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Danish business can reduce emissions and create 120,000 jobs, confederation says

The Confederation of Danish Industry (Dansk Industri, DI) says that it is possible to reduce the country’s climate impact while creating thousands of jobs and increasing prosperity.

Danish business can reduce emissions and create 120,000 jobs, confederation says
File photo: Bax Lindhardt/SP/Ritzau Scanpix

The organization, a private interest group made up of approximately 10,000 Danish companies, has released a new climate plan which targets a 65-70 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030.

That puts DI in tandem with the government’s stated goals on emissions reductions. The Social Democrat government wants a 70 percent reduction on 1990 emissions levels by 2030.

READ ALSO: Environmental organizations cheer 'historic' Danish climate goal

DI estimates that the plan could create as many as 120,000 jobs in the private sector, boosting Denmark’s economy by 110 billion kroner.

“Companies must, to a great degree, be at the forefront of developing the technology which will get us to the high climate targets,” DI CEO Lars Sandahl Sørensen said.

“Denmark has a tradition for creating energy efficiency and sustainable energy. We in Denmark can be a laboratory for the rest of the world in developing the technologies needed for a worldwide green conversion,” Sørensen continued.

The DI plan includes climate initiatives costing up to 16 billion kroner and 150 different political proposals.

That includes more consistent taxation of CO2 emissions and investment in efficient energy use in industry and in buildings.

DI also believes fossil fuel use in the transport sector can be phased out and that electric cars should be exempted from registration fees.

READ ALSO: Explained: Why is it so expensive to buy a car in Denmark?

Construction of two new offshore wind farms as well as new on-land solar and wind power facilities is also outlined.

The plan also includes a number of measures intended to help finance the climate-related projects.

Those include reforms to boost employment of those currently out of work, new graduates and skilled foreign labour.

Tax and finance measures would reward companies which invest in research and development, under DI’s climate plan.

The organization also states that some of what is referred to as a ‘buffer’ (‘råderum’) in state coffers could be spent to make the plan reality.

READ ALSO: 12 percent of Danish wind energy to be produced by giant new offshore farm

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BUSINESS

The 14 struggling Danish towns given a break from regulation

Deserted town centres and struggling businesses are common traits in 14 Danish towns which will now be exempted from a number of regulations to give them a better chance of revival.

The 14 struggling Danish towns given a break from regulation

The 14 towns will be “set free” from certain rules and regulations in a trial scheme aimed at reviving them after years of decline.

The launch of the scheme was announced by the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs on Friday, and means that, for example, towns will be permitted to give extra subsidies to business owners who want to rent currently-empty town centre units.

They will also be allowed to cut down protected forest if it has taken the form of scrub and stops the town from feeling congruous; and to rent out empty commercial premises as housing in town centres.

The towns included in the trial are: Assens, Faaborg, Grindsted, Hornslet, Ikast, Nordborg, Nykøbing Sjælland, Odder, Otterup, Rødekro, Rønne, Sakskøbing, Støvring and Vamdrup, after their applications to the trial scheme were accepted.

A political agreement from 2021 paved the way for the new deregulation scheme the towns will hope to benefit from. The scheme is reported to cost the government 130 million kroner.

“I’m very much looking forward to seeing the result. I hope that this will be a part of what puts more life into the centre of medium-sized Danish towns,” the minister for rural districts Louise Schack Elholm said in a statement.

“This is a number of different initiatives, nine in total, that we are making as legal exemptions,” Elholm said.

Some 32 towns initially applied for the scheme.

“It’s incredibly good to see how many municipalities are interested in getting more life into their town centres. The plan was for 10 towns to be selected but there were so many good projects that we agreed on 14 towns,” she said.

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