However, 46 percent disagree. This division is equally large among voters of the governing parties as well as opposition voters.
Danish experts say the country must implement a new nitrogen tax for agriculture, or else Denmark will fail to meet its international environmental commitments. Denmark would be the first EU country to introduce a greenhouse gas tax.
The Danish experts proposed three variants, ranging from a charge of a few tens to over one hundred euros per ton of emitted CO2, combined with premiums to modernize the sector. These premiums could be financed with funds from the current agricultural subsidies.
In the most extensive variant, the revenue from the additional CO2 pollution surcharge would also be used for further sustainability efforts in the Danish agricultural sector. Within the EU, Denmark is considered one of the frontrunners in active environmental and climate policies, including the Green Deal within agricultural policy.
The CEO of the Danish-Swedish dairy company Arla, Peder Tuborgh, believes that greenhouse gas emission targets can be met without introducing the controversial CO2 tax. According to the Danish dairy chief, his company has reduced emissions by 1 million tons over the past two years.
‘The only thing the government should do is offer the sector a carrot rather than threaten it with a stick,’ Tuborgh told a major interview in the prominent Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
The Arla director emphasized that he fully agrees the agricultural sector must contribute its share to Denmark’s CO2 reductions. He encouraged the government and expert committee to learn from the bonus model Arla introduced last year.
At the think tank Concito, part of what is called Denmark’s ‘green triangle consultations,’ it was pointed out that the figures claimed by Arla do not appear in the climate statistics. Data from the Energy Agency show that Danish livestock emissions have remained largely unchanged for years.
‘I would like to acknowledge the work that Arla is doing, but Danish milk production is not only Arla. The proposed CO2 tax is a method to spread this across all Danish farmers, and we must involve everyone,’ think tank economist Torsten Hasforth told Jyllands-Posten.