Denmark's "burp tax"

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

Farmers in Denmark are getting ready for an ambitious new scheme that will transform the country's landscape from 2030.

As well as giving land back to nature, the Green Tripartite Agreement will see farmers taxed on the greenhouse gas emissions coming from livestock - the first country in the world to do so.

Animals like cattle, sheep and pigs release the greenhouse gas methane as part of their digestive processes. Will the tax push up the price of food as some fear, and put farmers out of business? Or is it a model that other countries can and should follow?

Plus - we meet Hilda, the Scottish calf bred to emit lower levels of methane.

if you'd like to get in touch with the programme, you can email us at [email protected]

Presented and produced by Lexy O'Connor

(Picture: Calves - including Hilda - in a shed.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Lexi O'Connor and welcome to today's Business Daily from the BBC World Service.
0:09.5	While the world's biggest economy distances itself from the green transition...
0:14.5	We will drill, baby drill.
0:18.2	One European country has been quietly moving ahead with a global first initiative for the
0:24.6	climate. The story has been huge, like the massive reconstruction of the whole country, like the
0:32.5	potential of that has been huge. Denmark has a big plan to green up its agriculture. It'll mean from 2030
0:40.9	it'll become the first country in the world to charge farmers' attacks on greenhouse gas emissions,
0:47.6	including those coming directly out of livestock. My wife and I just got started and then
0:53.4	the politicians started talking about attacks.
0:55.7	It was really bad news.
0:56.9	It was a bad day at the office.
0:59.0	So will it push up the price of Danish food,
1:02.0	as some fear,
1:03.1	or is this a model that other countries can and should follow?
1:07.0	We need to protect the jobs.
1:08.5	We need to protect the export,
1:10.2	but at the same time, we also need to do more for the climate.
1:13.3	All coming up on today's Business Daily.
1:21.6	We're starting not in Denmark, but in a cow shed in the Scottish town of Dumfries.
1:27.5	One breath in and you know it's a cow shed.
1:29.8	It smells, I presume, exactly like it should.
1:33.5	Earlier this year I came up here to learn more about agriculture's impact on the environment.
	...

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