Danish officials expect the tax will reduce the country’s emissions by about 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2030. According to the MIT Climate Portal, humanity emitted more than 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022.
“We are the first in the world to [carbon dioxide equivalent tax] “The agreement on agriculture will be an inspiration to other countries,” Danish Tax Minister Jeppe Bruus said in a statement. “It shows how much can be achieved when people come together across party lines and interests to find a joint solution to one of the greatest challenges of our time.”
According to the Associated Press, the agreement was reached on Monday between the center-right government and representatives of farmers, industry, unions and other groups. Farmers across Europe have been protesting for months against cuts to subsidies and new regulations aimed at reducing emissions that contribute to climate change, The Washington Post reported.
The Danish government’s proposed tax for 2030-31, which is expected to be approved by parliament with broad support, would be given back to industry to help it go green, with its treatment to be reviewed in 2032. The bill also includes a range of initiatives, including the creation of more than 600,000 acres of new forestland.
The tax is aimed at sharply reducing emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says needs to be cut by 40-45% by 2030 to limit global warming this century to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Danish government has also welcomed it as a way to meet the country’s climate target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
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Livestock are responsible for about 32% of manmade methane emissions, according to the United Nations. The world’s 1.5 billion cattle are responsible for the majority of livestock methane, according to the UN, but Denmark has less than 0.1% of the total, according to 2022 figures compiled by Our World in Data. Brazil had the world’s highest cattle population that year, at 234 million, followed by India at 194 million and the United States at 92 million.
A similar bill to Denmark’s was also under consideration by the previous centre-left government in New Zealand, where agriculture accounts for half of emissions, mainly from methane gas released when livestock burp, but the plan was scrapped this month by the country’s new centre-right government after opposition from livestock farmers.
New Zealand is proposing other ways to reduce methane from livestock, including funding research focused on developing a “methane vaccine” and projects to breed lower-emitting cattle, the government said in a statement.
The problem with this research is that it’s not yet at a stage where it would be cost-effective for farmers to use at “current carbon prices”, said Professor Richard Eckerd, who studies carbon farming at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
But large multinational agricultural companies have set targets for reducing emissions, and in the long term this will be a more effective mechanism to encourage change at the farm level “than a simple carbon tax,” Eckerd said in an email. This means “government doesn’t have to be the bad guy” by imposing a carbon tax that farmers will rebel against, he added.