Copenhagen to spend millions on new trees

New forest to be created near Islands Brygge

It looks like Copenhagen is about to get a lot greener in the not too distant future. Yes, the city is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2025, but it will be getting greener in the literal sense soon as well.

That’s because City Hall has given the green light to allocating 3.7 million kroner of next year’s budget to planting 23,700 new trees in the Danish capital in 2016.

“We believe that a green city is the city of the future,” Tommy Petersen, a spokesperson for Radikale at City Hall, told Metroxpress newspaper.

“Every year 10,000 new people move to Copenhagen and that puts pressure on the green areas. We need better air and green areas to ensure well-being in the city. Out of a budget of over 3 billion kroner, I think it’s money well spent.”

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Forest in the city
Copenhagen Municipality has a goal to plant 100,000 new trees over the next ten years. Out of the 23,700 trees that will be planted next year, 400 will be ‘partnership trees’.

‘Partnership trees’ involve ordinary citizens contacting the municipality and being involved in choosing the type of tree and its prospective location. The municipality obtains and plants the tree after which the citizens will be in charge of maintaining it.

The vast majority of the other trees will be planted together near Islands Brygge with a view to creating a forest in the middle of the city centre.