Lame Danes Win Fossil for Undermining Ambition
Today’s Fossil of the Day Award goes to…Denmark! In the not too distant past Denmark was an inspiration for many – setting ambitious targets and rolling out wind energy. But today we are not talking about great Danes, we are talking about lame Danes, because today the Danish government are aiming to cut climate targets and shrink climate finance contributions.
The new, minority, Liberal government of Denmark got into power in July and clearly thought there was too much climate leadership going on. So they decided to dial it down, right down.
As negotiators in Paris work to deliver a durable and ambitious climate regime – the Danish Environment Minister, Lars Christian Lilleholt, declared he is in favour of scrapping his country’s ambitious national carbon reduction target of 40% by 2020. Signalling his government’s intent to put the handbrake on as other countries around the world gear up to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy future.
While looking to cut their own ambition, the Danish government also seems to want to restrict the ambition of less wealthy nations too. The new government has a steady stranglehold on climate finance – squeezing the budget from an initial 500 million Danish Krone, which is around 72 million US dollars, to a projected 39 million US dollars next year. That is hardly enough to buy a coffee in Copenhagen!
Contact: Mark Raven, Communications Coordinator, Climate Action Network-International
About CAN: The Climate Action Network (CAN) is a worldwide network of over 950 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in more than 115 working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. www.climatenetwork.org
About the fossils: The Fossil of the Day awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks.
This years Fossil of the Day Award ceremony is brought to you by host and comedian Dan Ilic and WoodyTV