The Danish government has announced that it will become the first country to tax methane emissions from agriculture.

The green tripartite agreement, first announced in June, will see farmers forced to pay a levy of 120 Danish kroner (€16.09) per tonne of methane on emissions from livestock including cows and pigs in 2030.

This tax will then rise again in 2035 to 300 Danish kroner (€40.23) per tonne of methane.

The new tax became a topic of discussion during the Irish Farmers Journal Dairy Day on Thursday between New Zealand dairy farmer Corrigan Sowman and Dutch dairy farmer Auko Sikkenga.

Sikkenga described how frustrating the new measure will be for his friends who are farming in Denmark.

“I’ve been talking to some Danish farmers, but they don’t know what’s going to happen either,” he said.

“The farmers don’t agree [with the measure] - they say they can’t do it. Like, imagine milking over 300 cows - that’s over €100,000 per year; margins are too tight for that at the moment.”

Tax

In comparison, industry in Denmark will have to pay 300 Danish kroner (€40.23) per tonne of methane on emissions in 2030, which will rise to 750 Danish kroner (€100.57) per tonne of methane in 2035.

The measure is part of the government’s plan to make 10% of all of the country’s total land to be forest and nature.

Sowman said that milk processors in his country stood to incentivise reducing emissions instead.

“We [the New Zealand government] were looking, little over a year ago, at being the first country to tax farmers on methane. Fortunately, that didn’t go ahead and the Danes will claim that one,” he said.

“But that really concentrated farmers' focus on [methane reduction] in New Zealand and now the processors are heavily driving us in that direction.”