Denmark has been a partner with the CCAC since 2012 and has supported activities in the CCAC’s Household Energy and Waste Initiatives, including developing and conducting black carbon emissions testing and protocols for heat stoves to enable ecolabelling and other voluntary black carbon standards for heat stoves, and the City Waste Exchange Program between Copenhagen and Sao Paulo to share information and experiences in the municipal waste sector.
Denmark has ensured ambitious climate action by passing the 2020 Climate Act into law. The Climate Act sets a target to reduce Denmark's greenhouse gas emissions by 70% in 2030 compared to 1990 levels and a long-term objective of climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest. The Act also calls for a new national climate target with a 10-year perspective to be set every five years. The new targets cannot be less ambitious than the last agreed-upon target – aligned with the principle of no backsliding in the Paris Agreement.
During the announcement of Denmark’s 2020 Climate Act, Danish Minister for Climate, Energy, and Utilities Dan Jørgensen stressed the importance of raising global ambition to tackle climate change under the Paris Agreement: “We urgently need to ramp up climate action. The Nationally Determined Contributions at next year’s COP26 will be a litmus test for our future. If we fail to make real progress, we will set the world on a path to an environmental disaster.”
Early and ambitious action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) is essential to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, and Denmark is taking significant steps to reduce these pollutants. As a member of the European Union, Denmark follows EU regulations to reduce their F-gas emissions by two-thirds by 2030 compared to 2009-2012 levels. To support this effort, Denmark increased its importing taxes on HFCs in 2020 and has a law in place that puts an extensive ban on the sale and use of HFCs in new equipment. Funds have been earmarked in the national budget periodically since 2005 to promote the adoption and development of low-global warming potential (GWP) HFC alternatives, retrofit buildings with low-GWP alternatives, and improve the Danish collection and return systems for newly developed fluorinated refrigerants.
In the 2020 Climate Agreement for Energy and Industry, a majority of the Danish parliament agreed on introducing biogas tenders in order to promote the production of biogas. Moreover, in 2022 a new broad political agreement was set in place including an ambition to phase out gas boilers for heating purposes in households by 2035. This will contribute to the Danish ambition of achieving 100 pct. fossil-free gas consumption in Denmark by 2030.
Learn more about Denmark’s climate and clean action below.
Oil and Gas:
Household Energy:
Transport:
Agriculture:
2020: Research projects to develop feed additives that will decrease the amount of methane emitted from ruminant digestion were launched.
Climate Finance:
Hydrogen:
