This report offers policy advice to Denmark on building a hub for green entrepreneurship in response to the strategy for Business Promotion in Denmark 2020-23, which calls for efforts to strengthen entrepreneurship, and increase innovation, digitalisation and internationalisation within Danish companies. The policy advice will also support the new panel on green entrepreneurship that has been established by the Danish government.
Mitigating climate change is a critical issue on the global policy agenda. Many governments, and indeed sub-national governments, have committed to ambitious policy targets for moving towards a more green and sustainable economy. Close to 200 parties are signatories to the Paris Agreement to keep the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with many committing to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. These commitments call for rapid innovation and investment to develop new technologies as well as the introduction of new policies that influence the behaviour of people and firms. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity for governments to advance on this agenda since economic stimulus packages have the potential to support actions that simultaneously achieve environmental objectives. Furthermore, the war in Ukraine and rising energy prices have increased the need for governments to identify new and secure energy sources. The green transition is expected to create opportunities for entrepreneurs to exploit new markets, which will be an important driver for broader change.
The report provides a brief overview of the importance of green entrepreneurship and recent policy actions in OECD countries to stimulate and support green entrepreneurs. It identifies lessons from international policy practices in stimulating and supporting green entrepreneurship from three case study countries – Canada, Germany and Israel – to inform the Danish Business Authority about effective policy practices and pitfalls to avoid as it implements initiatives to strengthen the green transition to meet the objectives of the new strategy for Business Promotion in Denmark 2020-23. The case studies were developed through desk research and interviews with policy officers and green entrepreneurship stakeholders in the case study countries.
This report was presented and discussed at the 2nd session of the Committee on SMEs and Entrepreneurship on 13-14 April 2022. It was approved for publication on for publication on 21 April 2022 [CFE/SME(2022)11].