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The new Minister for the Environment, former President of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation Maria Reumert Gjerding, is a member of SF, the Socialist People’s Party, just as Sisse Marie Welling, the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen.

A third with the same political background is Nanna Westerby Jensen, the new CEO of By & Havn (CPH City & Port Development), who comes from a position as Director of Planning in City of Copenhagen.

Together with other parties in Parliament, SF was part of the political majority behind Lynetteholmen, a huge development scheme that aims to build 20,000 brand-new dwellings on landfill in Øresund. The project uses surplus soil from construction sites – new builds, metro construction, etc. – an old party trick that has long been employed to drive urban development in Copenhagen, but which is under pressure as discussions now focus on reusing existing structures or rethinking Copenhagen’s old urban fingerplan in an effort to stimulate housing demand across the region (se Arkitekten 02/2025).

The new master plan for Refshaleøen, by contrast, is based on reuse of selected structures and buildings, making this much more sustainable (se Arkitekten 05/2024) than merely building new land and filling it with structures. Still, if Byggestopbevægelsen (Construction Freeze Movement) had their way, we should probably refuse to build at all and be content with using what structures there are already. You could say that Lynetteholmen represents an old shool way of thinking, while Refshaleøen is more in tune with new ideas.

In 2025, the Danish Society for Nature Conservation joined forces with other associations –Green Youth Movement, Byggestopbevægelsen and others – and formed the alliance ‘Put Lynetteholmen on Hold’. The fact that environment minister Reumert Gjerding (formerly Enhedslisten, a political party that is against Lynetteholmen) now feels she has to back the project after joining SF is too bad but understandable.

Line Barfoed, who is Mayor of Technical and Environmental Affairs in City of Copenhagen, represents Enhedslisten, which, along with Alternativet, supports the new four-party coalition government. During last year’s run-up to Copenhagen’s mayoral election, the social democratic candidate Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil, together with Christopher Røhl from Radikale Venstre, even proposed to close down By & Havn altogether.Rethinking the regulatory framework and how By & Havn, with its billion-kroner debt, might develop Copenhagen in future is actually a really good idea. Should the state, perhaps, take a hand in financing the Metro, just as we all, via taxes, are involved in paying for new motorways. Especially considering the continued influx of people to the capital from other parts of the country?

By & Havn’s board is chaired by Pia Gjellerup, a former social democratic minister. So, if this is not the time for green urban development, more reuse and less new construction in Copenhagen right now – when will it ever be?  

Translated from Danish by Cornelius Colding.