"Climate action" is prominently displayed on the SVM government's front page play out about more solar and wind on land. No less than three ministers presented the plan on 9 October and called it a big step on the way to a quadrupling of electricity from solar and wind on land by 2030.

But does it deliver real and effective climate action? It is urgent because climate change is accelerating dramatically with record high temperatures this year, and some climate scientists believes that we may break the 1,5 degree ceiling in the UN's Paris Agreement as early as next year.

Unfortunately, it is far too slow to install more solar cells and wind turbines in Denmark, and we have lost our position as a green front runner nation.

Last year only a little over half a gigawatt was built in the country's municipalities, even though the war in Ukraine and the energy security crisis should have shaken us all out of Denmark's many years of sleep.

In the last five years, only an extra 1,4 GW of solar and wind energy has been installed on land. It is far, far too little if we are to free ourselves completely from fossil fuels, which still make up 53 percent of Denmark's gross energy consumption.

It's still going at a snail's pace, the government still hasn't cut the many bureaucratic tripwires over and around 1000 mills are in a queue in the municipalities' case processing.

Unfortunately, the government's new renewable energy plan delivers not a single new concrete action.

Instead of designating new renewable energy parks – this should have happened in the autumn of 2022 and has now been pushed to 2024 – they are talking about "32 areas with potential", about which they will start a dialogue with the municipalities and the developers.

Conducting dialogue and talking about potentials is no art, but when will the government deliver real climate action?

The government foliage in the plan, that they will "significantly" improve the compensation schemes, so that "neighbors and local communities get more money and benefits from living close to solar cells and wind turbines".

The intention is very good, but the action is postponed until later. For the government, it must first prepare an "analysis of possible profit and compensation schemes for neighbors of particularly large electricity transmission facilities."

Ok, the government writes that a quadrupling of renewable energy towards 2030 can increase the amount that the installers give to municipalities and neighbors from approximately DKK 2 billion to a total of DKK 4,5 billion.

Sorry, but the compensations in the green pool to the municipalities are paid per megawatt, and in the VE bonus scheme affected citizens receive support per kilowatt. All other things being equal, this should mean that the compensation should increase by four times.

But the government will only slightly more than double the payments. What is sold as "significantly greater gains for neighbors and local communities" unfortunately looks like a deterioration of the current payments per megawatt.

Finally, let's talk about the incentives. Not only locally, but also nationally.

Our entire tax system and support schemes should be designed to take as many fossil fuels out of our energy system as quickly as possible and make it even more attractive to invest in solar and wind energy, in batteries and energy storage.

We should also quickly phase out state-supported biomass burning in our heating sector and go all-in on electrification with heat pumps and geothermal heating, powered by clean solar and wind energy. But unfortunately that doesn't happen because there is far too much path dependence and far too little agency.

We cannot solve the worsening climate crisis just by talking about new potentials and setting up fine future visions for 2045 and 2050, which must also be delivered in the climate act in 2025 and 2030.

The same vigor as the government and the responsible parties showed during the corona pandemic is needed. But the SVM government still needs to show that it can deliver. On the contrary, one is quite reluctant when it applies.

For example, as when the civil servants' constructive proposals for new tenders for offshore wind were rejected - an open door 2.0 - or when the climate minister cancels the energy crisis and allows the public institutions to increase the temperature from 19 to 23 degrees.

And in the game for new and higher CO₂-taxes, a delaying tactic has been used. It is a shame when it is the most cost-effective measure.

Yes, we talk a lot about CO₂- charges, but I just checked Denmark's statistics, and the total taxes on carbon dioxide and CO2 emissions have fallen in real terms by 6,8 percent since 2013.

The government should raise CO₂-the tax more quickly for industry, and introduce it just as quickly for agriculture, which since 2013 has not lowered its emissions of greenhouse gases at all.

You should also raise the diesel tax at least to the German level and scrap the exemption for agriculture from the diesel tax.

Fossils have been handled with velvet gloves for far too long. The state's revenue from fossil energy taxes has actually fallen by 12 percent or DKK 3,8 billion compared to 2013.

These taxes should be significantly increased, and can, for example, finance a faster expansion of our dilapidated electricity grid, so that there are no stopping blocks for setting up more renewable energy.

In the energy system of the future, electrification of all sectors is the main key to freeing ourselves from fossil fuels and saving up to 40 percent of our total energy consumption.

Annually, the state collects more than DKK 11 billion in electricity taxes, so can't we manage to expand the Danish electricity grid with DKK 40-80 billion in the next ten years?

Instead of raising the fossil energy taxes, those who set up solar cells and wind turbines are hit by extra tariffs and contributions. Unfortunately, that is the reality.

From the climate election in 2019 to 2024 the connection contributions to get on the transmission grid have increased by 8 times for solar cells and onshore wind, and the extra payment to get on the distribution grid has increased by a factor of 13 for onshore wind and a factor of 14 for solar cells, shows a calculation made by European Energy.

Sometime in the future, when the whole of Denmark is free of fossil fuels, there is good logic in the fact that those who use the electricity grid will also have to pay to use it and expand it.

But as long as more than half of our gross energy consumption is fossil, the drastic increases in connection fees and feed-in tariffs are indirectly helping to delay the green transition and extend the lifespan of fossil fuels.

And it also gives an unfair competitive advantage to the biomass plants, which are exempt from taxes and until 2026 have the prospect of DKK 3,2 billion in government support to convert solid wood biomass into electricity.

The same applies to the biogas plants, which are both exempt from CO₂tax and, on top of that, is fattened up with DKK 10,7 billion in state aid for the financial laws from 2023-2026.

It is only fair and reasonable that producers of renewable energy must pay something back to the neighbors and the local community on an ongoing basis, and let's develop a new model for ongoing profit sharing.

But if we are to solve the climate crisis, in the next five to ten years we should favor those who deliver the best green solutions and send the biggest bills to those who damage the climate and the environment.

It is time for a green visit of all the green taxes and fees, so that we can put extra turbo on the transition away from fossil fuels.

This chronicle was written by director Bjarke Møller, and was brought to the Alting on 30 October 2023.