Lots of people talk about the possibility of getting to 100 percent renewables by such and such a date — if every one of these reports came true, we'd be exporting surplus wind power to the asteroid belt by now.
But few countries are actually doing it. Denmark is one. And Denmark would like you to know that your plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions, no matter how ambitious, is like a wet noodle next to its monstrously tumescent plan to ride out the post-peak fossil fuelpocalypse in style.
As the world’s population grows and emerging economies expand rapidly, global demand and competition for energy are set to intensify in the decades to come. This will likely drive up prices of the world’s finite oil and other fossil fuel resources, which are concentrated largely in a handful of politically unstable countries. The International Energy Agency projects that global energy demand will increase 34 percent by 2035.
In Denmark, we have decided that we do not want to be in that energy race.
Or in other words, suck it, renewable energy race also-rans! While America's huddled masses are washing up in tent cities in an oil-starved future, Denmark will be ghost riding the whip in a gigantic dun-colored Escalade made out of hemp. Metaphorically speaking. Oh, and they’ll be doing it while wearing giant diamond-encrusted grills, because the state of the Danish economy is strong, baby:
Importantly—and with a bearing on the current debate in the United States—we [reached 30 percent electricity from renewables] while securing economic growth. Since 1980, the Danish economy has grown by almost 80 percent while our energy consumption has remained more or less flat and CO2 emissions have fallen. We have also seen the development of a strong and globally competitive energy efficiency and sustainable energy industry.
