Originally home of the Vikings, and then one of the most influential countries of Europe, Denmark has become a leading nation in terms of the political and economic integration of Europe. Located in Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, Denmark takes up 43,094 square kilometers, which is only about twice the size of Massachusetts. There are 5.516 million people living in Denmark. The GDP of this small country was $198.6 billion in 2009. Per capita GDP is around $36,000, one of the highest in the world. Denmark is a member of the European Union, but after a nationwide referendum, it rejected adopting the euro and maintains its krone (DKK). Denmark also maintains a successful employment policy in which employers can hire and fire workers fairly easily, thus avoiding some of the labor market rigidities of other EU countries, while the government provides extended unemployment benefits and extensive worker training. Denmark derives 28.7 percent of its energy from renewable sources, and one small Danish Island, Samso, derives 100 percent of its energy from renew ables. Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, is one of Europe’s greenest cities and as a host of the recent UN Climate Change Conference it has helped set new standards. COP15 officially became the world’s leading international, sustainable political summit. The ambition is to make Denmark’s capital the world’s leading city in sustainable conferences and congresses, an ambition now seen to pay off, because, as host of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP15, and the IOC Congress in 2009, Copenhagen showed the world that the city is able to hold very large international congresses successfully.
Another sign of its growing strength in clean technology is the country’s rate of export of environmentally friendly products. In the last 10 years, Danish cleantech exports have grown at three times the rate of total exports. Known primarily for wind and biomass, but also other areas such as water purification, Denmark’s intelligent energy solutions and air pollution control products are also developing rapidly. As the International Energy Agency (IEA) states, the market for cleantech has developed immensely in recent years and despite not reaching an agreement on the international climate in Copenhagen, global investments will total $26–36 trillion by 2030. Driving this growth is the fact that energy and environmental companies will have to rely on a vast array of environmental technologies if they want to keep up with the demand. Reaching EUR 8.6 billion in 2008, exports of these products have made Denmark the leading EU country in exports of energy technology as a proportion of total exports. www.denmark.dk.
Questions
1. Why did Denmark not adopt the euro?
2. Why does it make sense for Denmark to invest in green, environmental friendly energy?
3. Which energy resources (could) have driven the development of Danish energy and environment technology most?