Danes have much to teach on green power

The Danish economy used to run on coal and oil. In the 1980s and 1990s the Danes switched to natural gas (like the UK) and a lot of wind power (unlike us).

Wind power has a defect: it only generates when there is a breeze, so it's no good for supplying peak electricity just when you need it.

The Danes get around this problem by importing lots of electricity from Sweden and Germany, thereby passing the pollution problem to someone else, as well as quietly making use of Sweden's atomic stations. If the Danes didn't import electricity, they'd have to have more gas plants and so make even more emissions.

As a result, the Danes have pretty well used up their ability to squeeze more cuts in emissions from their electricity generating sector, so their Kyoto target was a nonsense from day one. Except the Danes could not lose face by saying so. The big jump in Danish greenhouse gases has come from the transport sector. Short of getting everyone onto bikes, abandoning holidays in Thailand, or scrapping the entire Danish export trade, the Danes have a difficulty with making any strategic cut in emissions.