Denmark to become second country to tax agri emissions
Farmers on tractors gather on November 14, 2020 in Aalborg, northwestern Denmark, during a rally against the Danish governments' unconstitutional order to cull all Mink in the country due to a mutated Covid-19 virus and against the following restrictions in seven municipalities in North Jutland. Picture: Henning Bagger / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images
Denmark is on course to be the world's second country to put a tax on agricultural emissions, following last week's election which was triggered by a scandal over a government-mandated cull on mink farms.
Agriculture has figured prominently in the country's politics over the past two years.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was forced to call an early election, after it was revealed that her November 2020 decision to cull millions of mink, as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus, was not legally sound.
At the time, Covid-19 was causing thousands of daily deaths in Europe. Virus mutations were detected in mink on several farms, and Frederiksen decided all of Denmark's 17 million mink would be slaughtered.
The cull went ahead, despite vets saying all the infected animals would have recovered, and most of them were going to be slaughtered anyway in the skinning season, only weeks away.
In some areas, the mink bodies were not buried deep enough, and they contaminated nearby waters. Hundreds of thousands had to be exhumed.
The Social Democratic government agreed to compensate more than 3,000 mink farmers with €2.5 billion. The Agriculture Minister resigned, the PM was officially reprimanded, and her coalition colleagues in the Social Liberal Party demanded early elections, or a vote of no confidence.
The election went ahead last week, and Frederiksen's Social Democratic party and leftist allies had a surprise victory, returning with extra seats and a narrow majority. But Frederiksen has resigned, with a promise to seek a centrist coalition government, while she continues as caretaker PM. She had campaigned on the need for a broad coalition of political unity at a time of international uncertainty.
Agriculture will continue to play a prominent role in government formation, because the outgoing minority government had proposed an agriculture carbon tax, with revenue recycled to farming to support the green transition. The Social Liberal Party also supports a levy on agricultural emissions.
A carbon tax on both agricultural and transportation sectors is expected, to help Denmark reach its goal of reducing emissions by 70% from 1990 to 2030 (but the legally binding target for agriculture is only 55-65%).
A carbon tax on high-emitting companies (those currently exempt from the EU Emissions Trading System) is also proposed, of €164.21 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Farmers are understandably worried about the carbon tax in Denmark, where methane from ruminants is almost 40% of agriculture greenhouse gas emissions.
At least, Denmark's mink farmers have got a reprieve, unlike Ireland, where legislation has been passed for prohibition of the country's three fur farms.
The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration will lift the temporary ban on keeping mink as of January 1, 2023. With about 1,200 farms, Denmark was the world's largest producer and exporter of mink skins, until September, 2020, when coronavirus cases significantly increased on Danish mink farms, and the Government decided to depopulate infected farms, and healthy herds within 8 kilometres.
In November, Prime Minister Frederikson announced that all mink on Danish mink farms were to be culled, after a mutated version of the coronavirus began to spread on the farms, and the Danish State Serum Institute warned that the mutated virus could render Covid-19 vaccines ineffective.
It remains to be seen if the industry can return to its pre-coronavirus levels. Next year, all mink farms must be monitored weekly and there are strict new biosecurity measures, as well as public supervision of Covid-19 infected herds.
Despite the ban on domestic production, Kopenhagen Furs, one of the world’s leading fur auction houses, held its first physical auction in two years in September 2022 and reported selling 3.5 million skins, 98% of its inventory. China is by far their main customer.
Denmark was not the only EU member to order a mink cull during the pandemic. In Spain, more than 100,000 were slaughtered, and in the Netherlands, more than a million.
