Denmark has agreed to implement the world’s first tax on agricultural emissions, as part of a concerted programme to help reach its climate and environmental goals.
Under the plans, farmers will have to pay a levy of 300dkk (£33.50) per tonne of methane on emissions from livestock, including pigs. This will rise to 750dkk/t (£840/t) in 2035. But farmers will qualify for a rebate if they undertake certain environmental measures.
The Green Tripartite deal is the culmination of months of negotiations between the government, oppositon parties, various related bodies, farmers, trade unions and environmental groups.
There is a big focus on reducing nitrogen pollution in an effort to restore Denmark’s coasts and fjords, with the aim of cutting nitrogen emissions by 13,780t a year from 2027, AFP news agency reported.
Money raised by the tax will be invested into green initiatives, including the creation of 250,000ha of new forest, the restoration of 140,000ha of peatlands that are currently being cultivated, and strategic land purchases, including farms.
Huge task
Jeppe Bruus, minister for the Green Tripartite, said the agreement, first announced in June, will change Danish nature ‘in a way we have not seen since the wetlands were drained in 1864’. “It is huge, huge task to transform large parts of our land from agricultural production to forestry, to natural spaces, to ensure we can bring life back to our fjords,” he said.
Foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said: “When you see across Europe that tractor tyres are being burned in the capitals and climate activists are sticking to the motorways, it is great to be in a country where the parties are brought together, and we’re doing the biggest overhaul of the Danish landscape since Dalgas