Lynetteholm Island is set to become home to tens of thousands of residents. Construction work on the island has already begun, but many NGOs and environmental experts want to suspend it.
COPENHAGEN It is windy on the banks of the Sound, as is often the case in Denmark. Civic activist Nicholas Woollhead pointing to the sea and pointing with his hand.
In the future, there will be a new island and residential area if the largest construction project in Denmark, Lynetteholm, is completed as planned.
Not completed if asked by Woollhead.
– This is a doomed thing. Lynetteholm is detrimental to the environment and the entire city of Copenhagen, Woollhead says.
Woollhead represents the Stop Lynetteholm campaign, which involves more than 10,000 people. An active popular movement calls for a halt to the construction of the artificial island.
Copenhagen City Council and the city’s majority-owned By & Havn developer disagree.
Lynetteholm is expected to respond to, among other things, the rapidly growing housing shortage in Copenhagen. Over the next 30 years, an island of 280 acres will be built in front of the city to accommodate 35,000 people. According to a far-reaching plan, in 2070 the Copenhagen metro may also run on the island.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, Finland has been informed
The project, which cost an estimated 2.7 billion euros, began to be discussed during the previous term of government and municipal council in the spring of 2018. A couple of years later, By & Havn commissioned a report on Lynetteholm’s environmental impact.
Environmental experts in both Denmark and Sweden criticized the report for lack of data. In the spring of 2021, the builder prepared a new assessment, and a couple of months after that, a majority of the parties in the Danish Parliament voted in favor of starting the project.
In Sweden, the environmental impact of the island project on the Falsterbo Natura 2000 site, among others, is feared. The neighboring municipalities of Copenhagen are concerned about, among other things, the pollution of the nearby Køge Bay.
Chairman of Naturfredningsforening, Denmark’s largest nature conservation organization Michael Løvendal Kruse emphasizes that this is not just a matter for the Danish and Swedish waters.
– Lynetteholm fills the deepest part of the Sound, which prevents the flow of oxygenated salt water in the Sound. This has implications for the Baltic Sea and its fish stocks – all the way to Finland, Løvendal says.
The Finnish Ministry of the Environment tells that Denmark has once informed the countries of the Baltic Sea about the island project. In that case, the environmental impact assessment determined that the project would not cause significant adverse environmental effects on Finland.
Any errors will be corrected and the project will continue
Danish and Swedish environmental organizations and researchers have wanted to find out if the fast-moving project is in breach of the EU’s environmental directive. The European Commission rejected the complaint.
Klimabevægelsen, the umbrella organization for Danish environmental organizations, has sued By & Havn for circumventing Danish building laws, but the organization admits the lawsuit threatens to become too costly to pursue.
The environmental impact has also been studied by a group of independent experts in the Netherlands, and a complaint lodged by a Swedish environmental organization is still on the table of the European Commission. Also the Swedish Minister for Climate and Environment Annika Strandhäll has sent to the Danish Minister of Transport To Trine Bramsen and the Minister of the Environment Lea Wemenille letter with criticizes the island project (you move to another service).
The Copenhagen municipal government and the Danish Parliament have promised to listen carefully to the results of the new surveys.
– I assume that if there are any problems in the reports, they will of course have to be resolved – but that does not mean that the project will be suspended due to problems, says the Mayor of Copenhagen Sophie Hæstorp Andersen.
Builder By & Havn assures that Lynetteholm will become an ecologically sustainable island that can accommodate residents from different social classes.
– Both privately owned houses and low-cost housing supported by the state will be built on the island, says the CEO Anne Skovbro.
Sea level rise is one of the reasons
By & Havn emphasizes the efficiency of the island with rising sea levels, which could have very detrimental consequences for the flat Danish capital.
The water level is estimated to rise 0.7 meters during this century, and the planned shore of the artificial island is set to stop its progression to the mainland. In addition, nature areas and forests that are important for the climate will be grown in the beach area.
However, according to scientists and organizations, the island will not completely solve the problem of sea level rise, as the plan does not currently take into account the waters on the other side of the city.
By & Havn acknowledges the criticism by saying that these are not part of the Lynetteholm project but need to be addressed separately.
Professor of Geography at the University of Copenhagen Anne Busck has reservations about building at sea. According to him, the continent would be a better construction site, especially in terms of climate and environment.
– It is clear that housing is needed, but I personally think that it does not make sense to build at sea. The Copenhagen area also has land on which to build.
A decades-long excavation and backfilling project
Construction of the artificial island began in January this year. During the first couple of winters, a couple of million cubic meters of mud will be dug up from the seabed to level the bottom and remove contaminated mud. After that, the landfill with sand and stones begins.
Opponents of Lynetteholm say the project is unsustainable not only environmentally but also economically. They say the tax money spent on the billion-dollar project could be spent on improving the rest of the city’s infrastructure, building elsewhere or providing health care.
Instead, Lynetteholm’s defenders say that the artificial island will become an economically and environmentally intelligent solution for Denmark’s future security and a sign to the world.
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