Sustainability: Denmark leading the way?

Denmark is a very small country and it has less than 6 million inhabitants so we could say that the world does not care whether Danes emit a lot or do not emit carbon dioxide at all. If you look at it this way, it is true that Denmark will definitely not make a difference in this global fight against climate change and global warming. But Danes have learned that by leading the way, they can inspire and help the world find the solutions that are needed to decrease the carbon dioxide emissions while we keep growing in the West and at the same time we keep vanishing poverty from Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.

The environmental problems that we face are complex and due to many reasons and cannot be addressed fully in a short blog entry. There are people that might say that Denmark is not an example of a sustainable country because their high GDP/capita makes it more pollutant than many poorer countries. There are many ways to address the climate crisis and I am not here to tell you which one is better but no one can argue that Denmark is leading the way by creating technologies and integrating systems that can provide society with cleaner and more sustainable energy and goods. 

In 2019, 80 % of Denmark's electricity was produced from renewables. 20 % came from biomass, 57 % from wind power, and 3 % from solar. The goal is to stop relying on fossil fuels by 2050 and Denmark is really on target to do that. Other countries that rely on hydropower have better numbers than Denmark. This is the case of Norway or Iceland. But the case of Denmark is special because we could say that its most abundant resource is wind. The 1979 oil and energy crisis led Denmark to start investing in wind energy. What they have accomplished in the recent decades is incredible. It was in Denmark where the first offshore wind plant was installed in 1991 and this technology is now expanding all over the world thanks to the work of huge Danish companies such as Vestas and Ørsted. 

But there are many aspects of danish life and many innovations that have made Denmark a leading nation in sustainability.  Experts from Yale and Columbia referred to Denmark as the number one nation in the 2020 Environmental Performance Index. So what is Denmark doing besides substituting coal power plants with plenty of windmills on the sea?

A change in mobility is also one of the factors that protect the environment. It is widely known that Danes bike much more than people from other countries and public transport systems are very well run and efficient. 1 out of every 5 new cars purchased today in Denmark is powered by a battery. This is in part because of a tax policy that rewards consumers that opt for electric vehicles. So, it is not only the danish authorities and the danish companies but the danish population that with their actions are helping the environment. These collective efforts show that there are alternatives to the current transport systems.

If we stay in the energy industry, Denmark has topped the news lately because of the announcement of the huge energy island that is going to soon be built. This project is not different from the already smaller projects that have been developed during the last years in a place like Bornholm. The energy island is planned to produce up to 10 GW of energy once at full capacity and is not only based on offshore wind power but also on energy storage technologies in which Denmarks companies and universities are also working hard.

Another recent and exciting project is the so-called "Danish collaboration for sustainable fuels". Using electrolysis and water the plan is to use renewable energy to produce fuels for cars, buses, and airplanes at a large scale and without depending on fossil fuels. The partnership plans for substituting all the non-renewable fossil fuels for carbon-neutral fuels in the medium term.

I could spend hours and hours talking about projects related to sustainability that are being ran in Denmark but my point is done. Denmarks companies and researchers are working in many different aspects of our lifes that have to be changed if we want to keep our lifestyle and protect the planet at the same times. Other examples in which Denmark leads the way include the way in which heat is distributed in an efficient way, the design of more energy efficient homes, recycling, biomass and biofuels, waste-to-enegy (CopenHill...), and many more. Throughout this huge effort, Denmark's economy has not struggled. The economy keeps being very strong and dynamic while these changes are introduced. In fact, this leadership makes Denmark a very attractive place for engineers and researchers of many different kinds.

In this blog entry, I wanted to introduce you to some of the reasons that allow experts to say that Denmark is an example to follow when it comes to tackling climate change and other environmental issues. Denmark is not a perfect country and still contributes a lot to global warming but its efforts moving forward might work as an inspiration for other countries in the world. Things can be done differently and they can even work and be good for the economy.

To finish I would like to take a little bit of merit out of Denmark and my beloved Danes. My point is that I think that the reason behind their great efforts against climate change is that their society is very rich and this allows companies and people to take more risks and to think about something else besides reaching the end of the month in green numbers. What I mean is that this could have happened in any other place had the economical and political conditions been different in that area. But the truth is that sustainability and environmentalism have become an obsession to Danes and their leadership is a medal that they carry with pride. Since I moved to Denmark I have been exposed to more "green propaganda" in the sense that I feel that public institutions and companies talk about these issues a lot more. Luckily, sometimes they also act and actually change things. I will leave you with an anecdote that summarizes this obsession of Danes with environmentalism. In September 2019, I was amazed to see that Lyngby's soccer team didn't have an advertisement for a gambling company but each player wore a figure representing one of the 17 different UN Sustainable Development Goals.