When the SVM government took office in December, they promised to rid us of Russian gas more quickly and turbocharge the green transition with more renewable energy. Since then, what the government has delivered is very limited.

A national energy crisis team, NEKST, has not yet been set up to take action seriously. They have also put the open door scheme for offshore wind on hold with the dubious argument that the EU's state aid rules are blocking it. The Commission has otherwise relaxed state aid rules and said that all support schemes for renewable energy have a priority to combat climate change and dependence on imported energy.

The Danish government, on the other hand, is gambling with 23 GW of additional offshore wind and creating uncertainty about the framework conditions instead of providing a solution.

The problem could, for example, be solved when establishment permits are granted, because here the consortia can be asked to pay a fair share to society. For example, at the level of the tender for the Thor offshore wind farm. But instead confusion reigns.

A promise to make a new supply of 9GW of offshore wind is a band-aid, but the lack of speed and action is critical. And politicians have asked the Danish Energy Agency to spend a full three years mapping the North Sea.

But what do you think about?

The international climate panel, IPCC, has said that everyone should deliver drastic CO2 reductions within the next 2,5 years. But Denmark is about to miss its climate goals for 2025, 2030, 2050 and the EU's path goals for annual CO2 reductions if we don't get up big soon.

Instead of implementation, we have ended up with systemic immobility. And none of the 29 municipalities that have bid to become home to the new renewable energy parks have received a response, even though they should have received it before Christmas.

Climate and Energy Minister Lars Aagaard also does not want to present an action plan for energy efficiency improvements and conveniently uses the EU as an excuse. He will wait for the EU's tripartite negotiations on energy efficiency to end.

Instead of taking the lead and showing that Denmark must continue to be a green front-runner, we have ended up as a nation that is dragging its feet.

At Borgen, there is never a shortage of fine toasts about what we must achieve in 2040 and 2045, but as a nation we lack the crisis mentality and energy to act which, back in the crises of the 1970s, made us save energy in a big way and make forward-looking decisions about a restructuring of our energy system.

Ok, the Danes have actually shown more initiative than the politicians in the past year. They have saved over 10 percent on electricity consumption in their homes, and gas consumption was cut by 19 percent.

High prices seem like clear incentives. At the same time, it provides an extra good argument for keeping prices up. Even if they are stabilized at a lower level on the turbulent international energy market. If they fall more, you should consider making a faster phase-in of high CO2 taxes.

We will never achieve the green transformation of the energy sector and the liberation from dependence on fossil fuels without a targeted and persistent effort to promote moderation, energy renovations and investment in energy saving systems.

The era of vast amounts of cheap fossil energy is definitely over. Now we are in the middle of a race where the winners will be those who are lightning fast to scale up renewable energy and to raise energy productivity.

But unfortunately, Denmark cannot keep up with the European frontrunners, even though we have good prerequisites and many of the companies that can deliver the solutions.

In the EU, the amount of renewable energy increased by as much as 31 percent last year. Solar energy was expanded by 47 percent, onshore wind capacity was increased by 40 percent, and over 3 million new heat pumps were installed.

If the market trend continues, the EU countries will collectively have between 44-45 percent renewable energy in 2030, far above the current renewable energy target of 32 percent and the almost 40 percent that the REPowerEU plan calls for.

It is sleep-deprived compared to the market trend if the EU does not raise its overall target for 2030 to between 45-50 percent. Unfortunately, several countries in the Council are opposed.

It is also worrying that countries like Denmark – which otherwise consider themselves a green frontrunner – have lost their breath. In the next few years, we will largely not expand with onshore or offshore wind because there are too many bureaucratic stumbling blocks.

And apart from Portugal, Denmark is the country in Europe where, measured per household, the fewest heat pumps were installed in 2022. Only the expansion with solar cells is a bright spot, and last year there was a growth of 75 percent, so that, measured per capita, Denmark now ranks third most watts installed.

But from the new year, Energinet has introduced a new model for producer payment, so that developers of solar cells and wind turbine installations must pay both a feed-in tariff, a station contribution and a connection contribution.

Overall, it has become much more expensive to expand with renewable energy in Denmark, and thus we are shooting ourselves in the foot. When will the country's top politicians treat the energy security crisis and the climate crisis with the seriousness these two crises should invoke? Unfortunately, there is far too much business as usual and too little crisis mentality.

The comment was brought to the Alting on 14 March 2023.