The government proposes a climate target for 2035 of 82 percent

After long internal discussions, the government is ready with its proposal for what Denmark's climate target for 2035 should look like. Here, the government proposes that Denmark should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 82 percent compared to emissions in 1990. This is what Climate Minister Lars Aagaard (M) tells Ritzau.

However, the percentage should be understood as a negotiating proposal. According to Lars Aagaard, the government is ready to move forward in the discussions with the parties in the Folketing, and he is already airing what a runway in the negotiations might look like.

- It could be somewhere between 82 and 85 percent reduction, he says.

The government wants to allocate four billion kroner annually to achieve the new target. The Danish Parliament has already adopted climate targets for 2030 of 70 percent reduction and for 2050 of 100 percent.

At the same time, the SVM government has noted in its government foundation that it will work towards a goal of climate neutrality as early as 2045.

The new climate target for 2035 is therefore a milestone on the path towards a society that does not emit more greenhouse gases than it absorbs.

Minister sees more challenges

Lars Aagaard, however, sees more challenges in organizing the new climate target.

The Danish Parliament's climate policy has already been "360 degrees around" in all sectors, which means that the remaining emissions in 2035 are complicated and expensive to eliminate.

In addition, according to Lars Aagaard, the government will not make it more expensive to be a Dane. Therefore, the Minister of Climate Change wants to achieve the additional reductions through CO2 capture and storage in the chimneys of Danish factories, for which they are ready to allocate more money.

If the parties in the Folketing want something different, they may face difficult conditions, warns Lars Aagaard.

- It will be a criterion, if someone wants something different than the government, that they then play a game about where they want to find the money and in which sectors the reductions should be found.

Lars Aagaard presents the new climate target as one of the most ambitious in the whole world. But if you look at the projection of Denmark's CO2 emissions and climate efforts, it is a minor upward adjustment.

Here, the think tank Concito has assessed, based on the Danish Energy Agency's Climate Projection, that Denmark will achieve an 80 percent reduction in 2035 with the current political initiatives.

The government's proposal is therefore an increase of two percentage points further reductions than the current development suggests.

Question: Why is it ambitious if you are actually proposing an increase of two percentage points?

- It is ambitious because we expect it to cost quite a lot of money to reach the last percentage points, says Lars Aagaard.

The Green Youth Movement: "Embarrassingly low"

However, the verdict at the Green Youth Movement is clear: The new target is "embarrassingly low". This is what member and climate campaigner Selma de Montgomery tells DR.

- Being a little better than everyone else is still not good enough. We believe that Denmark should lead the way and push for green development, it says.

At the Danish Chamber of Commerce, Ulrich Bang, deputy director for climate and energy, thinks the goal is ambitious.

- It is a goal that both aims for substantial climate action and at the same time takes into account the competitiveness and value creation of the business community. That balance is absolutely right, he states in a written comment.

/ritzau/