From energy outposts to green pioneers: Europe’s islands show the way
Excerpt from youris.com It began with a national competition in 1997. Denmark, shaken by the 1970s oil crisis and industrial job losses, had been on a mission to go green and transform its economy. Samsø, an island of 4,000 people off the Jutland Peninsula and reliant on coal and oil from the mainland, responded to the call to create a model community of green innovation and technology. “We were struggling with a loss of jobs and an ageing population, too few kids to maintain a good school system, a roaring urbanisation draining all the resources out of rural districts,” says Søren Hermansen, a farmer born and raised on the island. “So, we were fighting to avoid that and we thought, ‘here is maybe an opportunity if we make this transition’… not because we want to save the world but or the climate but more to save ourselves. It was a very pragmatic attitude.”
