Making climate policy action a political reality: Lessons from Denmark’s Green Agreement
05 February 2026, EU: Environmental taxation—levying taxes on activities, inputs, or products that generate environmental harm—is a politically volatile issue. In 2024, farmer protests erupted across much of Europe, driven by participants who largely felt excluded from national and European Union green policy decisions, including reduced tax breaks on diesel inputs and taxes on nitrogen emissions. During the same year, New Zealand’s efforts to impose a livestock emissions tax stalled, partially due to significant farmer opposition and a change in government.
Yet, in November 2024, Denmark became the first country in the world to adopt a tax on livestock emissions—and without major, nationwide farmer protests. Among other factors, it achieved consensus through a concerted tripartite bargaining process between the government, agricultural groups, and environmental actors. Denmark’s experience offers lessons to other countries during a time when such national agreements are essential to address mounting climate impacts from, and on, agriculture.
The tax is just one of the notable features of the Agreement on a Green Denmark, a collaborative framework to expand natural habitats, achieve cleaner water, and sustainably transform agriculture. The tax will start in 2030 at 16 euros per metric ton of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock, rising to 40 euros per ton by 2035. These rates are inclusive of a 60% base reduction; in other words, 60% of a farm’s calculated emissions from livestock are tax-free, and the tax is applied to the remaining 40% of emissions. This is significant, given that pork and dairy jointly comprise the largest share of Denmark’s agricultural exports. Other provisions of the Agreement include setting aside 15% of today’s arable land for conversion into new forests and for the restoration of carbon-rich peatlands, and it also provides substantial funding for investment in plant-based foods.
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