The Danish Parliamentary election in 2019 showed that global warming is at the very top of voters’ minds. The election became a “green game changer” with numerous political initiatives aimed at bringing Denmark closer to its goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2050, as stated in the Climate Act. However, the current government has set an even more ambitious target of climate neutrality by 2045.

Following the election, political goals were turned into broad political agreements and concrete actions. In 2019, the national Climate Act was passed with the overarching target of a 70 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. The act became legally binding, with 94 percent of Parliament voting in favour of the agreement.

14 climate partnerships

To reach the target, the government formed 14 strategic “climate partnerships” representing all sectors of Danish industry. The partnerships each had four months to formulate recommendations on how their respective sectors could reduce emissions.

The recommendations guide Danish politicians in taking the right measures while ensuring close involvement and commitment from the industry. They also help shape political agreements across sectors to reduce emissions. The manufacturing and energy sectors were among the first to reach agreements. In recent years, Parliament has made agreements for other Danish sectors such as transport, agriculture and heating, and successfully tendered out new green technologies like Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and green hydrogen. These sectors are vital for the realisation of the 70 percent reduction target, and for the same reason, all political bills will be subject to a CO2 calculation going forward, displaying their contribution to the overall CO2 reductions.

A green beacon

From a global perspective, Denmark has only a minuscule carbon footprint, being the source of merely 0.1 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. So, it begs the question: Why would Denmark set such an ambitious target for greenhouse gas emission reductions? The answer is simple. Denmark has a key role in showing the world how to decouple CO2 emissions from economic growth.

In the coming years, Denmark is likely to push forward on the green transition to illustrate to the world that green business is good business. In doing so, Denmark will continue to demonstrate that achieving the climate targets set forth in the Paris Agreement of 2015 is still within reach if we act fast – together.