RECONFIGURING U.S. CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION POLICY: INSIGHTS FROM DENMARK'S PIONEERING DECARBONIZATION STRATEGIES

Abstract

The mitigation of climate change necessitates states to make structural changes in the energy, transportation, industry, buildings, agriculture, land use, and consumption patterns. Despite the fact that the United States has a lot of technological, financial, and institutional resources to decarbonize, its climate-policy path has been marked by a high level of policy discontinuity between presidential regimes. The example of Denmark is useful as a comparative case since it has established a comparatively stable and integrated climate-governance system that integrates legally binding emissions targets, the implementation of renewable energy, district heating, the integration of energy systems, economic tools, sectoral agreements, and institutionalized scientific advice. The Climate Act of Denmark was a legally binding target of 70% reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030 relative to 1990 levels and institutionalized climate planning and monitoring procedures (Danish Parliament, 2021). As of 2022, wind power contributed about 54 percent of the electricity in Denmark, and wind, bioenergy and solar photovoltaic combined to contribute about 81 percent of the electricity production (International Energy Agency [IEA], 2023). The United States, in its turn, has been dependent on a more disjointed mix of federal laws, executive order, regulatory guidelines, state-based projects, and market incentives. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 marked a significant change toward the integration of climate policy and industrial policy, clean-energy investment, tax incentives, and domestic manufacturing (Bistline et al., 2023). Nevertheless, the instability of federal climate policy to political and institutional changes has been proven by the changes in the policy later (Bistline et al., 2026).