Could Denmark Be Fossil Fuel Free by 2050?
COPENHAGEN, Denmark—Denmark could become one of the first countries in the world to completely stop using oil, gas and coal by 2050 if it boosts wind production by as much as six times and hikes taxes on fossil fuels tenfold, a government-appointed commission said. Denmark should increase its wind power capacity to between 10,000 and 18,500 megawatts in 2050—most of it by installing offshore turbines—from the current capacity of slightly more than 3,000 megawatts, the Danish Commission on Climate Change Policy said in its report. At the same time, the country should impose a tax on fossil fuels that would rise from 5 Danish crowns per gigajoule next year to 50 crowns by 2030. “My government will study the recommendations very closely and will present a road map setting a date for freeing ourselves from fossil fuels,” Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said at a conference this week in Copenhagen. “It will be one of the first road maps in the world on how to become fully indepen
