Denmark ranked world's leading cleantech country

Founder and president of Sustainable World Capital, Shawn Lesser, takes a global look at government mandates, green-collar jobs and entrepreneurial innovation. He ranks Denmark the number one cleantech country.

Shawn Lesser took factors such as government initiatives and programmes, major investment mandates, entrepreneurial innovation and cultural and social drivers into consideration in evaluating different countries' cleantech efforts.

Among other things, Denmark is ranked number 1 in regard to the national goal of becoming 100 per cent fossil fuel free.

"Denmark is Europe's largest exporter of energy technology and the birthplace of wind technology. The Danish wind industry accounts for approximately one-third of the world market, with big players such as Vestas, Siemens and Gamesa all having major R&D and production facilities in Denmark.

The Danes also have the financial backing of the ATP Pension Fund, DONG Energy and AP Pension, all of which have huge mandates for cleantech. Denmark is truly a model cleantech country where business, international cooperation, entrepreneurship and R&D partnerships are facilitated by such organizations as Copenhagen Capacity, Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster and Cleantech Scandinavia," says Shawn Lesser.

Germany, Sweden and the UK placed second, third and fourth respectively.

Read about Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster, that was funded this summer.