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CLIMATE CHANGE: The Danish Example
By Julio Godoy*
COPENHAGEN, Nov 20, 2009 (IPS/IFEJ) - Whether a new internationally binding treaty to reduce greenhouse gases and
forestall climate change will be signed next month remains to be seen. What is
clear though, is that if there is a place in the world that deserves to be the stage
where this treaty ought to be signed, it is the Danish capital of Copenhagen.
Thanks to an extraordinary effort by both government and civil society to
improve efficiency in the generation and consumption of energy, and massive
investments in renewable energy sources, Denmark is today the only country
in the world that has been able to decouple economic growth from
greenhouse gases emissions (GHGE).
According to official statistics, the Danish economy has grown, as measured
by gross domestic product (GDP), since 1980 by 78 percent, at prices of the
year 2000. During the same period, the country’s energy consumption
remained practically the same.
This means that the Danish economy’s energy intensity - the ratio of energy
consumption to GDP - has fallen by 40 percent. Danish GHGE, especially
carbon dioxide (CO2), has also decreased substantially, by some 20 percent.
According to the International Energy Agency, the Danish CO2 intensity of
GDP is the third lowest among European Union (EU) members, only after
Sweden and France.
Both Sweden and especially France, rely heavily on allegedly CO2-free nuclear
energy generation.
Denmark’s exemplary development is a consequence of increased efficiency
in the generation and consumption of energy, but also of the growing share
of renewable energy sources - especially wind - used in the production of
electricity in the country.
Anne Grete Holmsgaard, member of the Danish parliament and of the
opposition Socialist People’s party, told IPS that one of the most important
factors in the country’s growing efficiency in energy consumption is the
cogeneration of electricity and heat.
"Practically, all Danish generators function dually," Holmsgaard, who is also
one of the leading Danish environmental lawmakers, told IPS. "Cogeneration
of electricity and heat ensures a far more efficient use of fuels that are used
in production. In the most efficient generators, we can reach an efficiency of
up to 90 percent."
Combined heat and power generators (CHP) are now one of the most common
methods of energy recycling.
While conventional power plants let the heat they produced as by-product of
electricity flow into nature, through cooling towers, by draining hot water into
rivers, or by other means, CHP captures it for domestic or industrial heating
uses.
In addition, Holmsgaard said, in the 1980s Denmark introduced high
efficiency standards for buildings, energy labelling schemes for electrical
appliances, and public campaigns to promote savings in households and
industry.
Ever since, these standards have been constantly updated and improved.
"We pay also very high taxes on energy consumption," Holmsgaard told IPS.
Denmark launched its energy efficiency programme in the 1970s, in the
aftermath of the first oil crisis.
"At the time, we were almost completely dependent on oil and other fossil
fuels," Steen Gade, chair of the Danish Environment and Planning Committee
and of Danish Electricity Saving Trust, told IPS.
Until the mid 1970s, Denmark generated 90 percent of its electricity by
burning imported oil. Burning locally extracted coal generated the other 10
percent.
"The focus of our first conscious Danish Energy Plan, of 1976, was to increase
our security of supply, and to reduce our dependence on imported fuels,"
Gade added. Environmental concerns did not play any role in the conception
of that plan.
Actually, the plan’s main focus was to first improve efficiency in the
generation of electricity and heat, and to convert the country’s generators
from oil into coal. "Renewable energy had only a marginal role in the energy
supply at the time," Gade said.
The next plan, in 1981, still put a large emphasis on stepping up the
development of oil and gas recovery from the North Sea. Simultaneously,
however, the plan launched the construction and operation of wind turbines
and biomass plants - starting the present success story of renewable energy
generation in Denmark.
By 1990, before the industrialised world started to think about reducing
greenhouse gases emissions - the Kyoto protocol, which rules such
reductions until 2012, was adopted only in 1997 - a new Danish energy plan
set a target of reducing CO2 emissions by 20 percent between 1998 and
2005.
"The Energy 2000 plan’s most important instruments were to increase
renewable energy supply, increased utilisation of CHP, and more energy
savings," Gade told IPS.
Since then, the share of renewable energy - wind, geothermal, solar energy,
biomass and biogas - in the Danish energy mix has increased steadily, and it
now represents 28 percent of the country’s total electricity supply.
"Essential for this increase of renewable energy was the decision taken in
1985, of renouncing nuclear power," Holmsgaard told IPS. "If Denmark would
have followed the example of, say, France, and would have started building
nuclear power plants, we would have blocked the development of our
renewable energetic sector."
Holmsgaard said that Denmark would reduce energy consumption by at least
four percent by 2020, compared to 2006. "But we can go further," she said.
"We can reduce energy consumption by up to 45 percent by 2050. It is only a
political decision," Holmsgaard emphasised.
Despite its exemplary efficiency, the Danish energy system still has flaws.
Dorthe Vinther, vice president of Energinet, an independent public enterprise
which owns the main electricity and natural gas grids in Denmark, told IPS
that the Danish grid is still "not intelligent enough to flexibly coordinate
supply and demand, and compensate the weather-dependent fluctuations so
far typical of wind and solar energy."
Vinther said that such fluctuations of renewable energy supply make it
difficult to meet the base load demand. "To that objective, we need a better
weather forecast, which would allow us to improve our schedule and
management of wind or solar energy supply."
In addition, she said, "the grid must be able store electricity in phases of
higher wind and solar energy supply, and deliver in periods of low supply, to
constantly meet base load demand."
Vinther said that such a grid and forecast constitute factors to be considered
in the creation of a future international renewables market, especially of wind
energy. "The integration of large-scale wind power requires a strong
international transmission grid and efficient international electricity markets,
to trade and balance the wind power in a wide geographical area," Vinther
told IPS.
"For such an international project, we also need coherent energy systems to
increase flexibility and economic efficiency and reduce environmental
impact," Vinther stressed. "And we need smart grids."
*This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by IPS
and IFEJ - International Federation of Environmental Journalists for
Communicators for Sustainable Development (www.complusalliance.org).
(END)
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