Denmark: Considering Carbon Tax for Cows and Pigs

Emissions caused by livestock farming pollute the environment, so in Denmark, farmers may be forced to pay a “carbon tax” for each cow or pig.

This will be an annual tax of 672 kroner (about 90 euros) per animal. The measure would be enacted to try to offset climate-altering gas emissions associated with agriculture. The law, which is currently under discussion, will be the first in the world related to the agricultural sector. The sector that in Europe itself has long been the protagonist of demonstrations, with farmers several times invading Brussels, the seat of the EU institutions, and other European capitals against restrictive Community rules, particularly those related to improving the environmental impact of crop and livestock production.

Jeppe Bruus, Denmark’s finance minister, explained to the Associated Press that the tax is part of the measures that will be taken to reduce it in order to achieve climate neutrality in the next twenty years. “We will take a big step forward to become climate neutral in 2045,” explained Bruus, “Denmark will be the first country in the world to introduce a real tax on CO₂ emissions in agriculture.”

According to the United Nations Environment Program, 32% of human-caused methane emissions and 12% of global emissions come from livestock.

A similar law was supposed to go into effect in New Zealand in 2025, but as AP explains, the country’s 2023 change of government (from a center-left to a center-right executive) repealed that provision in support of farmer protests.

Returning to Denmark, an important exporter of pork and milk derivatives, the legislation under study also calls for investment of 40 billion kroner (€3.5 billion) in initiatives such as reforestation and wetland creation, while revenues from the livestock tax will be reused to support the transition to a green agricultural sector.