Denmark: Survey reveals high Danish climate aspirations

The key findings about what Danes want in relation to the climate are:

The vast majority (79%) believe Denmark should be above average or lead the way among industrialised countries in terms of the green transformation.

One in three Danes wants Denmark's electricity to come exclusively from renewable energy sources within 1-5 years. Only 10% say that it is fine if it takes more than 15 years.

Almost 77% of respondents prefer energy from solar cells or wind turbines over coal, oil and gas.

The survey was commissioned by DONG Energy to increase knowledge on attitudes towards the green transformation. The figures show that Danes have particularly high green aspirations on the nation's behalf.

Morten Hultberg Buchgreitz, Executive Vice President of DONG Energy, said: "DONG Energy has been working for several years to move Danish energy from black to green, and we're pleased to see that our customers and Danes in general support this strategy. It gives great value to our work with offshore wind energy, conversion of power stations to biomass, energy consultancy and similar activities that we know that Danes are ambitious and want to see a greener Denmark quickly."

Danes are concerned and already taking action

Danes are already taking the lead and acting on their concerns at home. The survey found that over 80% take an interest in their electricity consumption, and three out of four remember to save power 'always', or 'mostly'.

Buchgreitz added: "I'm in no doubt that customers save electricity largely in order to save money. But the survey shows Danes also take an interest in energy savings because they take the climate challenge seriously."

Concern over global warming

The survey also sheds light on Danes' views on global warming, and clearly shows this is one of the reasons for the widespread climate awareness in Denmark:

• 22% of Danes are very concerned about global warming, and 50% are concerned to some extent. Only 6% are not concerned at all.
• 55% of respondents believe humans can stop global warming completely or reduce it considerably.

Other surveys show the same trend. An analysis from the KRAKA think-tank last year showed that environmental conservation was in third place among the topics that interest Danes, just below immigration and unemployment. The climate and the environment have been far advanced on the agenda, among both politicians and the media, but DONG Energy's survey shows there is still room for more debate on the subject: 

• 43% of Danes respond that they think the climate issue is given 'too little' or 'far too little' coverage in the political debate.

* 'Green transformation' refers to the conversion from using black energy (coal, oil and gas) to exclusively using green energy (renewable energy sources such as biomass, wind and solar power).