Denmark is failing to transition to sustainable food production systems. Agriculture and especially livestock farming is responsible for almost 27% of Danish greenhouse gas emissions, and 95% of its nitrate emissions. Feasible transition scenarios to fulfill Denmark’s international commitments involve our government immediately downscaling intensive animal farming and abandoning their over-reliance on techno-fixes to instead focus on sustainable long-term solutions.

On April 28th, 2023, we joined a city-wide protest in Copenhagen, demanding that Denmark keep its promises of having 30% of its territory as protected natural areas, stop new loans for industrial animal agriculture and finally ban pesticides. The event was named “Befri Jorden” (“Liberate the Earth”) and included direct action by citizens from all over Denmark. It was organized by civil society organizations including Extinct Rebellion, Scientist Rebellion, Greenpeace, Landsforeningen mod Svinefabrikker, Global Aktion and many others.

The carbon footprint of Danske Bank’s is approximately equal to that of the entire domestic emissions of Denmark. Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, the bank has financed the fossil fuel industry with DKK 100 billion. As of November 2022, Danske Bank had DKK 8.4 billion invested in companies looking for new oil & gas. Its climate action plan issued on January 2023, pretends to be finally willing to align with the Paris Agreement. However, the new plan allows them to keep investing in any oil & gas company, and they will keep financing those involved in transporting, storing, refining or marketing for oil & gas. The bank will also keep financing “green projects” of dirty companies, which frees up money for their climate-damaging activities. This type of loan is recognized as a loophole by the European Investment Bank, which therefore stopped this type of lending in 2021. This isn’t climate action, this can’t even be called climate inaction. This is active and criminal participation in a crisis that is destroying ecosystems, and destroying communities around the world. Danske Bank’s plan is pure greenwashing.

On November 16th, 2022, researchers and students put on orange vests and helmets, and started digging through the center courtyard at the Danish Technical University (DTU). With shovels, they dug up the earth and laid out a mock ‘oil pipe’, with a sign that read: “Here oil pipes are being built by TotalEnergies in collaboration with DTU Offshore”.

The action was in partnership with the student group Divest DTU (divestdtu.dk). We were protesting over the fact that DTU had just signed a collaboration contract of approximately 1 trillion DKK, with oil and gas giant TotalEnergies. The oil industry is the main culprit in the climate catastrophe. TotalEnergies is the 3rd largest fossil company in the world, and has clearly shown that they will continue their oil sales, regardless of the imminent danger of climate collapse. DTU also hosts the DTU Offshore Centre, financed by Total and Noreco Oil. The centre is a research institute dedicated to find ways to extract more oil and gas from the North Sea. Its steering committee is made up almost entirely of oil industry representatives, with half of the seats occupied by TotalEnergies executives alone. Meanwhile, DTU continues doing business with TotalEnergies. The pipeline was meant as an image of the destruction of nature and people’s homes that the oil industry creates with oil pipelines such as Baltic Pipe in Denmark and EACOP in Africa.

In October 2022, scientists from Scientist Rebellion Denmark joined the international campaign Unite Against Climate Failure, which gathered over 80 scientists from around the world in Germany. The campaign demanded that the German government - the largest cumulative CO2 emitter in all of Europe - admit failure: there is now no politically viable pathway for staying below the global 1.5°C warming limit. The government must act on this failure and take emergency action. We interrupted the German chancellor’s speech at the WHO summit in Berlin, sounding the fire alarm of the hotel where he was speaking, to signify that he must immediately put his government in climate emergency mode.

The Danish government sells itself as being a “climate government” while at the same time expanding fossil infrastructure: creating new gas pipelines, continuing extraction of oil in the North Sea for the next 20 years, and advancing a massive highway expansion project throughout the country. They have also defunded their own Climate Council, demonstrating they have little interest in fulfilling their obligations under the 2020 Climate Law, let alone taking meaningful climate action. Thus, they are lying to the Danish public. Despite decades of scientific warnings, we remain on track for an unlivable world. In this campaign, we demand honesty about the Danish government’s failure to protect us from the worst consequences of climate breakdown, and take emergency action on climate.