Mundus Nordic Green News – 19 January, 2021

Semco Maritime invests for green growth

Semco Maritime, a Danish engineering contractor, typically associated with the oil and gas industry, says it is looking to scale up its offering to the offshore wind industry. Carsten Nielsen, Senior Vice President commented: “We are experiencing an increasing demand for deep competencies within the offshore wind area, where we have a strong market position and participate in a number of groundbreaking projects.” Semco Maritime will double capacity and expand the Renewables business area by 20-30 new employees during 2021. "The investments in the Renewables business will also make it possible to bring Semco Maritime’s strong offshore and energy competencies into play in several areas of application and support the development of new energy solutions” including Power to X.

 

Sandvik CEO: "Stable, fossil-free energy is one of Sweden's most important assets"

In a broad-ranging interview about his division, Göran Björkman, the Head of Sandvik Materials Technology, described his company as a technology innovator, whose products were developed with long lead times. In his opinion, as Sweden could never aim to be a low-cost country, other factors needed to come into play in order to attract investment from multinationals like his firm. He listed investment into electricity supply, alongside stable “rules of the game” and labour cost flexibility as a top three priority. The comment can be added to many others in recent times, indicating that Swedish industry is disturbed by the huge tensions building in Sweden’s demand, supply and distribution of low carbon power.

 

Greenpeace frustrated by Danish government dithering on climate targets

Helene Hagel from Greenpeace points out that the Danish government is struggling to make traction on its promised climate target of 70% by 2030, and observes that the government’s policies only get one third of the way. In the next few weeks, Denmark’s Climate Council must assess whether the government has demonstrated that the Climate Act's goals can be achieved. If it is not demonstrated that the Government can achieve what it has committed itself to in the law, a duty to act arises. And the Folketing can order the Minister of Climate to present new climate initiatives. Decrying a lack of action in the last 12 months, alongside poor excuses, Greenpeace demands a carbon tax, raising the price of fossil cars and action to reduce emissions from agriculture.

 

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