Food & Climate
A recent World Bank report indirectly supports a decision of Denmark’s cow carbon tax, which targets methane emissions reducing.
The Bank has called for governments in wealthy countries to shift subsidies from high-emitting to low-emitting foods in a landmark new report, but stopped short of criticising meat or telling people what to eat.
The bank’s new “Recipe for a Livable Planet” report outlines a “menu of solutions” governments can take to reduce their planet-warming emissions from food production, including using more renewable energy, harvesting food from trees instead of cutting them down, and restoring forests, according a report seen by “food & Climate” platform.
It calls on high-income countries, whose diets are most polluting for the planet, to take the lead by providing finance for green measures to low and middle-income nations and by shifting subsidies away from high-emitting food sources like cattle for beef. This “would reveal their full price and help make low-emission food options cheaper in comparison”, the report said.
Denmark’s cow carbon tax
Denmark’s cow carbon tax will be imposed on livestock farmers from 2030. Denmark, which is a large dairy and pork exporter, also will tax sheep and pigs although cows produce far higher emissions than pigs.
Denmark’s cow carbon tax is the first in the world as it targets a major source of methane emissions, one of the most potent gases contributing to global warming.
The aim is to reduce Danish greenhouse gas emissions by 70% from 1990 levels by 2030, said Taxation Minister Jeppe Bruus.
As of 2030, Danish livestock farmers will be taxed 300 kroner ($43) per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2030.
The tax will increase to 750 kroner ($108) by 2035. However, because of an income tax deduction of 60%, the actual cost per ton will start at 120 kroner ($17.3) and increase to 300 kroner by 2035,
Although carbon dioxide typically gets more attention for its role in climate change, methane traps about 87 times more heat on a 20-year timescale, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Levels of methane, which is emitted from sources including landfills, oil and natural gas systems and livestock, have increased particularly quickly since 2020. Livestock account for about 32% of human-caused methane emissions, says the U.N. Environment Program.
“We will take a big step closer in becoming climate neutral in 2045,” Bruus said, adding Denmark “will be the first country in the world to introduce a real CO2 tax on agriculture” and hoped other countries would follow suit.
A typical Danish cow produces 6 metric tons (6.6 tons) of CO2 equivalent per year. According to Statistic Denmark, there were as of June 30, 2022, 1,484,377 cows in the Scandinavian country, a slight drop compared to the previous year, according to “The Associated Press”.
New Zealand had passed a law like Denmark’s cow carbon tax that was supposed to start implementation in 2025, but the legislation was removed from the statute book in June after hefty criticism from farmers and a change of government at the 2023 election from a center-left ruling bloc to a center-right one. New Zealand said it would exclude agriculture from its emissions trading scheme in favor of exploring other ways to reduce methane.
Meat prices
The World Bank report author William Sutton, the bank’s lead on climate-smart agriculture, told “Climate Home” an example of a subsidy that is “not necessarily helpful for the environment” is providing free or cheap land for grazing livestock.
While Sutton declined to single out countries, the US government, for example, allows cows to graze on public land for a knock-down price.
If subsidies for meat were reduced in line with its “true cost” to the planet, prices would be 20-60% higher, Sutton said. “Allow the price of meat to more accurately reflect its true cost and let consumers decide whether that’s what they want to consume or whether they would rather consume lower-emissions, lower-cost alternatives,” he added.
Despite its report, the World Bank is not keen to be seen telling people what to eat or arguing for veganism. “The approach that we’ve taken is not to be prescriptive – not to tell people what they should and shouldn’t do – but to provide options on what they could do if they should so choose,” Sutton said.
The report contrasts high-emitting foods like red meat and dairy with “low-emission foods like poultry or fruits or vegetables”. While poultry meat, which is mainly chicken, is much less emissions-intensive than lamb or particularly beef, it is more polluting than plant-based proteins, as the report’s data shows.
3 days ago, Denmark has announced investing 15 billion kroner ($2.1B) until 2030 in R&D for new technologies spanning four distinct research missions, according “Green Queen”.
The government is aiming to make it easier to transfer new climate-centric tech solutions from the laboratory into society, strengthening capabilities around carbon capture, biofuels, food and agriculture, and the circular economy.