Denmark to impose world’s first carbon tax on farmers

Copenhagen announces CO2 levy equivalent to €100 a year per cow alongside reforestation subsidies in effort to stem environmental damage
Oliver Moody
, Berlin
The Times
Denmark produces three times as much milk per capita as the EU average, with farming set to make up nearly half of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 if trends continue
Denmark produces three times as much milk per capita as the EU average, with farming set to make up nearly half of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 if trends continue
ALAMY
Oliver Moody
, Berlin
The Times

Denmark has announced a plan to impose the world’s first carbon tax on farmers and create an area of new forest the size of Dorset as it seeks to cut emissions to 30 per cent of 1990 levels by the end of the decade.

As other European governments such as Germany and France struggle to appease their agricultural lobbies, Copenhagen intends to introduce an ambitious package of reforms that will include €4.5 billion in “rewilding” subsidies and a CO₂ levy equivalent to €100 a year for each cow in the country.

“This is a historic change, because we are giving land back to nature for the first time in 200 years,” Stiig Markager, a professor of marine ecology at Aarhus University, told the public