From Kyoto to Copenhagen

The Kyoto to Copenhagen journey

In November 2009 a team of environmental experts, NGOs and journalist has boarded the Trans Siberian Express in Vladivostok.

The trip is a key part of the Train to Copenhagen project and is organised by the Russian Railways (RZD http://eng.rzd.ru/). RZD planned different stops, at Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Novgorod and the team will end their journey in Moscow 10 days later. Each stop is giving the team the opportunity to meet the local environment authorities, experts and journalists, discover innovative railway technologies, and witness the impact of climate change on the Russian territories and meet.

From Moscow the team will join the “Climate Express†going to Copenhagen thereby linking the East and the West via the Trans Siberian Railway one of the key international corridors linking Asia and Europe.

They are actually bringing the rail message to Copenhagen. Indeed, on 5 November 2009, the UIC Asia Environment Conference took place in Kyoto, where the world’s first global agreement ever on climate change was agreed upon in 1997. In this symbolic place, the conference participants signed the ’Message from the Rail Sector to the COP15 - from Kyoto to Copenhagen’.

The symbolic journey from Kyoto to Copenhagen represents the passage to the next generation agreement on the future climate regime.

The train journey will demonstrate how railways are acting in the spirit of the Kyoto protocol and actively reducing the emissions from the transportation sector. Follow the adventures of the the travel team, their experiences and observations on the changes due to global warming on www.traintocopenhagen.org/The-Kyoto-to-Copenhagen-journey/