2030 climate targets: What is Denmark's winning formula?

Greenhouse gas emissions will have been slashed by 70 percent between 1990 and 2030, if Denmark delivers on its climate targets – a goal which the country seems quietly confident it can reach.

Klimarådet, the government-appointed Danish Council on Climate Change, announced last week that Denmark is on course to meet its 2025 climate target of accumulated cuts of 50-54 percent, as Reuters reports. The council also suggested Denmark would reach its 2030 target as long as it delivered on its stated plans.

Renewables, electrification and carbon capture

Impact Loop has taken a look at Klimarådet's report, which shows Denmark is forging ahead in several key areas. It is rapidly expanding renewable energy with ambitious wind and solar power deployment, while setting a clear timeline to eliminate coal by 2029. Across the country, widespread electrification is transforming transportation, heating and industrial sectors.

A success story in a world of gloomy climate news

Meanwhile, strategic investments in carbon capture technologies aim to tackle emissions from harder-to-abate industries. Energy efficiency improvements have led to notable reductions in gas consumption alongside increased biogas utilisation.

"This is a success story in a world of gloomy climate news," the Danish Council on Climate Change said in the report, released last Thursday.

However the report warns that while Denmark is moving in the right direction, there remains some uncertainty around the level of emissions in five years' time, in particular from industry and the agriculture sector. "There is still a significant risk of missing the target and significant implementation efforts are still needed to reach the goal," its authors wrote.

In November Denmark became the first country on the planet to pass a law that will put a CO2 tax on livestock carbon dioxide emissions. As Reuters reports, this regulation is likely to prove vital in helping the country to achieve its targets into the 2030s.

'Backsliding' in the rest of Europe

Denmark’s initiatives are in the spotlight as other countries' pledges still appear to fall short of what is needed to reach their Paris Agreement targets, and many have yet to update their plans for the next decade.

According to UK-based climate data news site Carbon Brief, 95 percent of the nearly 200 countries signed up to the agreement failed to reach a February deadline to submit new national climate plans to the U.N. The Guardian has described the situation as “backsliding”.