The Bitten and Mads Clausen Foundation, which owns the Danfoss Group, has granted EUR 1.2 million, which is earmarked to help 31 selected towns and cities worldwide save the energy used for cooling and heating. The grant will help finance an expert team to be based at UNEP-DTU—a collaboration between United Nations Environment Programme and DTU.
Over a three-year period, the experts will support towns and cities with upscaling and developing their district heating and district cooling facilities to reduce energy consumption as part of a UNEP’s District Energy in Cities initiative.
According to a UNEP report from 2015, effective district heating and district cooling systems contribute with 58 per cent of the carbon reductions that the energy sector must contribute with in 2050, and which are a precondition for being able to keep the global temperature increase below two degrees Celsius.
The 31 cities are in China, India, and Serbia, and they have been found after an extensive selection process where the cities' energy-saving potential was assessed.
The Foundation’s grant was marked on Monday, 6 June in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with a summit in Global Green Growth Forum (3GF). Minister for Foreign Affairs Kristian Jensen attended the event together with representatives of Danfoss, DTU, and the UN.
Danfoss CEO Niels B. Christiansen about the Foundation’s grant:
“The Bitten and Mads Clausen Foundation and the Danfoss Group have a strong focus on implementing and accelerating energy-efficient solutions. The District Energy in Cities initiative will help cities and towns develop advanced energy solutions in the field of heating and cooling. This is an important step in our efforts to achieve the goals set in the Paris Agreement in 2015.”
According to DTU’s President, Anders Bjarklev, the EUR 1.2 million is a welcome contribution to the efforts to develop the energy solutions of the future:
“DTU’s researchers are working intensively together with colleagues from all over the world in order to create new knowledge that can lead to a green and sustainable energy sector. Denmark is at the forefront of new technologies within district heating and district cooling and at DTU, we are delighted to be able to contribute to the latest knowledge being tested in practice in towns and cities, where it can really make a difference.”