Fossil Fuel Independence for Denmark

Medway Green Party Blog
July 25, 2011

Copenhagen green power island

The Danish Commission on Climate Change Policy has found that Denmark can remove fossil fuels entirely from its energy system – including transport – by 2050 without introducing nuclear energy or carbon capture and storage. In response, the Danish government adopted the goal of becoming independent of fossil fuels by 2050.

Apparently, complete removal of fossil fuels from the Danish energy system would result in an estimated greenhouse gas emissions reduction of around 80%, relative to 1990, with the largest remaining source being the non-CO2 greenhouse gases from agriculture.

Below is a table of the total gross energy consumption in Denmark today and the projections for 2050 under different possible energy scenarios.  To read a full article about the Danish goal of becoming independent of fossil fuels by 2050, please visit the Solutions web site.  (You may also like to read our Zero Carbon Britain blog.)

David M. Davison

The Danish Commission on Climate Change Policy and Richard  Morin/Solutions. Total gross energy consumption (in PJ/year) in Denmark today and in 2050 under different possible energy scenarios. The "future scenarios" represent the total elimination of fossil fuel use in Denmark, in the context of ambitious or unambitious international climate policy. The "reference scenarios" represent Denmark's energy consumption with the continued use of fossil fuels in both ambitious and unambitious worlds. Values are rounded to the nearest integer.