Towards green growth in Denmark : improving energy and climate change policies

Denmark’s green growth strategy focuses on moving the energy system away from fossil fuels and investing in green technologies, while limiting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. On the whole, current policies should allow Denmark to reach near-term climate change targets, but may not be sufficient to achieve its most ambitious targets. The challenge is to achieve objectives in a cost-effective manner and to ensure that these ambitions contribute as much as possible to global GHG emissions mitigation and to stronger and greener growth in Denmark. Better exploiting interactions with EU and international policies, finding the appropriate way to support green technologies and reducing GHG emissions in sectors not covered by the EU emission trading scheme are key issues which need to be addressed to meet this challenge. This Working Paper relates to the 2012 OECD Economic Survey of Denmark (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/denmark).