Denmark hails China progress in green fight

Editor's note: As COP28 enters its final stretch in the UAE, this page looks at the efforts and the initiatives the UN conference has championed as well as the global pledges to fight climate change.

Apart from enhancing climate cooperation with China, Denmark also looks forward to carrying out climate projects with China in developing nations to help them cope with climate crisis.

Dan Jorgensen, Denmark's minister for development cooperation and minister for global climate policy, made the remarks in an interview with China Daily as he joined a side event at China Pavilion at the COP28 United Nations climate change conference in Dubai on Saturday.

China is "doing amazing progress" on tackling climate change, Jorgensen said.

"China is probably the most important country in the world when it comes to fighting climate change, we should all be happy with this progress," he said.

He noted that the cooperation between Denmark, where green transformation started in the 1970s, and China is of mutual benefit.

"When we did it (the green transformation), we didn't actually do it because of climate change, environment, because that wasn't on that agenda back then.

"We did it because we thought it was the most sensible thing to do with regard to energy security and energy supply," he said.

He said in the past decades, Denmark has developed technologies and know-how that it hopes it can now share with China.

The ambition, the size and the political determination of China mean it is a mutual relationship where both countries will benefit, he said.

"I'm also minister for development cooperation. So I would very much hope that we could work together, not only bilaterally with our country, but also with other countries," he said.

It is important that the two countries help some of the nations in the developing world that are right now struggling to supply clean and green electricity, he said.

It is good for everybody, if a big country like China and a country with long experience in green transformation like Denmark, work together with third parties, said Jorgensen.

Addressing a workshop on Jointly Shaping a Resolute Future for Global Energy Transformation, Jorgensen said, "I'm also pleased that China and Denmark earlier this year signed a joint green work program (on green cooperation).

"Our cooperation is strong. Our shared goal is clear: addressing climate change," he said.

According to the Green Joint Work Programme between governments of China and Denmark for 2023-2026, which was signed in August, China and Denmark will cooperate closely on climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as energy transition.

One of the focal points in the cooperation, for instance, is on cost-effective and safe energy transition, including long-term energy planning and the development of power markets.

Since China announced in 2020 its targets for peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and its plan to realize carbon neutrality before 2060, the country has published its national policy framework and the 14th Five-Year plan (2021-25) on energy, including many of the same policy measures that Denmark had implemented at the national level, he said.

"With these policies, China has set out a clear direction for the future," he said.