On Tuesday, April 2nd the Danish Government announced preparatory work on the Energy Transition Track – Clean Energy Investment at the UN City Copenhagen. It will be a key contribution to the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit in September 2019, where Denmark, Ethiopia and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) will co-lead the Energy Transition Track.

Tuesday’s workshop initially aimed to engage Danish stakeholders across the business, finance and the civil society, alongside the government in promoting investor-friendly environments, in order to dramatically increase investment in clean energy and sustainable development objectives.

Distinguished stakeholder representatives attended and participated in the collaborative and interactive workshop, including The Confederation of Danish Industries, Concito, Danfoss, Ørsted, Synergi, PKA and Pension Denmark.

Speakers discussed potential outcomes leading towards the Climate Action Summit, how to take concrete action and the importance of a global collaborative approach towards advancing clean energy investments.

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the 2019 Climate Summit, Luis Alfonso de Alba stated: “We are very much aware that governments alone cannot rise to the challenge (of climate action), and therefore the Summit has to be much more open, much more inclusive.”

The event was hosted by the Danish Special Envoy on Energy and Climate, Ditlev Engel, who declared “the work stream on Clean Energy Investment should be seen as an inclusive forum for all actors who wish to contribute to an accelerated energy transition and the investments that go with it.”

PKA Pension’s CEO, Peter Damgaard Jensen shared relevant insights into how the private sector can support clean energy strategies and investment promotion. “We are very much looking forward to working on this and to the Summit”, said Mr. Damgaard.

Further commentaries and contributions were made by esteemed guests, and included:

• The importance of advancing clean energy as a less risky investment option,

• How energy efficiency plays a crucial role in energy transition,

• The need for a larger pipeline of investable green energy projects in emerging markets,

• How it is essential that private investment sources are mobilised, that risks are addressed, enabling the cost of capital to come down, to make clean sources even more competitive.

Thank you to everyone for your participation in this event.  We look forward to our continued collaboration in 2019.