Lipski about the opportunities we have to push our next government to go further on climate and our key policy demands to achieve clean energy for all Victorians.
WHERE: Online, via Zoom.
The following is a collation of Victorian climate change events, activities, seminars, exhibitions, meetings and protests. Most are free, many ask for RSVP (which lets the organising group know how many to expect), some ask for donations to cover expenses, and a few require registration and fees. This calendar is provided as a free service by volunteers of the Victorian Climate Action Network. Information is as accurate as possible, but changes may occur.
Petitions
→ List of running petitions where we encourage you to add your name
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Live-streaming
The Sustainable Hour is streamed live on the Internet and broadcasted on FM airwaves in the Geelong region every Wednesday from 11am to 12pm (Melbourne time).
» To listen to the program on your computer or phone, click here – or go to www.947thepulse.com where you then click on ‘Listen Live’ on the right.
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Hi Mik,
I just listened to the last “Sustainably Hour” podcast about your visit to Denmark. The biggest thing I got out of the podcast was that the people and businesses of Denmark were personally motivated to make change and not “bullied and regulated” into doing something different.
The last 2+ years have shown me how easily people are controlled by “fear” and this does not allow for “common sense” to prevail. People have become addicted to the quick fix without looking at the long term ramifications.
It is time that we allow controversial topics to be debated, or at least expressed. Just because it sounds like a good idea to get electricity from freely provided natural resources such has wind and sun, to actually achieve that is not provided “free.”
I just read/listened to this transcript from Malcolm Roberts which really puts this whole discussion into reality – https://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/the-climate-change-bill-and-the-climate-fraud-on-the-primodcast/
It is great to hear that people are converting trucks to use batteries and at least do the whole feasibility study on impact on our climate (both long and short term) and then making a decision and not feel as though we are forced into something new. It is like throwing out the baby with the dirty bath water.
Also to be quite frank, afte the last 2 years I trust very little of what the so called “science” says especially when it is finacially manipulated. The “TRUST” has been lost due to the quick fix ideas.
Cheers Petra
Hi There,
Great episode this week (no 426), I really enjoyed it.
Especially all the info about the bike friendly Copenhagen. Would be great to follow up this episode with some more possible actions.
I wonder, do they also have 30kmh in the back streets of Copenhagen?
Our family uses two electric Bicycles and we love using them together with our kids. We use our bikes everyday to get to school and kinder, but we’d like to use them more if our streets were safer to get around in. But our streets are not safe enough when you have 50kmh and 60kmh.
Bicycle paths are expensive and sometimes difficult and slow to implement. But if we would lower the speed on residential roads to a similar speed of the bicycles we would have suddenly a much safer environment. The research by the United Nations https://www.unroadsafetyweek.org shows that 30kmh in residential areas (backstreets) has an enormous benefit for the whole community.
Here are also two Australian groups that have lots of information on this important matter.
https://safe-streets-to-school.org
https://30please.org
Another one that I would recommend contacting is the cargo bike dad.
(A dad who rides an electric cargo bike with his family. Urban Planner by training. Practicing what I preach. Melbourne)
https://www.facebook.com/cargobikedad
https://www.instagram.com/cargobike_dad/
Looking forward to the next episode.
Chris
from Melbourne
Thank you, Chris!
Very good to hear from you and thank you for the suggestions!
Very true – about the speed limit aspect.
To answer your question about back streets of Copenhagen:
An article from the public broadcaster TV2 published in May 2022 states: “On large parts of Copenhagen’s municipal roads, the speed will now be reduced to 40 kilometers per hour and all the way down to 30 kilometers per hour in the local neighbourhoods closest to the city centre. With this speed reduction, the Technical and Environmental Administration wants to make it less attractive to take the car in Copenhagen.”
https://nyheder.tv2.dk/samfund/2022-05-30-nu-skal-hastigheden-saenkes-med-10-kilometer-i-timen-i-hele-koebenhavn
So, I guess we can say that the answer is “yes.” 🙂