Danish ships must sail on green, Danish electricity
Comment brought in Berlingske on 17 October 2021 by Claus Ekman, director of the Green Transition Denmark and Knud Erik Andersen, managing director of European Energy
There is a need for an aggressive expansion of green power production in Denmark, so that the planes and ships of the future are fueled by Danish solar cells and wind turbines. The Danish politicians should focus on energy independence and not repeat the fad about importing biomass energy from abroad.
It can be difficult not to get your arms down over the many announcements about green initiatives, which in these weeks and months fill Danish and international newspaper front pages. Most recently, the Danish shipping giant Maersk has announced that it will begin the transition to sailing on green fuels from 2023.
This is positive, but also strictly necessary in light of the latest IPCC report, which more clearly than ever records a gloomy future scenario of the world that our children and grandchildren will have to live in. Also because, historically, shipping and air traffic in particular have have been the two sectors which have escaped actual climate targets in the international climate negotiations and have therefore lagged behind enormously. The Danish footprint on global greenhouse gas emissions may seem limited, but if we look at the amount of energy consumed in our international transport, there is a significant task in restructuring the sectors, including obtaining enough green fuels to fuel the ships and planes in the future , which sails under the Danish flag.
Therefore, Denmark has a special responsibility to ensure that the green electricity, which must be used to drive the Danish part of international transport forward, is generated by electricity from wind turbines and solar cells at home. If Denmark is to deliver on the climate target of a 70 percent CO 2 reduction and find green energy to also power some of our ships and planes, it will require a doubling of renewable energy from wind and solar in 2030 compared to what for which today there is security.
There is no doubt that we in Denmark have the right wind and solar resources to give other countries' energy dreams a back wheel. But at the moment it is more likely that we are looking at a slowdown in the production of green electricity rather than the necessary expansion that can make us the green energy champions of the future.
Before the summer holidays, a political agreement effectively shut down the otherwise so-called "open-door scheme", which was supposed to support the expansion of coastal offshore wind in particular. And both the next big offshore wind farm Hesselø and the government's high-profile energy islands have since run into technical challenges. Unfortunately, there is plenty of bad news about the starting point for the green transition, namely green electricity.
Now it is time for the politicians to sit down and create the right conditions for producers of green electricity. The focus should also be on how we in Denmark do not just ensure enough power to electrify our society, but how we procure enough power from here at home to be able to adapt ship and air transport in the greenest way. In this way, we can ensure that we do it right from the start and not, as with biomass, throw ourselves into solutions that look green, but which potentially harm the climate fight and the climate more than they benefit.
