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ENVIRONMENT

Danish politician goes viral with video offering Trump ‘great deal’ on windmills

A Danish politician has aimed to take advantage of Donald Trump's recent focus on Greenland by teaching the US president a thing or two about wind power.

Danish politician goes viral with video offering Trump 'great deal' on windmills
Photo: screengrab/Twitter

Trump caused consternation in Denmark this week by cancelling a scheduled state visit to the country after Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen dismissed his suggestions the US could purchase Greenland.

Selling Greenland may be out of the question but Ida Auken, a member of the centre-left Social Liberal (Radikale Venstre) party and former environment minister, says in a video posted to Twitter earlier this week that she has a much better deal to offer Trump: wind power.

The video has been liked 7,300 times and retweeted 3,200 times as of Friday afternoon. Auken’s tweets are generally not RT’ed more than around 30 times.

“Mr. President. I want to present you to the greatest deal you’ve ever seen,” Auken begins in the video.

“I thought I might get your attention by standing next to this bird-killing, cancer-causing, blackout-generating, wind energy-producing beast here,” the Danish parliamentarian continues, tongue firmly in cheek, as she stands in front of a wind turbine.

She goes on to point out that there is no scientific evidence that wind turbines cause cancer, neither do they cause blackouts (as Trump has repeatedly claimed).

Auken outlines in the video the potential for using wind power in the United States and its low cost for generating energy relative to coal.

“Here’s an example. The North Sea region—that’s the sea on top of Europe—can produce twice as much electricity as all the coal-fired power plants of Europe combined. And look, it’s smaller than Nebraska.

“Imagine the possibilities in all of your great United States of America,” the MP says.

“Listen to science. Listen to your wallet. And make a new deal,” she urges the president.

“So, Mr. President. We know you can do this. Just grab… your pen, sign a deal, and let’s save the climate,” she concludes.

Trump is so far yet to respond to Auken’s appeal.

READ ALSO: No war of words with Trump: Danish PM Frederiksen

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ENVIRONMENT

Sweden’s SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå 

The Swedish steel giant SSAB has announced plans to build a new steel plant in Luleå for 52 billion kronor (€4.5 billion), with the new plant expected to produce 2.5 million tons of steel a year from 2028.

Sweden's SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå 

“The transformation of Luleå is a major step on our journey to fossil-free steel production,” the company’s chief executive, Martin Lindqvist, said in a press release. “We will remove seven percent of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, strengthen our competitiveness and secure jobs with the most cost-effective and sustainable sheet metal production in Europe.”

The new mini-mill, which is expected to start production at the end of 2028 and to hit full capacity in 2029, will include two electric arc furnaces, advanced secondary metallurgy, a direct strip rolling mill to produce SSABs specialty products, and a cold rolling complex to develop premium products for the transport industry.

It will be fed partly from hydrogen reduced iron ore produced at the HYBRIT joint venture in Gälliväre and partly with scrap steel. The company hopes to receive its environemntal permits by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: 

The announcement comes just one week after SSAB revealed that it was seeking $500m in funding from the US government to develop a second HYBRIT manufacturing facility, using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels to produce direct reduced iron and steel.

The company said it also hoped to expand capacity at SSAB’s steel mill in Montpelier, Iowa. 

The two new investment announcements strengthen the company’s claim to be the global pioneer in fossil-free steel.

It produced the world’s first sponge iron made with hydrogen instead of coke at its Hybrit pilot plant in Luleå in 2021. Gälliväre was chosen that same year as the site for the world’s first industrial scale plant using the technology. 

In 2023, SSAB announced it would transform its steel mill in Oxelösund to fossil-free production.

The company’s Raahe mill in Finland, which currently has new most advanced equipment, will be the last of the company’s big plants to shift away from blast furnaces. 

The steel industry currently produces 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and shifting to hydrogen reduced steel and closing blast furnaces will reduce Sweden’s carbon emissions by 10 per cent and Finland’s by 7 per cent.

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