Time is running out for Climate Minister Lars Aagaard (M) if he is to comply with an important premise in the Climate Act, because he has the prospect of a group of hungry and debate-ready climate rapporteurs.
Before this year ends, the Folketing must have adopted a new climate target for 2035 and revised the current ones - but the minister has not yet called for negotiations. This has drawn sharp criticism from a handful of parties - because a long and complicated negotiation is still pending on Denmark's future climate goals.
- I am extremely dissatisfied with the fact that we do not know where the government stands and that no concrete proposal has been made for what the climate goal for 2035 should look like, says Leila Stockmarr, climate spokesperson for the Unity Party.
The criticism is shared by parties such as SF, the Social Democrats, the Alternative and the Conservatives.
A binding point
It is a binding point in the widely adopted Climate Act that the Folketing must revise the climate goals in 2025 and set a new one for 2035. Here, support must be gathered for a specific target figure, and the methodology behind the calculation must be clarified.
An analysis from the think tank Concito estimates that Denmark, with its current climate policy initiatives, will hit 80 percent CO2 reduction in 2035.
In this light, both Concito and the parties want an even more ambitious target to be set.
In the Radical Party, climate spokesperson Samira Nawa is first and foremost "very tired" that the government has not yet called for negotiations - especially in light of the fact that the EU is struggling to adopt climate targets for the entire union.
- Imagine if we had achieved our goal with our negotiations, which Lars Aagaard could have insisted on in the EU, rather than it having to be the other way around.
The party wants to have raised its ambitions.
- We would like to have a 90 percent reduction in 2035, says Samira Nawa.
In SF, they are a bit more flexible.
- The discussion about a new target in 2035 must start with at least an 85 percent reduction, and it seems we, it is important that we move the goal of climate neutrality forward from the government's 2045, so that it is in 2040, says climate spokesperson Signe Munk.
An ambitious goal
There are also more concrete and ambitious bids from the parties in the agreement circle behind the Climate Act that need to be heard.
The Alternative's climate spokesperson, Torsten Gejl, says it clearly:
- We want climate neutrality in 2035. That we do not emit more CO2 than we can capture.
The Conservatives would also have liked to see the negotiations already concluded. But having said that, climate spokesperson Frederik Bloch Münster can understand that Climate Minister Lars Aagaard has been busy negotiating the EU's new climate goals. The party will wait to set a percentage for the new climate target until we are in the negotiating room.
- But it is clear that we must have an ambitious target that is also achievable, he says.
Climate Minister Lars Aagaard is currently at the UN General Assembly in New York City, and it has therefore not been possible to get a comment from him.
However, he has repeatedly announced that the negotiations will probably begin this year.
/ritzau/
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