{"id":3687,"date":"2025-10-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/2025\/10\/08\/europas-oekonomi-og-groenne-omstilling-kraever-en-ny-tilgang-head-en-masse-til-investering\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T19:41:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:41:17","slug":"europas-oekonomi-og-groenne-omstilling-kraever-en-ny-tilgang-head-en-masse-til-investering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/2025\/10\/10\/europas-oekonomi-og-groenne-omstilling-kraever-en-ny-tilgang-head-en-masse-til-investering\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s Economy and Green Transition Demand a New Approach to Investment\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Europe and Denmark can certainly compete in research and venture capital. But we must invest differently and far more aggressively, so companies with critical new technology don\u2019t move across the Atlantic when it\u2019s time to commercialize and scale, argues Rolf Kj\u00e6rgaard.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What good is it to have a sensible pension savings if you live in a country and a region of the world where the economy has fallen behind, with all that this implies for welfare and job opportunities, and where, right outside your door, you can clearly see the results of unresolved climate and environmental crises? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the stark perspective set by Rolf Kj\u00e6rgaard, chair of the partnership Invest for Impact Denmark and CEO of V\u00e6kstfonden until 2022. Kj\u00e6rgaard\u2019s central point is that Denmark and Europe must radically change their approach to investments. This is crucial, both to solve the economic challenges facing Europe and to develop companies with new circular and sustainable technologies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe have plenty of relevant research in Europe, which forms the basis for growth companies. The problem arises further along the ecosystem. When ideas need to be developed, commercialized, and scaled, it requires large investments. Here, Europe falls short, and technology growth companies are increasingly moving to the USA,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This comes at a cost. It\u2019s only when companies become large that they deliver societal value through growth, jobs, and income for employees, shareholders, and the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A European Challenge<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rolf Kj\u00e6rgaard points to three crucial elements in the ecosystem for growth companies, which he believes are essential for society to foster companies with groundbreaking technologies and reap the socioeconomic benefits: research, access to capital, and the existing industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen it comes to research, we are very strong in Europe. This is evident in both the number of patents and scientific articles. In biotech, pharma, climate, and environmental technologies, we are on par with the USA, and in some areas even better. The venture capital to support companies in the initial phase is also present, with both business angels and funds,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Kj\u00e6rgaard continues: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe challenge is capital when ideas really need to be commercialized and scaled. Here, we\u2019re talking about amounts of 100 million euros or more in each investment round. When you look at the funds capable of this, there are two in Europe and 45 in the USA,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the existing industry, Kj\u00e6rgaard believes that Europe\u2019s large, established companies should, like their American counterparts, lean further into the ecosystem for new companies and technologies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s about the leadership of large companies deciding to strategically prioritize venture investments in new companies\u2014and sticking with it over time, because it takes up to ten years to build competence and credibility as a corporate venture investor and to deliver results,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A Mental Block<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Draghi report from autumn 2024 has, in many ways, been a wake-up call. The report pointed out that Europe was becoming the old, tired man of the world economy, while the USA and Asia were leading with the technologies of the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As in so many other contexts, the saying \u201cfollow the money\u201d applies here too. In Europe, we must become much better at investing in ourselves, says Kj\u00e6rgaard. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Here we return to the pensioner with a well-padded pension savings, who may still end up somewhat depressed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIf your return is generated by investments in American and Asian technology and global dominance that has weakened Europe, where are your children and grandchildren supposed to find jobs?\u201d Kj\u00e6rgaard asks rhetorically. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He calls for a break with habitual thinking. Just as it was once said that no IT manager ever lost their job by buying IBM, there is a conservatism among investment managers in the large pension funds, where the dominant approach is to spread investments across a large portfolio of global equities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cPension companies must take care of everyone\u2019s money, and they shouldn\u2019t compromise on returns, but there is a mental brake. When you look at the risk-adjusted return, there is plenty of untapped potential in investing in technology and innovation in European companies,\u201d says Kj\u00e6rgaard. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

With a greater appetite for investments in Europe, pension companies will still fulfill what\u2019s called fiduciary duty, which also includes consideration for the long-term interests of pension savers, beyond short-term returns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cA director of a Dutch pension company put it very aptly: What good is it if savers get a nice return if they can barely breathe because of polluted air,\u201d says Kj\u00e6rgaard. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Wind Energy Showed the Way<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

He calls for new investment tools, and here the state and both commercial and charitable foundations must take on a special role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe state and the foundations can take a more long-term approach, and they can live with greater risks in individual investment cases. That\u2019s why we need to think in models where you combine the state\u2019s and foundations\u2019 long-term investments and risk appetite with capital on entirely ordinary terms, where there is typically a much shorter horizon,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A good example is the investment by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and EIFO in the Greenlandic company Rock Flour Company, which aims to exploit the potential of so-called glacier flour. This is finely ground rock that lies at the bottom of the ice sheet and is carried out with the meltwater. Glacier flour can both bind nitrogen and reduce climate emissions when spread on ordinary fields. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kj\u00e6rgaard also mentions the development of the Danish wind turbine industry as a good example of how the state, through support schemes and guaranteed prices in the 1990s and 2000s, created the foundation for a wind turbine industry with developers, manufacturers, and a wealth of subcontractors in everything from logistics to components. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foundations Can Play a New Role<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

He has a particular focus on foundations, both commercial and charitable. Here, too, he calls for a paradigm shift. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically, foundations have an investment policy similar to pension funds and banks. It is especially through philanthropic grants that foundations support their purpose. Kj\u00e6rgaard would like to see a bridge built over the divide between investment and philanthropy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cFoundations can become an even more important player because they can act as long-term investors and because they have a strong purpose. If they work even more purposefully and ambitiously with so-called mission-driven investments, it will have a much greater impact than what foundations can achieve with their grants alone,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Seeing Opportunities in the USA<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Climate and environmental technology is one of the areas where Europe is leading. Therefore, we should also see the opportunities when the Trump administration pulls back from expanding renewable energy and the US moves backward on the entire sustainability agenda, Kj\u00e6rgaard believes. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Europe already has strong positions, in areas such as energy and water technology and the foods of the future, which require a shift away from traditional animal products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAt the same time, there are currently hundreds of American companies that have seen their financing opportunities, needed to commercialize and scale their technologies, fall apart. There is momentum to create a flow in the opposite direction, so a number of innovative American companies move to Europe,\u201d says Kj\u00e6rgaard. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Europe and Denmark can certainly compete in research and venture capital. But we must invest differently and far more aggressively, so companies with critical new technology don\u2019t move across the Atlantic when it\u2019s time to commercialize and scale, argues Rolf Kj\u00e6rgaard.\u00a0 What good is it to have a sensible pension savings if you live in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3687"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3691,"href":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687\/revisions\/3691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cipfonden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}