| Communication team
The Danish Case of Green Refining
by Pia Strunge Folkmann
Through green refining and regulatory sandboxing, the Climate Foundation Skive is shaping evidence-based policy pathways for sustainable and economically viable agricultural transformation.
The Climate Foundation Skive is committed to creating the conditions necessary for business development in technologies that are essential to transforming agriculture into an environmentally and climate-neutral sector. This includes supporting emerging industries in securing development financing and working to reform the regulatory frameworks that shape agricultural and industrial activity.
Green refining is one such key technology with the potential to become a large-scale industry. For more than five years, the Climate Foundation Skive has actively engaged with national authorities to elevate green refining as a priority and help establish the regulatory conditions needed for it to scale.
A central focus of our work has been securing agreement with national authorities to establish a so-called “Regulatory Sandbox” for the green refining value chain. Traditionally, a regulatory sandbox is a type of “free space” where industries are granted temporary exemptions from certain rules, allowing them to experiment and test whether alternative approaches could justify broader regulatory change.
However, the sandbox we envision at the Climate Foundation Skive goes further. We see it as a structured forum for dialogue, where authorities and stakeholders collaboratively explore a comprehensive set of regulatory adjustments. The goal is to assess—on both environmental and economic grounds—the viability of a new agricultural industry built on alternative production systems. Crucially, this must happen at a scale that enables real-world demonstration and scientific evaluation of outcomes, particularly in relation to nutrient pollution in aquatic ecosystems. As such, our regulatory sandbox includes a Living Lab: a geographically defined area where the entire system and value chain can be tested in practice.
The Climate Foundation Skive has been in close dialogue with four ministries to co-create the regulatory sandbox, and we are now confident that formal agreements will be reached in the near future. The road to this point has been intensive and multifaceted. It involved articulating the pollution challenges and potential solutions, demonstrating—through scientific data—how changes in agricultural practices and crop rotations can address these issues, and clearly mapping out the entire green refining value chain, including downstream technologies.
It also meant holding countless meetings with stakeholders, politicians, and public administrators to gradually plant the idea of possible change and foster a vision for future collaboration. In parallel, we supported efforts to secure financing for the sandbox initiative, resulting in two important outcomes:
- Funding was obtained for a consultant to work across ministries and help coordinate the process;
- Authorities, by accepting external funding, became formally committed to follow through, since external financing brings with it a responsibility to deliver.
What is it we do, when we do what we do?
This question has become something of a guiding narrative at the Climate Foundation Skive, a phrase we return to whenever we are uncertain about our next step. A tentative answer might be:
Meeting by meeting, we have built trust and credibility with stakeholders, demonstrating that our work serves the common good. These relationships form the backbone of our approach. Before any regulatory changes are proposed within the sandbox, we consult with stakeholders to ensure coherence across the regulatory landscape and to secure broad-based support for the changes.
We remain committed to being present in what we call the “political workrooms” (councils, conferences, workshops, and professional networks) where dialogue with authorities and stakeholders happens.
These include the Danish Bio-Economy Panel, the Bio-Solutions Network, Food & Bio Cluster, the Confederation of Danish Industry, the Danish Business Authority, the START conferences, and many others.
These spaces are where the future is being shaped: a future that balances environmental responsibility with food security and a thriving business environment.
Navigating a Politically Active Landscape
In Denmark today, there is strong momentum across multiple fronts to transform agricultural practices. The Climate Foundation Skive is not operating in a vacuum, but within a dynamic and politically active environment where various organizations are advocating different and often opposing positions. Some seek to protect against the economic impacts of policy change, while others push for maximum environmental benefit, regardless of short-term cost.
The Climate Foundation Skive positions itself between these two poles. Our aim is to promote solutions that deliver meaningful environmental gains while minimizing or avoiding economic losses. We believe this balanced approach is not only more pragmatic, it is essential for driving real and lasting transformation.
A Global Outlook
While sparking change in a small country like Denmark is an achievement in itself, the broader challenge lies in translating and scaling that change internationally. For this reason, the Climate Foundation Skive actively seeks out international partnerships and projects that align with our mission and help extend our impact beyond national borders.
We are also committed to having our methods critically examined by researchers. By opening up our approach, particularly how we engage stakeholders and structure dialogue with authorities, we hope to generate insights that other organizations can adapt to their own cultural and political contexts.
Success, after all, depends on aligning strategy with the realities of the system in which one operates. But drawing on the experience of others can be the decisive factor that turns intention into meaningful, scalable outcomes.
