Drinking water fountains have been installed around the Bella Centre conference hall in Copenhagen to encourage all delegates, including US president Barack Obama, to reduce the petrocarbon waste and carbon emissions involved in the production, delivery and disposal of plastic water bottles.
Biodegradable corn starch cups will be used to further reduce the environmental impact of the conference, which lasts from 7-18 December and is expected to attract more than 15,000 people to Denmark’s capital.
While the Financial Times report also points out that flying the delegates into Copenhagen will generate around 40,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases, correspondent Andrew Ward reports that this is being offset by building more environmentally efficient factories in developing countries.
Commenting on the report, Nick Heane, MD of Tana Water UK, a manufacturer of mains-fed water coolers, said: “It’s great to see that the Financial Times has highlighted bottled water as one of the issues being addressed at the Climate Change Conference. It’s easy to think that drinking tap water is just a drop in the ocean when all the other environmental issues are taken into consideration. But every little counts and it’s gratifying to see that this issue has been included in the overall efforts to change our lifestyles and reduce our impact on the planet.”
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