The Danish government commits itself to green summits and laboratories

DKK 210 million over a three year period and an annual summit, which will be the green answer to the economists’ Davos. These are two of the proposals presented by the government after its last Growth Forum meeting.

A few days after the biggest government reshuffle in modern times, Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen was back in the green corner along with Climate and Energy Minister Lykke Friis. After a meeting in the government's Growth Forum, a few of the conclusions were presented.

In the aftermath of COP 15 in Copenhagen in December last year, the founding of an annual, green, growth summit was the most spectacular conclusion.

- The Danish business community agrees that they have benefited from COP 15.  All the activities in relation to the summit, which showed that Denmark possess exceptional skills, have been invaluable for the Danish business sector. Now, the idea of an annual growth summit has arisen, and it is an idea, we would like to take on and see where it can lead, so Copenhagen can become the venue for an annual conference on technological progress, the prime minister said at the press conference.

Apart from ministers, scientists, business executives and public interest organisations also participate in the Growth Forum.  The purpose is to advise the government on fulfilling the 10 objectives of the government's own work programme, which aims at making Denmark one of the 10 richest countries in the world by 2020.

DKK 210 million for testing laboratories 

Concurrently with the green Davos, Green Labs IE was presented with a promised DKK 210 million over the next three years. The plan is to establish a small number of test and demonstration facilities for green technologies in an open process that welcomes feed-back.

- It will strengthen Denmark's opportunities in its efforts to become the world's test country. In Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster we have great expectations to the effect of test possibilities, because Denmark, on many counts, is an attractive country for companies to test their technologies in," says Head of Secretariat of Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster, Nicolai Sederberg.