Connie Hedegaard holds an MA in Literature and History. She has been a member of the Conservative Party and active in government on and off since 1984, when she was elected as the hitherto youngest member of the Folketing, the Danish national parliament, where she sat for six years. In 1990, she left politics to pursue a career in journalism. Over the next 14 years, she worked as a journalist at the newspaper Berlingske Tidende, took the post of Director of DR Radio News, and was the anchor for Deadline, a Danish TV news program.
Political career
Member of the Danish government, 2004–2010
Diving back into politics in 2004, she became Minister of the Environment. A year later, she became Minister for Nordic Cooperation. After the November 2007 general election, she was chosen as Minister for Climate and Energy. In May 2008, she told Denmark, "Sustainable economic growth is an attainable objective. The Nordic Region has made great progress with solutions based on environmental technology, and some day it will be possible to stockpile energy generated from renewable sources such as windmills, and to run vehicles purely on excess energy." Hedegaard was also in charge of preparing and hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen. From 2007, Hedegaard was behind Denmark's energy policies. In April, she signed an action plan with India on renewable energy. One notable achievement was her role in introducing Denmark's Energy Policy 2008–2011. The policy made her country the first in the world to commit to an overall energy reduction, not just a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. It includes the following language.
Energy Savings: A target of 2% reduction of total energy use from 2006 levels by 2011, and 4% by 2020.
Renewable Energy: Increased biomass/waste and wind energy and provide large, annual subsidies for solar and wave energy. Regarding wind power, plans include support for two 200 MW offshore wind farms that are scheduled to begin energy production in 2012. Additionally, money has been set aside for informational and labeling campaigns aimed at replacing oil-fired furnaces with heat pumps.
Energy taxes: Higher taxes on CO2 emitters, as well as a new tax on emitters of nitrogen oxide.
Energy technology: Doubled funding for energy technology R&D.
Transport: Extended the electric vehicle tax exemption to 2012 and introduced a tax exemption for hydrogen vehicles. Planned a tests scheme for electric vehicles. Set the goal to use 5.75% biofuels for all land transit by 2010 and 10% by 2020, in line with EU targets.
Taking up her new position at the European Commission on 10 February 2010, Hedegaard stressed the importance of climate change in the 21st century. She hoped that by the end of her five-year term, Europe would be the most climate friendly region in the world. Her priorities would be to implement the European Climate and Energy package and to continue her efforts towards an ambitious international climate agreement. According to the mandate outlined by President Barroso, her principal responsibilities as Commissioner for Climate Action was to:
Help the European Union to meet its targets for 2020 and beyond to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
Help promote the development and demonstration of low carbon and adaptation technologies and to develop a strong science and economic base for EU climate policy;
Have cross cutting responsibility for developing adaptation to climate change inside the EU and for working with other Commissioners, to ensure that an appropriate climate dimension is present in all Community policies;
Build on the White Paper on adaptation to climate change and to help develop adaptation strategies across all policy areas.
