The Danish expert group was appointed by the government a few years ago when the discussion flared up in Danish politics to act faster and better than the EU itself against environmental pollution and climate change. Within the EU, Denmark is regarded as one of the drivers of an active environmental and climate policy, including the Green Deal within agricultural policy.
The publication of the research report has been postponed several times earlier in order to keep it as up to date as possible. The report concerns emissions from livestock, artificial fertilizers, forestry, as well as carbon-rich agricultural soils, mainly low-lying grounds.
The experts present three variants, ranging from a levy of a few tens to over one hundred euros per ton of emitted CO2-equivalent, combined with premiums to modernize the sector. These premiums could be financed through restructuring current agricultural subsidies.
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In the most far-reaching variant, the tax revenue from the extra surcharge on CO2 pollution is also used for further sustainability of the Danish agricultural sector. In the variant with the lowest levy, the government, to meet the Climate objectives, will have to allocate much more money from the regular budget. For all three scenarios, it applies that especially Danish livestock farming must reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases, nitrogen, and methane, it is warned.
The expert group has dropped the previously proposed idea to impose an additional tax (‘meat tax’) on the price of food in supermarkets. It is expected that the models can reduce agricultural emissions by 2.4 to 3.2 million tons.
The experts also predict that any model involving production reduction will carry a “relatively high leakage risk” (i.e., with reduced domestic dairy and meat production but unchanged Danish demand, imports from abroad will increase) and therefore will have hardly any favorable climate effect.
The recommendations of the Svarer commission will now be discussed in a new committee – namely the political negotiations in the so-called green tripartite. Politicians, the professional group, and interest organizations will be involved. That ‘agricultural consultation’ tentatively has until June to reach an agreement.