This report offers policy advice to Denmark on building a hub for green entrepreneurship in response to the strategy for Business Promotion in Denmark 2020-23, which calls for efforts to strengthen entrepreneurship, and increase innovation, digitalisation and internationalisation within Danish companies. The policy advice will also support the new panel on green entrepreneurship that has been established by the Danish government.

This report seeks to support Denmark in implementing initiatives to strengthen its green entrepreneurship ecosystem. Lessons are identified and future policy actions are proposed based on an examination of international policy practices for supporting green entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on the approaches used in three case study countries (Canada, Germany and Israel) that are each recognised as leaders in this area and have similar framework conditions to Denmark.

Denmark has the foundations to build a robust and fruitful green entrepreneurship ecosystem, namely an environmentally-conscious population, a world-leading research base in environmental fields, an ambitious climate agenda and a proven track record in lowering greenhouse gas emissions. These foundations are bolstered by the plethora of policy instruments that are available to support the formation and growth of green entrepreneurial ventures through the provision of loans, grants and investment, access to networks and a range of other measures. Despite this potential, Denmark lags behind other OECD countries in certain areas, most notably in the relative shortage of green entrepreneurs that successfully scale up. This chapter provides an overview of green entrepreneurship in Denmark, examining the opportunities, challenges and policy landscape and proposes policy actions to strengthen support for green entrepreneurship.

The Danish Council on Climate Change estimated that only one-third of Denmark’s targeted reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 can be achieved through existing policy measures. This means that technological innovation is critical if Denmark is to achieve its climate objectives. Green entrepreneurs can have a key role to play both in developing these innovations and in bringing them to market. This chapter provides an introduction to the need for and drivers of green entrepreneurship. It also develops the definition of green entrepreneurship that is adopted throughout this report.

Green entrepreneurship is quickly rising up policy agendas across OECD countries, building on the momentum created by the recent COP26 meeting and the opportunities created for green policies through COVID-19 recovery packages. Governments in OECD countries tend to promote and support green entrepreneurship through two main channels, namely direct support packages for entrepreneurs as well as policies and measures that create demand for green products and services. This chapter presents a brief overview of these different potential policy actions and describes how they are implemented in OECD countries.

This chapter examines three case study countries – Canada, Germany and Israel – approach stimulating and supporting green entrepreneurship. Each of these countries has a particular relevance to the Danish context, and has been identified as a source of learning for Denmark as it seeks to build a hub for green entrepreneurship. This chapter analyses the direct policy measures that are in place to support green entrepreneurship in each of the case study countries, as well as the indirect policy measures that contribute to a business environment that is more conducive to green entrepreneurship.