Copenhagen-Denmark announced Monday that the country’s political parties had agreed on a climate deal paving the way for an increased carbon tax aimed at drastically reducing emissions, though environmental groups found the deal lacking in substance.
The details of the proposed tax reform and the implementation of the deal, described as ensuring “a completely green energy sector”, will be negotiated after the summer, the finance ministry said.
All in all the deal is supposed to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions by 70 percent by 2030. “With the agreement today, Denmark is again at the forefront of the green transition, and at the same time we are paving the way for a green recovery of the economy,” Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen said in a statement.
The Danish Council on Climate Change, which consults on and evaluates the country’s climate policies, has suggested that the current carbon tax of 177 Danish kroner ($26.6 dollars or 23.7 euros) per tonne should be increased to 1,500 kroner. However, it is still not clear whether the government will follow the council’s recommendations, and environmental groups did not share the government’s enthusiasm for the new deal.
“We only see the relatively tenuous beginnings of a green transition in Denmark,” Helene Hagel, head of climate and environmental policy at Greenpeace Denmark, told AFP. According to Hagel, the government will need to tax all greenhouse gases, not just CO2.
“It is essential to put a more precise price on pollution in the form of greenhouse gas taxes,” Hagel said. As part of the deal struck among all of Denmark’s political parties in parliament, with the exception of one, the country will established two so called “energy islands”.
The two islands will host wind power farms totalling 5 gigawatts, as well as additional wind power projects, effectively tripling the country’s wind power production.