Cities’ impact on the global economy and climate
Growing cities across the world face the challenge of combining competitiveness and sustainable urban development. Over the next 20 years, the equivalent of 7 cities with more than 10 million people will be added every year. As a result, cities make up a large part of the world population and contribute disproportionately to the global economy.

Cities contribute to climate change and in turn are affected by its consequences. At the same time, urbanization leads to increased demand for energy-consuming services such as housing and transportation.

As a result, an expanding number of large cities face significant energy, environmental and climate-related challenges now and in the future. To solve these challenges, they need to become more energy-effcient, consumer-focused and technology-driven.

6 dimensions to a ‘smart’ city
Whether developing new cities from scratch or rebuilding existing cities, the challenge is to ensure that the city become more livable, economically successful, and environmentally responsible. 6 dimensions can be used to meassure how 'smart' a city is:

• Smart economy (High productivity, entrepreneurship and ability to transform)
• Smart mobility (Strong ICT infrastructure and sustainable transport systems)
• Smart environment (Sustainable resource management, pollution prevention, environmental protection)
• Smart people (Diversity, creativity and participation in public life)
• Smart living (Cultural facilities, housing quality, health and safety issues)
• Smart governance (Political strategies and perspectives, transparency and community participation in decision making)

Strong Danish traditions for building smart cities
Danish cities hold a long tradition of taking a holistic approach to urban development, where the concern for the environment, people and businesses go hand in hand. The two largest cities in Denmark, the City of Copenhagen and the City of Aarhus have both set ambitious goals to become CO2 neutral by 2025 and 2030, respectively. Many other cities and municipalities have also set out ambitious plans for sustainable developments.

Nordhavnen: Sustainable city – the Copenhagen way
Contributing to realizing the vision of becoming the world’s first carbon neutral capital, the City of Copenhagen has launched one of the most extensive and most ambitious urban development projects in Scandinavia - Nordhavnen. The project spearheads efforts to improve climate conditions and show how cities can help reverse climate change without losing out on quality of life, welfare and democracy.

Renewable energy and new types of energy, optimal use of resources, recycling of resources and sustainable transport will help make Nordhavnen a model for sustainable development and design.

The development of Nordhavnen is based on close dialogue with residents, future users of the area and other stakeholders to ensure that people in Copenhagen take joint ownership of the new sustainable city district.

Explore, learn and connect with Danish Smart Cities players
Learn more about Danish smart cities and the profiles, solutions and products that are contributing to ensuring that the urban development projects are carried out in a smart manner in the list to the right.

Learn more about the leading players that operate within the smart city technologies