Green transition of Danish Agriculture and reshaping the landscape

On 18 November 2024, a broad majority of the Danish Parliament reached a political agreement that will significantly push a green transition of Danish agricultural production, transform the Danish landscape, create more nature and ensure a healthy aquatic environment.

The agreement builds on the multi-stakeholder agreement proposing a CO2 tax on emissions from agricultural production and the transformation of 15 percent of Denmark’s agricultural area into nature. The agreement sets aside around 4.92 billion GBP to implementation of the comprehensive reorganisation of Denmark’s land area.

According to the agreement, Denmark must continue to have a strong and competitive agricultural sector that produces high quality and healthy food products. Therefore, it is essential that, in line with the rezoning of agricultural land, production can be done in a more efficient manner on the remaining robust agricultural areas.

The green transition of the Danish agriculture and food sector must take place in a way that supports increasingly sustainable, high-tech and land-efficient agricultural production, so that Denmark will continue to have a competitive industry with attractive business potential and jobs.

In other words, it is the goal to find the right balance between maintaining a profitable agricultural production in the future while at the same time achieve a significant reduction in the CO2e emissions from farms.

Overall, the measures in the agreement are estimated to have the potential to reduce emissions by between 1.8 million and 2.6 million tonnes CO2e by 2030.

Denmark and the UK share ambitions on making agricultural production more sustainable and at the same time maintaining productivity, food security and profitability for the farmers.

It’s not an easy task to find the right balance – but the UK had led the way in some areas while Denmark is leading the way in others. There are plenty of possibilities for enhancing the cooperation and sharing of knowledge and lessons learned in both countries.

Strengthening the cooperation between Danish and British farmers and authorities is the goal of the Danish embassy for the years to come.

We start on 3 April 2025 by hosting an interesting panel debate about the forthcoming green transition of Danish agriculture and putting a spotlight on the new green technologies that needs to be adopted by Danish farmers. And it is the plan to bring British stakeholders to Denmark to visit farmers who successfully have adopted new greener technologies and vice versa.

If you’re interested in learning more – please feel free to contact Minister Counsellor for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries at the Royal Danish Embassy – Mr. Jan Bay-Smidt on jansmi@um.dk