Right next to the sea and to ancient forests, the City of Aarhus lies as a vibrant urban environment surrounded by the beauty of nature. Aarhus is Denmark’s second-largest city and the fastest-growing in the country. In the past ten years, the city has received 42.000 new residents and created 20,000 new jobs, the majority within the knowledge, service and innovation industries. The City of Aarhus is furthermore “capital city” of Business Region Aarhus covering 12 municipalities and serving more than a million citizens.
As a step towards becoming a fossil-free society the City Council of Aarhus has adopted an ambitious goal to make Aarhus CO2-neutral by 2030 and a visionary Climate Strategy 2016-2020 ‘On the Way to fossil freedom’. The climate strategy is targeting 6 main areas; Energy, Transport, Industry, Building, Local Commitment & Growth, and Our Workplace. The necessary actions to realise the strategy is elaborated in the Climate Action Plan 2016-2020. The process of developing the climate strategy & climate action plan involved more than 250 stakeholders - employees across the City administration, politicians, private companies, NGOs and the Youth City Council.
Sustainable water management is another pillar in the green transition and the City of Aarhus is working with climate adaptation based on the motto: ‘More water – new opportunities’.
For example, the Wastewater Treatment Plants in the City of Aarhus produces 50 percent more electricity than it needs and 2.5 GW of heat for the district heating system without adding external organic waste or carbon. This excess energy is enough to serve the needs of the drinking water supply and wastewater treatment facilities in the region. The City of Aarhus focuses thus on water as an asset, not a problem and solutions on climate adaptation can be used to build a sustainable city with attractive surroundings for our citizens and tourists if we prioritize time and space for the water.
Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa
The City of Aarhus is engaged in a city-to-city partnership with City of Tshwane with the purpose to support a sustainable urban development on challenges where City of Aarhus has a proven track record on creating sustainable solutions:
Green non-motorised and public transport
Water and storm water management
Mixed-use densification (housing and commercial)
Liveable and safe public spaces (city squares, streets etc.)
Udaipur, India
City of Aarhus is engaged in a city-to-city partnership with City of Udaipur in the State of Rajasthan together with the municipality-owned utility company, Aarhus Water. Udaipur. The local authorities in Udaipur have specifically expressed a desire to collaborate on management of the urban water cycle. Among other things, the collaboration will concern water management strategies, management of urban commercial and recreational values connected to water, smart efficient solution for urban water supply and sanitation, and governance in form of incentives for a smart effective water sector. The collaboration is a part of Danish foreign policy and is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark through funds earmarked for Strategic Sector Cooperation and will continue at least to 2022.
Aarhus Water
Danfoss, the Marselisborg plant in Aarhus
