Climate reporting from Copenhagen to China, June 2009. Photo: Lis Jespersen/IMS

12 Chinese environmental journalists visited Denmark to tune into the climate agenda ahead of the Climate meeting COP15 taking place in Copenhagen in December. The visit was carried out in a collaboration between IMS and Caijing Magazine

For six days, 12 media representatives from China toured places and institutions in Denmark relevant to the climate agenda and the upcoming global meeting on climate change in Copenhagen in December this year.

During the week-long program the Chinese journalists met with the Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, Connie Hedegaard, who will be heading the COP15 negotiations in December on behalf of the Danish government.

The group also met key representatives among Danish stakeholders in the COP15 Agenda as well as the global climate agenda including the Confederation of Industries, the Danish Energy Agency, members of Parliament as well as the NGO community in Denmark. (Read full  report of visit)

Windmills and waste incineration for energy production

Another important part of the programme included visits to some of Denmark's Green Tech industries.

Among others the group visited the waste treatment plant Amagerforbrænding, which generates energy  from incineration of household waste from five municipalities around the Danish capital Copenhagen and returns it through a central heating system to the houses in the form of heating.

Enduring a day-trip at sea, the group visited a wind farm at sea, the Horns Rev Wind Farm 14 kilometres off the west coast of Denmark.

It is one of the world's largest wind farms at sea hosting 80 wind turbines each capable of producing 160 MW - supplying 150,000 households with electricity annually.

Networking with Danish reporters

An overriding purpose of the visit was for the Chinese journalists to establish contacts with relevant sources in Denmark. As part of this, the chinese journalists met Danish climate journalists to discuss how media should cover climate change issues on a broader scale. The meeting took place at Danish Broadcast Corporation's new  facilities and discussions were facilitated by BBC journalist Alex Kirby, a senior correspondent reporting on environmental issues for many years until he retired recently.