The Red Green Alliance's Climate Plan 2030: A social justice route to a green society
Preface: Let us work together and make a rapid and socially just transition
Chapter 1 - The road to a green Denmark
A binding climate law
Climate support for the poorest countries
Chapter 2 - Sustainable transport for all
Phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles
Promoting electric vehicles
Greener, better and cheaper public transport
Conversion of ferries and heavy transport
Greener traffic in cities
Chapter 3 - Agriculture of the future
CO2 tax on agricultural production
Protecting especially climate-impacting soil
Restructuring of agricultural land
Chapter 4 - Green transition in the energy sector
More energy from wind and sun
Plastic should not be burned as waste
The green conversion of industry
Phase out oil and gas production in the North Sea
Individual heating
Energy savings
Chapter 5 - Financing
Redistribution to those with the lowest incomes
Climate support for the poorest countries
Transport
Agriculture
Energy
Climate impact of the plan
Let us work together and make a rapid and socially just transition
It is possible to reduce Denmark's climate impact sufficiently, adhere to the international objectives and create a society where we do not emit more CO2 than we absorb. Without compromising those on lower incomes.
We prove this with the plan you are now holding.
We show that there is plenty of reason for optimism, hope and for fighting for change. That it is possible to make the necessary changeover in time.
This is not just another climate plan in your hand. A plan that affects only some areas of society is not enough. We have to build wind turbines, but we cannot avoid doing anything about gasoline and diesel cars. Firstly, because otherwise we will not be able to do enough in time, and secondly because the climate impact, like prosperity, is very unevenly distributed.
We are opposed to heavy, economic interests in agriculture, to oil companies and to others who have made a great deal profit while burdening the climate, but must get used to significantly less. The answer is not just to leave it all to "green growth" in the free market.
We need to make major changes, but we cannot demand the same from everyone. It would be deeply unfair and, for good reason, create great, popular resistance - perhaps making it impossible to reach our goals.
Therefore, the Red Green Alliance’s climate plan must ensure that it is possible for ordinary people to live a good and secure life - both in the city and in the countryside. And those people whose jobs are threatened by the transition must be helped to find some of the many new, green jobs that are created. While the companies that make the most and earn the most must pay the most.
In other words, there is not just a need for a number of individual proposals. There is a need for a new, green social contract. We must promise each other that we, as individuals and as a society, will live a hundred percent within the planetary boundaries and that we are willing to implement what is needed. On the other hand, the necessary changes must not contribute to increasing the already sky-high inequality.
What you are reading is the first of its kind in Denmark. The plan does not skip any sectors and does not postpone difficult decisions to committees. You have a comprehensive and fully funded climate plan, which indicates the way to reduce Denmark's CO2 emissions by 70 percent by in 2030. This is a crucial step on the road to a CO2-neutral society.
It will be hard work and there are obstacles along the way. But we can change direction if enough of us work together.
Pernille Skipper, Political Spokesperson of the Red Green Alliance
Chapter 1 - The road to a green Denmark
The goal of this plan is to design a climate policy that ensures that we do our best to keep the world's temperature rise to a maximum of 1.5 degrees above the level before the industrial revolution. As the temperature is already rising, the climate is getting worse, but unfortunately the world's countries - including Denmark - have been inactive for too long. Therefore, achieving this goal will require a great deal of effort.
Right now, the world is rapidly moving towards a temperature increase of 3.2-3.6 degrees. This will already have far-reaching and doomsday consequences for the next generation. The children who today tumble around in the playground in overalls will experience a changed world with devastating storms, floods, droughts, famines and climate refugees in the millions. It will drastically change life as we know it, including in Denmark.
But we can choose another way. Where our production, transport and energy are sustainable. Where there is cleaner drinking water, cleaner air, less poison in the food and more forest and nature.
However, this requires that our entire society in 2040 does not emit more greenhouse gases than we can absorb. To achieve that goal we need to get started right now. The Red Green Alliance aims for emissions in 2030 to have fallen by 70 percent compared to 1990, which is the UN's base year. That is, 40 percent less than today. And this should happen in just 12 years.
In round figures, in 2030 we must have reduced Denmark's emissions of CO2 by 20 million tons more per year than the ten million that the Energy Pact from 2018 proposes. We need to change the basics of how we transport ourselves, what we eat, how we heat our houses and get electricity in our sockets. In a short time there will be major changes that will impact our everyday lives.
This kind of change causes resistance because it interferes with our private lives. Therefore, it is also crucial that the transition takes place in a fair manner. In this climate plan, there is a common approach that green consumption taxes on, for example, petrol or aircraft should not end up in the treasury. They must be returned to those citizens who have low or middle incomes through an increase in the “Green Check” rebate. In this way, taxes levied on climate-change go hand in hand with economic redistribution in favor of ordinary people. The plan should be seen in the context of the Red Green Alliance's other distributive policies, where we will lower the tax for people with low and middle income and raise it for people with high incomes or large share gains and for companies that earn well.
It will require challenging to make Denmark go ahead of other countries. But we cannot stand by while we wait for the most hesitant countries to follow. Contrary to many people's opinion, Denmark is not a model on climate. Overall, we have one of the world's largest climate footprints per year per inhabitant - even though it is very unevenly distributed. Denmark is, in the international context, a disgracefully polluting, incredibly rich and incredibly technologically developed country. We must use that position to lead the world into the necessary green transition.
Conversely, there is nothing to be gained if we go so far ahead in Denmark that production is moved to countries with lower climate and environmental requirements. This plan is based on the premise that other industrialised countries must also reduce their CO2 emissions and that they will also take firm measures to achieve the goal. Measures such as a tax on CO2 from agricultural production and air taxes must be adjusted according to what our neighboring countries do.
No one knows the exact climate impacts of all the actions that are needed. It is scary when we now have to make our climate impact so much less in just 12 years, and that makes it challenging to make a climate plan. We have done attempted to anyway. Based on the responses from the ministries, calculations from the Environmental Economic Council, analyses acquired from external consultants and our own calculations, this is Red Green Alliance’s suggestion on how we accelerate an ambitious green transition, where everyone contributes according to ability.
Behind the plan that you are reading is a large number of calculations and considerations. To make the plan clear and manageable, we have placed them in technical annexes, which can be found at enhedslisten.dk/klimaplan. In the plan there are boxes outlining measures that we think are
important for green climate action, but which do not necessarily affect Denmark's national emissions. Therefore, we also do not count them in the reductions. We would rather over-fulfill our objective than risking not getting to the goal.
The plan differs in several respects from the climate plans which so far have been presented by the other parties of the Folketing and by the government. For we do not handball the difficult decisions off to commissions and expert committees. We do not say that petrol cars need to be phased out without answering how the loss of registration taxes and petrol charges must be covered. The task of stopping climate change is so great and the deadline so advanced that it can and must be based on concrete, funded instruments.
A binding climate law
At Christiansborg there is a lot of talk about financial responsibility. You can't spend money you don't have, it says. The same common sense is lacking when it comes to climate. But we must make the requirements in climate policy as firm as in economic policy.
With inspiration from the British Climate Change Act of 2008, we will prepare a Danish climate law with binding targets. The idea is not new. It has been made and supported for many years by several Danish parties and organisations. The Red Green Alliance first made the proposal back in 2010.
This climate plan is our best bet on how we can live up to the Paris Agreement, but it is possible that more action will be needed over the next decade. With a climate law, we can ensure that we keep an eye on whether we are reducing the emission of CO2 quickly enough.
• A climate law must, through binding objectives, ensure that Denmark stays on the course for a 70 percent reduction by 2030 and for becoming a so-called zero emission society by 2040.
• As a part of the climate law, every two years, the status of whether the Danish reductions are on the right path must be reviewed. If they are not, the climate law commits the incumbent government to present new initiatives that bring Denmark back on track.
Climate support for the poorest countries
Just as the climate impact is unevenly distributed between rich and poor in Denmark, the burden is also enormously distorted across the world. Here, it is the industrialised countries that have most recently and historically burdened the climate, which at the same time has brought them ahead technologically and economically.
In other words, it is rich countries that have created the climate problems that poor countries face. Therefore, Denmark and other rich countries have a duty to support climate adaptation in the poorest countries. In fact, this is necessary if we are to achieve the reduction globally.
• Danish support for climate adaptation in the poorest and less industrialised countries must be raised so that it reaches five billion DKK a year. To achieve this goal, development assistance must be increased.
• In addition, development assistance must be shifted from supporting business to support for targeted climate adaptation and sustainable development.
Chapter 2 - Sustainable transport for all
We are dependent on being able to transport ourselves and goods around, but it requires a lot of energy. The transport sector today accounts for approximately one quarter of Denmark's greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time we get two percent more cars every year. We must reduce emissions from transport if we ever hope to achieve our climate goals. This is mainly to be done by replacing petrol and diesel cars with electric cars and by making public transport better and cheaper.
The switch to electric cars is far too slow in Denmark. Therefore, it is necessary to support the sale of electric cars until they can fully compete with petrol cars. The challenge is that fewer petrol cars will cause a great loss to the Treasury because we will lose registration tax and taxes on petrol and diesel. The Red Green Alliance’s answer is to raise the registration tax on petrol cars, in particular to make smaller and medium-sized electric cars cheaper and eventually introduce a toll that is low on the highways and high in the cities.
Overall, the restructuring will not give more money to the Treasury, but will prevent a shortfall as a result of the restructuring. If you scrap your petrol car and buy an electric car, it will also not be more expensive for the individual to drive by car. We will also raise the taxes on petrol and diesel, but return the entire proceeds to low and middle income by increasing the Green Check.
Our answer is not just about switching from petrol to electric cars. We will make it possible to travel around without a car - even if you live in the countryside. Therefore, we will invest massively in cheaper public traffic and in several bus routes, in flexible alternatives to buses in the sparsely populated areas, in new railway lines and in better train connections across the country. This way, public transport will become a real alternative - locally, nationally and abroad.
Phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles
Slightly more than half of the CO2 emissions from transport come from light traffic. This is currently about seven million tonnes of CO2 annually. It is therefore important that within a few years we completely stop the sale of cars that run on fossil fuels and replace them with electric cars.
• Ban on the sale of new diesel cars in 2022. Used diesel cars can still be traded.
• Ban on the sale of new petrol cars in 2025. Used petrol cars can still be traded.
• Reversal of the registration tax to cancel recent reductions. This means, among other things, that the highest rate on registration tax changes from 150 percent to 180 percent, while the low rate changes from 85 percent to 105 percent
• The scrapping premium for petrol, diesel and hybrid cars to be raised from DKK 2,200 to DKK 20,000 in 2026. The increased scrapping premium will then be phased out gradually towards 2029.
• The tax on diesel will be raised from DKK 69 per litre from 2020 onwards At the same time, the petrol tax will be increased by 69 øre per litre, corresponding to 15 percent. The entire proceeds from the increased fees will be returned to citizens via the Green Check. This increase in the Green Check will end once the proceeds lapse as petrol and diesel cars are completely phased out.
• A road use tax will be introduced for passenger cars of DKK 1 per km in cities, DKK 0.25 per km for motorways and DKK 0.1 per km for other roads. The road use tax is not intended to simply tax cars harder, but must compensate for the loss of revenue when petrol cars are phased out for lower-cost electric cars. The road use tax will at the same time help to limit congestion.
Promoting electic vehicles
Phasing out petrol and diesel cars alone is not enough. We will also support the transition to electric vehicles. Direct support and infrastructure expansion is needed to make electric vehicles a real alternative to gasoline vehicles across the country.
• Electric cars are phased into the charging system on an equal footing with petrol cars. However, they are exempted from the minimum charge and the battery charge is maintained. Together with their high deduction for good fuel economy, this means that registration fees are not payable for the vast majority of small and medium-sized electric cars. From 2026-2030, electric cars will gradually phase out the battery charge and phase in the minimum rate. However, micro-electric cars will still be exempt from the minimum rate.
• A subsidy of DKK 50,000-100,000 will be introduced for the purchase of an electric car during the period 2020-2025. The grant will be given to 250,000 electric cars according to a staircase model: DKK 100,000 for the first 100,000 electric cars, DKK 75,000 for the next 100,000 and DKK 50,000 for the last 50,000.
• A pool of DKK 240 million will be made available over four years to promote the spread of fast-charging stations, where electric cars can be recharged in 20-30 minutes, so that electric cars will have a greater action radius.
• All new parking spaces must be prepared for electric cars, so at least half of larger parking spaces are prepared for charging stations, and so there are at least two charging stations on all major parking spaces.
• Electric cars must be given priority in traffic. Therefore, the municipalities must be able to design special lanes for electric cars and prioritize electric cars on public parking spaces.
• The special low electricity tax rate for charging in commercial and public charging stations will be maintained until 2025.
Greener, better and cheaper public transport
It is high time that public transport to be strengthened after many years, when cars have become cheaper and cheaper in relation to trains, and where many train and bus routes have been closed down, especially in outer areas. You have to be able to get around all of Denmark without a car.
At the same time, the Danish Energy Agency foresees that, by 2030, 800,000 more cars will be on Danish roads. That figure is the starting point for our calculations, but in no way a desirable development. Therefore, over the next ten years, the Red Green Alliance will allocate up to DKK 40 billion to public transport, which will benefit everyone.
• Public procurement of traffic must be sustainable. This means that from 2020 all new public purchases and contracts relating to traffic must be so-called zero emission vehicles such as electric and hydrogen cars, and from 2030 all buses, taxis, cars and vans that serve the public must be zero emission.
• DKK 15 billion will be allocated over ten years to complete the second phase of TrainFund DK. It will ensure faster connections and higher speeds on the railway network, including a new track between Hovedgård and Aarhus and a new railway bridge over Vejlefjord.
• A pool of DKK 2 billion over five years is needed to ensure better traffic for outer areas, better buses and trains, and support measures such as flex traffic, teletaxis and car-share schemes in the areas where public transport is the worst.
• Tickets must be cheaper, so prices for public transport will be reduced by 30 percent from 2020. This will cost DKK 1.3 billion annually.
• One billion DKK will be allocated annually to expand passenger capacity in buses and trains.
• The Red Green Alliance will work for the creation of a European Train Fund to ensure better and faster links with lightning and night trains between European capitals.
Conversion of ferries and heavy transport
CO2 doesn’t only come from passenger transport on the roads. About half of the emissions in the transport sector come from freight transport, including ferries. Here too, as a society, we can do a lot to promote a green transition.
• It must be a requirement that all new ferries are electrically operated by 2025. Experts estimate that it pays to electrify most of Denmark's 50 domestic ferry routes.
• The electrification of truck transport has not reached nearly as far as passenger cars, but here gas is a good alternative. However, facilities for gas refueling will be required before the hauliers will invest in gas-powered trucks. Therefore, a pool of DKK 250 million over five years must go to establish gas refueling tanks.
• DKK 250 million will be allocated to a research pool for green transport, which will be primarily focused on the conversion of aviation and heavy transport.
Greener traffic in the cities
Municipalities must have more tools to manage the emissions from road traffic themselves. It is both about reducing greenhouse gases, but also about making air quality in the cities better.
• The municipalities must be allowed to create stricter environmental and zero emission zones, where the municipalities themselves decide on emission requirements. The environmental zones should not, as now, only include vans and trucks, but also passenger cars and motorcycles.
• From 2025, taxi licenses will only be granted for zero emission vehicles. By 2025, taxi licenses should be given as a priority to zero-emission vehicles such as electric cars and hydrogen cars.
• A pool of DKK 10 million will be set aside annually for five years for fast charging points for taxis, and the most central taxi parking spaces are to prioritise zero emission taxis from 2020.
• The bike infrastructure needs to be improved so that it becomes more attractive to take the bike over the car. Therefore, a pool of DKK 1 billion will be allocated over five years, from which regions and municipalities can apply for bicycle projects.
Chapter 3 - Agricutlure of the future
Today, agriculture accounts for 22 percent of Denmark's greenhouse gas emissions. This corresponds to over ten million tons of CO2 a year. If we are to achieve our climate goals, agriculture must reduce emissions by at least a third by 2030. This must be done at the same time as agriculture is made sustainable and organic. In collaboration with the farmers, our agriculture needs to be changed so that it contributes positively to climate, nature, the environment and local processing and the creation of jobs.
The large climate impact of agriculture is mainly due to the fact that Denmark is the country that produces the most meat per year per inhabitant in the world. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce livestock production in this country. 80 percent of our agricultural area goes to the production of meat or of animal feed. In addition, there are soya imports for feed from huge areas abroad, in total the size of all of Zealand and Falster. The actions proposed by 2030 will in the long term result in fewer farm animals. This must also continue after 2030.
Our initiative to reduce the climate impact is a tax on the CO2 emissions of agricultural production, where the entire proceeds are reinvested in the green conversion of agriculture. At the same time, large areas of land will be removed from agriculture and converted into forest and nature.
Agriculture also has another key role to play in reducing Denmark's climate impact. Along with forestry, agriculture is the only industry that can actually absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and bind it as carbon in plants and soil. Utilising this feature requires us to transform large areas from cultivated land to forest and nature.
CO2 tax on agricultural production
Agriculture places too much strain on the climate and is not subject to quotas or otherwise regulated. Emissions come primarily from dairy cattle, to a lesser extent from beef cattle and also from the very large pig farms. The most climate-impacting production must be reduced through a tax on CO2, which the Environmental Economic Council has also proposed.
• The introduction of a tax, where each farm must pay DKK 700 per ton of CO2 emitted from 2027. In practice this means a tax on livestock, crop cultivation and fertiliser. As farms reduce CO2 emissions by, for example, converting to less climate-impacting production, they will be less burdened by the tax.
• The proceeds from the tax will be returned to the farmer for the purpose of promoting sustainability in production. This is done according to a formula calculated on the basis of how much the individual farm emitted before the introduction of the tax. The more you have reduced, the greater the compensation. The proceeds from the tax will decrease in line with the changeover and the decrease in CO2 emissions. As less money comes in from the tax, the compensation will also be lowered.
• The purpose of the tax is to reduce CO2 emissions by reducing the production of the most climate-impacting products such as beef and cheese. This can lead to a loss of jobs in the agricultural sector, although the revenue from the tax will be reinvested in agriculture and thus will mitigate part of the impact. However, overall, new jobs will be created in other sectors due to the large investments outlined in this plan. A pool of DKK 100 million must go to retraining and further educating those who need to find another profession.
• An annual climate proofing will be offered to farmers to map their farm's current emissions and to help create a climate action plan for how the farmer can make his agriculture more climate-friendly. The green transition is a shared responsibility and the individual farmer should stand alone. Together with other initiatives, this will promote climate-friendly crop production and agricultural development, such as bio-char, permaculture and more trees on agricultural land.
• Efforts must be made to ensure that the EU's agricultural support, until it is settled, supports the transition to a climate-friendly, sustainable agriculture.
Protecting especially climate-impacting soil
Some types of soil emit very much CO2 when farmed, e.g. soil with high carbon content. There is a double impact from stopping the cultivation of these soils: Firstly, the emission of CO2 is reduced when the soil is not cultivated, and secondly the soil is able to bind a large amount of CO2.
• 108,000 hectares of land with particularly high carbon content will be taken out of operation by 2030. The landowners will be compensated financially for the lost income from the land.
Restructuring of agricultural land
There is a great potential for reducing the emission of CO2 by converting agricultural land to, for example, forest. There will be less emissions when the soil is not cultivated. At the same time, a lot of CO2 can be stored in the trees and later in the furniture, houses and floors into which the wood is processed. The climate effect of redesigning to forest will already be significant in 2030 and will grow in the years following. This is an important step towards a society that absorbs as much greenhouse gas as it emits. Including the particularly climate-impacting soils, 508,000 hectares of agricultural land must be converted. This corresponds to 21 percent of the Danish agricultural area or an area just over one and a half times larger than Funen.
• 100,000 hectares of agricultural land will be converted to forest by 2030. In the long term, some will be left as untouched forest, which will help to strengthen biodiversity. The landowners will be financially compensated for the difference in income between farmland and forest.
• 100,000 hectares of agricultural land will be converted to perennial energy crops such as willow and poplar. This will be done by making a fund for conversion support of DKK 950-1,300 per hectare converted into energy crops. Energy crops bind carbon while they are growing, and can therefore be used as CO2-neutral fuel, which must displace imported biomass (read more about biomass in Chapter 4).
• 200,000 hectares of agricultural land will be returned to nature. The landowners will be financially compensated for the lost income from the land.
Chapter 4 - Green transition in the energy sector
Electricity and heat are some of the major items in energy consumption, and here the ambition is for renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels. The green transition has already come a long way in this area, and so the energy sector today accounts for just under one third of total CO2 emissions. In addition, emissions from homes outside the district heating network and from companies that produce energy themselves are part of the production.
Ordinary Danes' electricity consumption will be CO2 neutral in 2030 under the current energy policy already adopted. The challenge is not in the electricity consumption of private households, but in the business sector, which will still emit six to seven million tonnes of CO2 a year.
Unfortunately, a large part of these emissions cannot be removed, as all the parties in the Folketing (Danish Parliament), with the exception of the Red Green Alliance and the Alternative, have authorised the extraction of oil and gas from the North Sea for the coming decades. A bad agreement has been made where the oil companies must be compensated for lost revenue as a result of political intervention.
The CO2 emissions from Danish oil and gas production are so high that the rest of the energy sector will almost be CO2 neutral by 2030 if we are to achieve our climate goals.
At the same time, there are other considerations that must be taken into account: Today, Denmark is highly dependent on imports of biomass from abroad, ie imported wood for burning. This leads to deforestation in many countries, which is both destructive to life in the forests and bad for the climate, as the trees would have absorbed CO2. We should not contribute to this.
In addition, due to planned data centers, Denmark will increase the import of electricity from abroad. There is no guarantee that the imported electricity will be produced via renewable energy. Therefore, it is the Red Green Alliance's goal that by 2030 we do not import more electricity than we do today, which will require more offshore wind turbines than previously planned.
More energy from wind and sun
More renewable energy is needed if we are to both reduce the use of biomass, secure enough power for the many electric cars, and at the same time prevent imports of German electricity from lignite from increasing.
Renewable energy today has become so cheap that much of this will occur completely by itself. Wind turbines can compete with all kinds of fossil fuels, and solar cells are well underway. For the money that has already been allocated for renewable energy on land through the Energy Agreement in 2018, we can probably get three times as much energy as was thought just a year ago.
• Several more offshore wind turbines will be built up until 2030 than is agreed in the Energy Agreement, namely two additional offshore wind farms corresponding to the power consumption of 1.7 million households.
• Today, a municipality must set up a separate company for each building where it will install solar cells. This barrier will be removed. At the same time, municipal energy efficiency improvements and the expansion of renewable energy will be exempted from the budget law's limitation of municipalities' annual construction costs.
• Private homes may today subscribe to heat pumps owned by a private company for a monthly allowance plus maintenance, but not to solar cells. This will be changed for so that solar cells are equated with heat pumps.
• To speed up the conversion of heat production from burning to geothermal and heat pumps, large heat pumps will be excluded from the electricity tax increase to 1 øre / kWh, and heat pumps for geothermal energy will be completely exempted from electricity tax. In addition, the guarantee scheme for geothermal energy will be increased to DKK 250 million and extended to 2030.
Plastic should be burned as waste
Plastic is the source of over half of the fossil fuels in heat production when waste is burned. We need to recycle more plastic and reduce consumption and waste. The figures for Danish plastic consumption are uncertain, but the plastic industry estimates that every year we produce approximately 340,000 tonnes of plastic waste. Of these, only approximately 36 percent is recycled, while 63 percent is burned. The Red Green Alliance will reduce the burning of plastic by at least 80 percent by 2030.
• Denmark must work for a ban on exporting plastics out of the EU, so that Denmark and the other European countries themselves have to handle their own waste and in this way be pressured into develop recycling solutions.
• From 2030 it will be forbidden to import plastic waste, so you cannot make money by burning it off and producing energy.
• The full sorting of plastics in business will be required by 2030. At the same time, companies will get the opportunity for cheap plastic sorting in the municipal waste collection.
• A number of measures will make it easier to sort and recycle plastic. It must be a requirement that plastic packaging is only made of one plastic type. The tax on packaging must also be adjusted according to how much plastic the packaging contains and whether it can be recycled.
• The use of deposit systems will be extended to include plastic bottles and Tetrapaks.
• A targeted effort must be made to reduce plastic waste in households, among other things through an extension of warranties.
The green conversion of industry
The primary source of CO2 emissions from energy consumption is industry, especially manufacturing companies, but also for example agriculture. In 2030, they will emit four million tonnes of CO2, which primarily comes from the combustion of natural gas, coal and petrocox. Petroleum coke is similar to ordinary coke, but is a residual product from oil refining.
The rest comes from so-called F-gases, which are very strong greenhouse gases, and which are used in refrigerators, freezers and a number of other products. Only 360 tonnes of F-gases are emitted annually, but they correspond to 780,000 tonnes of CO2.
Companies today receive free CO2 allowances and therefore do not have to pay for their pollution. In total, the state has distributed free allowances corresponding to 3.3 million tonnes of CO2 to 91 companies. Aalborg Portland alone has received quotas corresponding to 1.9 million tonnes. This needs to be changed so that the industry also has to pay for polluting. The vast majority of the revenue will be returned to the companies in the form of support for a green transition, so no one needs to close down, but to still strongly encouraged a switch in energy production in manufacturing companies.
• The free CO2 quotas will be made payable gradually from 2021. In 2021, 10 percent will be paid for of the quotas, in 2030 100 percent. The money will generally be returned to the companies as support for green restructuring. Unused funds must go to a state forest fund for afforestation in the global south, which can absorb CO2.
• As in agriculture, a climate audit will be offered to map out the company's greenhouse gas emissions, and a climate action plan to help plan transition to more climate-friendly production.
• In addition to the existing fund for energy savings in business, Denmark's Green Investment Fund will be increased by DKK 100 million per year from 2021-2024, which will give an extra loan limit of DKK 10 billion.
• A fund of DKK 100 million per year from 2021 to 2030 to support the conversion of smaller manufacturing companies to renewable energy.
• Legal requirements will be introduced for companies to implement energy efficiency improvements that pay for themselves over the years.
• Immediately stop plants using F-gases, unless there are no other technical possibilities, and a full end to their use in 2030. A fund of DKK 10 million per year will be set aside for smaller companies to phase out their use if they can demonstrate a payback period of more than five years. Otherwise it will be possible to borrow under the Danish Green Investment Fund.
• Immediately stop construction of new fossil fuel plants. This ban also applies to major renovations that will extend the life of fossil plants.
• Prohibit the use of coal, coke and petroleum coke from 2025 and impose requirements for the disposal of extremely polluting petrocox.
Phase out oil and gas production in the North Sea
The oil and gas production in the North Sea emits a very large amount of CO2, as do the refineries. In 2030, 1.1 million tonnes of CO2 will be discharged annually from the North Sea and 0.7 million tonnes from the refineries. In practice, it is almost impossible to do anything about these emissions without stopping the production of oil and gas in the North Sea. And this will not be possible by 2030 because of the bad agreement that a majority in the Folketing has entered into.
• Extraction licenses will be stopped as they expire and there will be no further rounds of tenders. Thus, the refineries will close down in the longer term.
• Until this happens, the companies will have to pay for their CO2 allowances from 2020, which they have previously received for free. The revenue will be included in a state forest fund for afforestation in the global south, which can absorb CO2.
Individual heating
Individual heating concerns homes that are not connected to district heating and gas networks. About 33 percent of emissions from individual heating comes from the 100,000 homes that today are still heated by oil furnaces, the rest from homes with natural gas fires.
The vast majority of these homes are located in areas where connection to the district heating network is expensive and inappropriate. The solution is therefore to replace natural gas and especially oil furnace with heat pumps, which are powered by electricity from renewable energy. The incentive to switch to heat pumps will be increased by introducing a tax on biomass.
• The support fund for replacing oil furnaces will be expanded to include gas and wood pellet boilers as well.
• The existing support fund will be increased to DKK 50 million annually and extended to 2027.
• The existing ban on the installation of oil furnaces will be extended to the whole country and to gas and wood pellet boilers.
Energy savings
In addition to energy savings in the industry as a result of payment for the CO2 quotas, we also need to start saving energy in new construction and in the existing building stock. Denmark has for many years focused on the fact that new construction must have a low energy requirement during the operating phase. As our energy use becomes increasingly sustainable, it becomes more important to focus on the construction phase itself - to make construction processes and building materials more sustainable.
In addition, a large number of private homes in peripheral areas lag behind with energy efficiency improvements. They have to be included in the green transition both for the sake of the climate and to ensure that everyone gets the financial gains from energy savings.
• Homeowners in the peripheral areas must be able to obtain favorable state-guaranteed loans under Denmark's Green Investment Fund for energy efficiency improvements. The loan will be repaid via savings on the energy bill.
• A fund of DKK 50 million will be set up for a free climate audit of homes in the outer areas.
• A plan will be drawn up for how the amount of wood can be increased in public buildings.
• The building regulations will be updated so that sustainable construction is taken into account.
• Requirements will be introduced for life cycle analysis for all major buildings.
• Requirements will be introduced for recycling and life cycle calculations in public tenders.
• It must be possible to make demands on the use of materials in municipal and in local plans.
• A central register of used building materials will be created.
Chapter 5 - Financing
This chapter describes the economic impact of the Red Green Alliance Climate Plan. Costs and financing are generally given as expected annual impact of the initiatives. The Climate Plan contains a number of temporary support schemes, funds, tax changes, etc to 2030, but these temporary measures do not significantly distort the calculation of permanent annual expenses and income. Therefore, revenue effects are calculated for three selected years.
Redistribution to those with the lowest incomes
It is a key point in this plan that the green transition should not reduce the disposable income of those who already have the least. Therefore, a considerable effort will be made to transfer the revenue from consumption taxes to an increase in the Green Check, which directly benefits pensioners and people with low incomes as described in Chapter 1. However, it cannot be guaranteed that no people with low incomes will be impacted, especially if they for some reason continue to have a high consumption of something that becomes taxable. Therefore, it is important to emphasise that the Red Green Alliance advocates a significant redistribution in favor of those with middle and low incomes. Specifically, we have proposed to make a particularly high personal allowance, which is tapered off for people with high incomes. This will give DKK 3,750 more a year to the approximately 2.2 million Danes with the lowest incomes. This is described and costed in "100 days with the Red Green Alliance" (enhedslisten.dk/100-dage).
Climate support for the poorest countries
The Red Green Alliance will increase the total climate support for poor countries to DKK 5 billion in total. This will be done by building on the already set-aside DKK 600 million in development assistance. In addition, the Red Green Alliance will re-prioritise DKK 1.1 billion of the business-oriented development assistance for climate assistance, and in addition, development assistance will be raised by DKK 3.7 billion towards 2030 as described and costed in "100 days with the Red Green Alliance" (enhedslisten.dk/100-dage) .
Transport
The transport section of the Red Green Alliance 's Climate Plan entails expenses of just over DKK 13 billion in 2030. By 2030, the Red Green Alliance’s plan was over-financed by almost ten billion. However, this is due to the fact that the plan is underfunded during the period 2020-2025. By 2026 and until 2030, on the other hand, the plan will be significantly over-financed and cover the deficit from previous years. In addition, taxes on air traffic and fossil fuels will be introduced and increased in passenger transport, where the proceeds will go directly to increasing the Green Check for those with the lowest incomes.
Below is a financial overview of three selected years. From the technical annex for financing the green transition of the transport, the effect on state finances is shown year by year. Over the entire period, there is an accumulated profit of DKK 6.4 billion. However, this will shrink after 2030.
Agriculture
The total public expenditure on the initiatives to reduce agriculture's climate-impacting emissions is estimated at DKK 8 billion a year in 2030 inclunding the subsidy model for agriculture, which is financed directly by the tax revenue from the CO2 tax. Without the revenue-neutral support scheme, public expenditure is estimated at DKK 1.8 billion per year.
It should be noted that:
• The proceeds from the CO2 tax will be fully used as a subsidy for a sustainable climate transition in agriculture.
• The setting-aside and reorganisation of agricultural land for nature and energy crops will be financed through the targeting of funds in the Rural Development Program.
Furthermore, it is proposed to finance the conversion to energy crops and the setting-aside of land for nature by transferring just over DKK 650 million annually from agricultural subsidies to rural development funds. The Red Green Alliance proposes to fund the remaining public spending by reducing spending on items in the current government's business packages.
Energy
The majority of the restructuring in the energy sector will be driven by business through the gradual phasing in of payment for CO2 emissions. They will be returned, revenue-neutral, for companies to use for green conversion. This means that there will be a great deal of self-financing of initiatives in the sector.
In addition, a number of funds will be set aside to support companies' restructuring within highly cost-intensive areas and support the design of public facilities for handling increased recycling and sustainable production. These reimbursement funds will be temporary.
Additionally, support must be provided for the conversion from coal, gas and biomass in district heating and for the further expansion of wind turbines due to the increased electricity consumption in our plan, which primarily comes from electric cars. With renewable energy prices, the plan is likely to be over-funded on this point.
Climate impact of the plan
With the Red Green Alliance's climate plan, Denmark will be on a course where in 2040 we will not emit more greenhouse gases than we can absorb. This plan fulfills our objectives and will therefore make the last part of the transition from 2030 to 2040 easier.
The Energy Agreement of 2018 and other, minor initiatives reduce Denmark's CO2 emissions by 2030 by ten million tons. The Red Green Alliance’s initiatives will further reduce Denmark's climate impact by over 21 million tonnes. If implemented, Danish CO2 emissions will be more than halved by 2030 compared to today.
Find the technical annexes for the entire climate plan at: enhedslisten.dk/klimaplan