The Danish government has allocated DKK2 billion ($285 million) to initiatives aimed at strengthening biodiversity across the country, including planting forests and enhancing water ecosystems.
Resources will be delivered through the Green Fund, launched in 2022 to accelerate Denmark’s green transition. To date, the fund has allocated DKK53.5 bln for investments up to 2040.
As much as DKK625 mln of the newly announced pledge will go towards creating new forests, including through the conversion of agricultural lands.
“We need to plant more forests to create more and better nature, and strengthen biodiversity,” Magnus Heunicke, Denmark’s minister for the environment, said in a statement on Monday.
As well, DKK500 mln will be allocated to a dedicated fund aimed at improving the aquatic environment by establishing stone reefs and planting eelgrasses.
Another DKK760 mln will support efforts to tackle pollution – with DKK210 mln funding the implementation of an action plan to prevent PFAS pollution – while DKK200 mln will go towards improving drinking water protection.
“We must protect our drinking water, which is among the best in the world and must remain so,” Heunicke said.
The Ministry for the Environment will call a meeting to launch the initiatives financed by the fund, which will run until 2030.
An additional DKK1.2 bln will be delivered up to 2029 to implement Denmark’s climate adaptation plan, aimed at better protecting coastal areas, cities, and infrastructures against the impacts of the climate crisis, said the statement.
The announcement comes a few days after another significant move from the government, which last Thursday said that it would ban the discharge of scrubber water from ships into the marine environment within its territorial waters.
Scrubber water is a major source of environmentally hazardous substances in the marine environment.
According to the estimates by the government, the agreement is slated to reduce the discharge of nickel into Danish waters by up to 20%.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
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