How Copenhagen Is Incentivizing Tourists to Offset Their Climate Impact

A free lunch, coffee, or a glass of wine. These are just some of the rewards that tourists visiting Copenhagen can claim in exchange for taking part in climate-friendly initiatives under a recently launched scheme called CopenPay.

Announced by Wonderful Copenhagen, the city’s tourism board, the pilot program is open to visitors and locals from July 15 until 11 August this year. More than two dozen organizations and local businesses are participating by offering free perks to help offset the environmental burden of tourism in the Danish capital, which recorded over 12 million overnight stays last year, according to official statistics. “We wanted to turn tourism from having a negative impact on the climate into something more sustainable,” says Mikkel Aarø Hansen, the CEO of Wonderful Copenhagen. “So CopenPay is basically about paying for your climate action and getting access to some attractions in return.”

To design the scheme, the tourism board was drawn to research by London-based market research group Kanter, which found that 81% of consumers surveyed across 42 sectors in 33 countries want to act more sustainably, but only 29% have found ways to change their behavior. The report attributes a lack of clear information as the main driver for that significant gap.  “CopenPay is basically a pilot project or experiment in seeing how far we can go with positive incentives to close that gap and turn the intention into action,” Hansen adds.

Following a lull during the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism has returned to Copenhagen, but the city’s mayor, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, says that many tourists are now either local, or arriving from neighboring countries like Norway, Germany, and France. For many of these tourists, there is a desire to be more sustainable while exploring what the city offers. “People are looking for pleasant experiences that interact with our city, but also promote environmentally friendly actions,” she says.

For example, tourists can now turn the plastic trash they collect into jellyfish art at a workshop run by the National Gallery of Denmark or get an extra 20 minutes of ski time on Copenhill, an artificial ski slope at the Amager Resource Center, if they ride a bike or take public transport. By volunteering at Oens Have, the largest urban garden in northern Europe, they can enjoy a complimentary meal.

So far, visitors have reacted positively to the scheme, says Hansen. “They think it’s fun and informative, and sometimes it’s also an experience you can do with family or friends and so on, and talk with your kids about why you’re doing this.”

Copenhagen isn’t the only city experimenting with creative ways to promote sustainability among tourists. In Hawaii, travelers can earn a hotel discount or a free night by volunteering under the Mālama Hawaiʻi Program. In 2017, Palau instituted the Palau Pledge, where tourists agree to “preserve and protect” the island upon entering the country, which is then stamped in their passport.

But lowering the carbon footprint of tourism will require a more thorough response to how tourists transport themselves, where they stay, and what they eat, says Megan Epler Wood, the managing director of the Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program at Cornell University. “CopenPay seeks to provide incentives which ask the tourists to enjoy Copenhagen like locals, which has a positive vibe and helps with the larger problem,” she says. “But is not a solution to the larger question of how to monitor and manage tourism at a destination scale.”

One of the biggest environmental implications of tourism is a traveler’s aviation footprint, which accounts for roughly 50% of a tourist’s impact. “One round trip to Copenhagen on an airplane from the U.S. roughly equals the total annual carbon footprint of most Americans at home,” Epler Wood says.

The limits of CopenPay are also apparent to the tourism board and local government. “This is just one experiment and it’s a combination of many things that we have to do to turn intention into action,” says Hansen.

After the summer, the city plans to define its baseline of carbon dioxide emissions around tourism in Copenhagen—including not just the Danish capital, but also the 28 municipalities around it—to fully understand how much of an impact tourism is having. “From there on, we will define the roadmap for net zero carbon emissions with targets for 2030 and beyond,” says Hansen.

Copenhagen is ahead of many cities and countries with its goal to become carbon-neutral by 2025. The city has worked towards this target since 2005, having reduced its carbon footprint by 42% so far. It has also integrated destination management into city planning, which Epler Wood says is the most effective method for cities to manage tourism impacts transparently.

If CopenPay is successful, then Hæstorp Andersen hopes it will become a year-round program and expand into other cities. “It’s my vision that Copenhagen should be a pioneer in sustainable living, and that also means that we must inspire visitors to make conscious green choices,” says the mayor. “Then our city can be a force for positive change.”

Correction, Aug. 13, 2024

The original version of this story misstated Megan Epler Wood’s professional affiliation. She is currently the managing director of the Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program at Cornell University, not Director of the International Sustainable Tourism Initiative at Harvard University, her prior position.