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 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.
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.
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.
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.
