PUBLIC PROCUREMENT NEWS

  

News

1 June 2021

Danish public spend estimated at producing 12 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents

In June 2019, the Danish Government set a target to cut carbon emissions by 70% by 2030, in comparison to 1990 levels. To reach this ambitious target, it is necessary that the government analyses where it can have an impact, and public procurement is one such area recently identified as important, following a detailed Footprint Calculation revealing eye opening results. The fact is, procurement has a huge influence on how markets develop. Around 185 billion Danish Krone – or 25 billion euro – is spent every year in Denmark on goods and services, which is around 10% of the national gross domestic product (GPD). It’s a huge volume, and it is directly within control!

Through the footprint calculation, it is estimated that the total climate footprint of Danish public procurement is currently 12 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. The findings of the footprint calculation have shown that two-thirds of Denmark’s climate footprint is actually emitted abroad, outside of Denmark’s borders. Another important finding is the size of the construction sector’s footprint compared to other categories of government spending - 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 eq compared to the next highest category of ‘energy and utilities’ at 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 eq. This clearly shows that efforts really need to focus on this sector if the government wants to cut its carbon emissions. “This is just one example of how the data we have gathered will be used going forward”, says Mikkel Wasilkuk, a Senior Purchasing Consultant working for the Danish Finance Ministry, in a recent interview published in the GPP News Alert by the European Commission.

Read the interview in full in the May issue of the GPP News Alert.