Danish newspaper to cut carbon footprint, drops most flying

HELSINKI – One of Denmark’s main newspapers is pledging to reduce to its carbon footprint by ceasing domestic air travel and reducing international flights for assignments to a bare minimum.

Christian Jensen, editor-in-chief of Politiken, said Sunday that from now on all international flights by the paper’s staff, only when absolutely necessary, should be offset by contributions to climate initiatives.

The paper’s travel section will be refocused to cover domestic, Nordic and northern European destinations easily reachable by public transportation.

Jensen said opinion polls in the environmentally-conscious Nordic country showed that climate change has emerged as the No. 1 issue on voters’ minds before Denmark’s upcoming general election later this year.

Politiken, founded in 1884, is one of Denmark’s three main newspapers along with Berlingske and Jyllands-Posten.