Denmark is getting off fossil fuels. Are there lessons there for Canada?

After more than a decade spent thinking about fossil fuels and climate change, Angela Carter was looking for a "beacon of hope" to inspire Canada with alternative visions for what an oil and gas-dependent society could become.

Carter, an energy transition specialist with the International Institute for Sustainable Development and associate professor of political science at the University of Waterloo, found that hope when Denmark made a landmark decision to cancel future permitting for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea in late 2020.

A country of 5.8 million people, Denmark earned the equivalent of $109 billion from oil and gas extraction in the North Sea between 1972 and 2020. The country aims to be independent of fossil fuels by 2050, and has committed to renewable power for all energy demands — including electricity, heating, industry and transportation — by that date.

In November 2021, Denmark was one of the founding members of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, along with six other countries and the province of Quebec.

It made Carter curious to understand why a country so "entrenched" in fossil fuels would decide on "an end date on its fossil fuel extraction," she said. She followed her curiosity to Denmark to find out.

With many analysts forecasting fossil fuel demand to peak and start dropping by 2030, academics like Carter, concerned workers and union leaders are having conversations about what this means for jobs and communities.

There's fear among Canadian workers that the energy transition will leave them out. But some are looking internationally to Denmark and Germany for inspiration on how to adapt.

Esbjerg, a town on Denmark's west coast, has long been a hub for industry in the North Sea. As its large fishing industry began to decline, offshore oil and gas development took off in the early 1970s.

Now, wind turbines and related technology make up a multibillion-dollar export industry. 

Walking around the town's port, Carter found the hope she'd looked for. "The blades on these wind turbines are over 100 metres long. It's hard to imagine even the scale of them. And they're everywhere," she said.

Seeing the wind industry in Denmark first-hand was, to Carter, the promise of "what the future can be" in Canada.

She compared Denmark's energy transition to making a cake. The "ingredients" include government investment, climate and energy policy, support for workers — and importantly, "massive public engagement," she said.

Extreme heat and drought conditions in Denmark over the summer of 2018 put climate change in the spotlight, prompting protests ahead of the 2019 election. Social Democrat Mette Frederiksen won on a platform that included climate change.

The Danish government decided to revisit the upcoming licensing round to explore for oil and gas in the North Sea "in light of the elections and in light of the … public demands for climate action," said Jens Mattias Clausen, EU director for Concito, a Copenhagen-based think-tank.