A breath of green energy
With no topography or forests and facing the sea, the country has the ideal conditions to rely on wind energy. It has been doing so since the 1970s, to the point where it is now the world's per capita wind power champion, with 56% of its electricity coming from turbines. In 1990, it was the first country in the world to create an offshore wind farm. Thirty years later, still a pioneer, the government has announced plans to create the world's first energy island, which will convert surplus wind power into hydrogen. Located in the North Sea, the project aims to do without oil, gas and coal, on which the country still depends heavily. Although Denmark boasts a huge wind farm, which even reaches the Faroe Islands with the Husahagi wind farm, the wind does not always blow, so the country still depends heavily on imports from neighboring countries. Moreover, electricity only represents 20% of the energy consumed. Fossil fuels (mainly oil), are therefore in fact in the majority, if one does not focus only on electricity. However, the objectives are up to the challenge: the country wants to reach 100% renewable energy by 2050.
Green Capital of Europe
In 2014, Copenhagen joined the very select club of European green capitals. This award crowns numerous advances in terms of ecology and ambitious goals, such as becoming the first carbon-neutral city by 2025. To achieve this goal, the city is relying on bicycles in particular. Since the 1970s, it has been building bicycle paths, encouraging residents to leave their cars behind and installing self-service bicycle stations, to the point where it is now the world's bicycle capital. At the same time, the Danish capital is developing its public transport network, with the aim of achieving three quarters of trips made without a car by 2025.
To discourage residents from driving, the city has even lowered speed limits on its roads and reduced parking. Gasoline-powered vehicles seem to be a national pet peeve, as Denmark has already proposed to the European Commission to ban their sales by 2030.
In addition to this, the city is relying on technology to defuse its green shift, such as when it implemented smart street lights. The street lighting is now able to adjust itself according to the outside luminosity, the traffic and the season: a simple but innovative system, which allows the city to save 50% of energy and to reduce by 20% theCO2 emissions on the renovated area. In terms of architecture, 98% of the homes are supplied by a shared heating network, greatly reducing emissions.
The organic kingdom
In Denmark, agriculture is a central subject in terms of ecology, since two thirds of the territory is devoted to farms. This is why the country has bet on organic farming, to the point of being today the first exporter in the world! Far from giving up everything to others, the Danes are themselves the first consumers of organic food in the world, and even wish to slowly convert their administrations (hospitals, canteens...) to organic cuisine. But the country does not intend to stop there and launched in 2011 its Organic Action Plan for Denmark (OAPD), articulated around six main objectives, such as increasing organic exports or stimulating innovation in the organic sector.
Protected areas
Denmark has five national parks (six with Greenland) and many other areas protected by different statutes (Natura 2000, Ramsar)..
The latest is Kongernes Nordsjælland National Park, which opened in 2018, on the island of Zealand. It includes one of the most diverse forests in the country in terms of plant species. It is home to wildlife typical of northern European deciduous forests: red foxes, deer, owls, or even kingfisher.
The Thy National Park, founded in 2007, borders the coast of North Jutland. The park is known for having been the scene of several sightings of wild wolves, from Germany, although the animal is considered extinct for 200 years! The return of the wolves proves the good ecological health of the park, as well as the presence of many bird species, such as the crane and the wood sandpiper.
Finally, the Wadden Sea National Park, founded in 2010, is the second largest in the country, with an area of 1,466 km2. Together with its German counterpart, the Schleswig-Holstein National Park, which is only a few dozen kilometers away, it makes the Wadden Sea a vast area where many breeding birds, migratory birds, and other animals thrive. The unique environment of the Wadden Sea has been declared a World Heritage Site.
A pristine nature in the Faroe Islands
Rocky heap in the middle of the immensity of the ocean, the Faroe Islands are a green preserved paradise which intend to remain so. With 110,000 annual tourists for 50,000 inhabitants, the archipelago is far from being a mass tourism destination, but prefers to prevent than cure. That's why, every year since 2019, at the initiative of the Tourist Office, the most popular sites of the North Atlantic islets display a "closed for maintenance" sign for two days. Tourists are then replaced by an army of volunteers, drawn at random, fed and housed, who come to take care of the environment. On the program: restoration of hiking trails to avoid trampling of the vegetation, construction of observation points for birds, marking of trails..
