Climate disappointments piled up during the three years the outgoing SVM government occupied the ministerial offices. Denmark is nowhere near quadrupling green electricity from onshore wind turbines and solar panels, as the government had set out to do. Promises to store nearly three million tons of CO2 underground in 2030 had to be almost halved, and the much-touted hydrogen boom has stalled, to name just a few.

But no failure hit as hard as offshore wind. Eighteen months have passed since the largest tender in Danish history – meant to more than double electricity from offshore turbines – flopped completely. Not a single bid came in to build the offshore wind farms the government had been counting on.