Denmark is still far from meeting the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30% in 2030 compared to 2020. The target should also be raised to 40-45% to ensure compliance with the Paris Agreement.

This is shown by a new report from the Green Transition Denmark, which has mapped the current and expected Danish methane emissions.

"Methane is a short-lived but powerful greenhouse gas that accounts for around a third of global warming. A ton of methane warms the planet approximately 30 times more than a ton of CO2 calculated over 100 years, but as much as 80 times more calculated over 20 years. We can therefore ensure a significantly faster effect on global warming through reductions in methane emissions compared to reductions in CO2 emissions.”, says Niklas Sjøbeck Jørgensen, senior advisor for food and bioresources at the Green Transition Denmark

In 2021, the EU together with the USA launched the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) at COP26, which is a promise to reduce global methane emissions by 30% in 2030 compared to 2020. This pledge has 158 countries, including Denmark, signed on. Projections from the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Supply show that Danish methane emissions will be reduced by 10-15% in 2030 compared to 2020. And even including an effect from the feed additive Bovaer, there is therefore a need for more action if we are to contribute our part to a global 30% reduction in 2030, believes the Green Transition Denmark.

Animal production is the largest source of Danish methane emissions

Green Transition Denmark's new report maps the Danish methane emissions that come from the agricultural, waste, energy and LULUCF sectors respectively. However, agriculture is the largest source of methane emissions. In 2023, agriculture accounted for as much as 80% of Danish methane emissions. The emissions come from animal production, namely from the digestive processes of livestock and from livestock manure.

"Our report shows that we cannot bypass a structural restructuring of Danish agriculture in order to significantly reduce our methane emissions and live up to what we have signed up to in the Paris Agreement and the global methane pledge.", says Lærke Kjærbye-Thygesen, project officer for food and bioresources at the Green Transition Denmark.

With the green tripartite, Denmark has taken a step in the right direction, but the agreement does not get us there. The green tripartite, and especially its arrangement of the climate tax, risks maintaining an excessively large industrial animal production into the future, by e.g. to prioritize technologies such as pyrolysis and feed additives over a real transformation of our food system, believes the Green Transition Denmark.

"The climate tax is an important first step, but it is not sufficient to ensure the fundamental transformation of agriculture that the climate, the environment and nature call for. With the tax model, we risk maintaining a large and intensive animal production instead of a structural development with a focus on more plant-based foods, fewer production animals and more ecology.”, says Niklas Sjøbeck Jørgensen, senior advisor for food and bioresources at the Green Transition Denmark.

Denmark should set an ambitious target for methane reduction

Reducing methane emissions can create rapid and significant effects on Denmark's contribution to global warming and "buy time" for more long-term CO2 reduction strategies.

Green Transition Denmark therefore believes that there is a need for Denmark to draw up a methane action plan with a more ambitious reduction target of 40-45% in 2030 compared to 2020. The higher reduction target is necessary to ensure compliance with the Paris Agreement and has been assessed as cost-effective and feasible by the UN Environment Programme. Denmark is the only Nordic country that has not drawn up a methane action plan, as is otherwise expected of all signatories of the Global Methane Pledge. A Danish methane action plan must contain concrete measures and objectives for methane reductions in agriculture, the waste sector and the energy sector respectively. It will show the way to achieving the reduction target, and will ensure that Denmark lives up to its global obligations.

"Denmark can and should be a green pioneering country and show the remaining signatories of the global methane pledge that it is possible to reduce methane emissions significantly. We have taken steps in the right direction, but we must dare to set further pace on the methane reductions, especially in the agricultural sector. A methane action plan will be an important tool to ensure significant methane reductions in line with the global methane promise," concludes Niklas Sjøbeck Jørgensen.