Dan Jørgensen Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Jørgensen, along with Barbara Creecy, led the working group at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference that facilitated consultations on mitigation.

More than a year after having set an ambitious reduction target for the decade, there are in February 2021 no concrete plans for dealing with the remaining two thirds of the needed reductions to achieve the Danish 2030 emission target.

As of January 2021, Denmark stands to have a much lower price on carbon than its neighbours in 2030, with consequences such as trucks from Germany waiting to refuel until they are in Denmark to benefit from the low diesel prices in Denmark. Denmark is also one of the four EU countries without carbon taxes on passenger flights. In fact, Jørgensen’s government had plans to guarantee domestic flights during the COVID-19 crisis by subsidising domestic flights, a decision decried by green NGOs and the supporting parties Red-Green Alliance and the Socialist People’s Party. The decision was not implemented as the European Commission would not approve it due to regulations on state aid.

As stipulated in the Climate Act, the Danish Council on Climate Change has to make annual recommendations for and provide a status update on the Danish government’s climate efforts. In February 2021, the Danish Council on Climate Council does not find it likely that Dan Jørgensen’s government will achieve the target of a 70% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2030.

However, green NGOs have largely viewed Jørgensen’s tenure negatively in 2020.

Dan Jørgensen received a “nose” in June 2020, a formal criticism by a majority in the Parliament for delaying negotiations with other political parties on biofuels.

Jørgensen previously served as Minister of Climate and Energy and Public Utilities (2019–2022) under Frederiksen and as Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries (2013–2015) under Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. From 2004 to 2013 he was a Member of the European Parliament for the Social Democrats, as a part of the Party of European Socialists.

Jørgensen became Minister of Climate and Energy and Public Utilities in the Mette Frederiksen cabinet, following the June 2019 election.

In the 2015 Danish general election, Jørgensen became a member of the Folketing.

In February 2014, as Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Jørgensen signed a regulation which banned ritual slaughter of animals without prior stunning.

Jørgensen became a Member of the European Parliament for Denmark in the 2004 European elections with 10,350 personal votes and re-elected in 2009 with 233,266 personal votes.

In parliament, Jørgensen was the head of the Danish delegation of Social Democrats, the country’s largest group at the time. He served as vice-chair of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety from 2004, and was a substitute on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. In addition to his committee assignments, he was also a member of the parliament’s delegation for relations with Iran and a substitute on the delegation for relations with the United States.

Despite pleas from the UNFCCC, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Danish Economic Councils and the Danish Council on Climate Change, Jørgensen has postponed the implementation of a higher carbon pricing mechanism, even though Denmark was a pioneer with its adoption in 1992. The opposition to higher carbon taxes was positively received by associations representing the major emitting sectors such as the Confederation of Danish Industry and Danish Agriculture and Food Council.

During his tenure, Jørgensen entered a formal agreement with the cement manufacturer Aalborg Portland (Denmark’s largest carbon emitter standing for 4% of the national emissions) concluding that they did not have to reduce their annual emissions below their 1990 level of 1.54 million CO2 tons.

Dan Jannik Jørgensen (born 12 June 1975) is a Danish politician of the Social Democrats who is has been serving as Ministry for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy in the government of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen since 2022.