Getting to Copenhagen by rail and on foot – on track for um climate talks

Nairobi, 24 November 2009 - There may be less than two weeks to go until the UN Climate conference in Copenhagen, but intrepid explorers, adventurers and rail enthusiasts have set off early using a variety of low carbon ways to reach their final destination.

UNEP climate change hero, Roz Savage, a British ocean rower and environmental campaigner, is taking her message to the climate change conference on foot. Ms Savage set off from the famous Ben Big landmark in London last Friday 20th and is now walking 200 miles to the railway station in Brussels.

Accompanying her, World Champion extreme free-skier and founder of The Save Our Snow Foundation , American Alison Gannett is walking the 200 miles with snow skis on her back.

In an email to UNEP staff she wrote: "I am doing this to help raise awareness on the importance of saving our snow, both for the fun sports we love such as skiing, but more importantly that half the world depends on snow and ice melt for drinking and irrigation water."

From Brussels, both walkers will join the Climate Express train which is taking more than 400 climate change negotiators, campaigners and high-profile personalities to Copenhagen.

Meanwhile, last week, a small team of environmental experts, NGOs and journalists left Kyoto, Japan on an epic 9,000 kilometre-long journey from Kyoto to Copenhagen, most of it by train.

The group boarded the Trans-Siberian Express in Vladivostok, Russia on Saturday and will document the impacts of climate change, raise awareness of low-carbon transport solutions, and gather signatures for the UN led Seal the Deal! Climate Petition.

Led by the International Union of Railways in partnership with UNEP, WWF and Russian Railways, the journey through Russia will cover Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Novgorod, ending up in Moscow. A member of UNEP's Moscow office, Ludmila Khorosheva, will join the train in Novosibirsk on Thursday.

Each stop will give the team the opportunity to meet local environment authorities and discover innovative railway technologies, as well as witness the impact of climate change on the Russian territory.

From Moscow, members of the team will continue via rail to Copenhagen.

Travelling by rail is on average 3-10 times less CO2 intensive compared with road or air transport. With 7-10% of market share, rail still only contributes just 2% of the EU transport sector's CO2 emissions.

Passengers on the train are documenting their experiences through blogs and interviews at http://www.traintocopenhagen.org.

Roz Savage and Alison Gannett are also documenting their experiences at: www.rozsavage.com and http://www.alisongannett.com/Alison_Gannett/Blog/Blog.html

Da United Nations Environment Programme