Denmark has stopped all new oil and gas exploration in the Danish North Sea with immediate effect as part of plans to stop fossil fuel extraction by 2050.
 
The country’s government on Thursday evening voted to cancel the country’s next oil and gas licensing round, some eight decades after it first began exploring its hydrocarbon possibilities.
 
Denmark’s 55 existing oil and gas platforms, located across 20 oil and gas fields, “will be allowed to continue extracting fossil fuels but the milestone decision to end the hunt for new reserves in the ageing basin will guarantee an end to Denmark’s fossil fuel production” reported the Guardian on Friday.
 
Helene Hagel from Greenpeace Denmark observed: “This is a huge victory for the climate movement and all the people who have pushed for many years to make it happen.”

“We will now follow a different path,” Dan Jorgensen, Danish minister for climate, energy and utilities, told the Financial Times in an interview. “It wouldn’t be in line with our ambition to be climate neutral in 2050 to still explore, produce and sell fossil fuels.” 
 
He added that he hoped to “lead the way by example”, spurring other countries to also phase-out fossil fuel production.

Mr Jorgensen said the move will slash revenues by $2.1bn with production by 2050 now forecast to be at least 9-15% less than it would have been.
 
But speaking to the FT, he noted: “We want to make sure oil workers have other jobs to go to. A lot of the employees in the oil and gas sector can be employed in the offshore wind sector.”