Denmark cannot avoid diesel tax, says foreign minister

A diesel tax is unavoidable if Denmark is to reach its climate targets by 2025, Foreign Minister and Moderate Party leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Løkke emphasised, however, that this is the Moderate Party’s position and that it has not been agreed with the rest of the government. His party (member of Renew Europe in the European Parliament) and the Liberals entered a centrist coalition dominated by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats.

“We want to guarantee that we reach the 2025 targets in an evidence-based way, where there is no professional doubt that the targets will be reached”, he said. “If you have that ambition, you can’t avoid looking at the transport sector, and you can’t avoid discussing the diesel tax,” he added.

“That is the signal we are sending as a political party, and it is not the government that is sending that signal”, he said.

However, the Moderates hold the ministerial post in the climate area, with Climate Minister Lars Aagaard being a member of Rasmussen’s Moderate party.

So far, the government and Lars Aagaard have believed that Denmark could achieve the goal of reducing Denmark’s CO2 emissions by 50-54 per cent by 2025 with the so-called “blending requirement.”

The blending requirement is intended to ensure that more biofuel is used in petrol and diesel cars to reach the 2025 target. However, this proposal has been harshly criticised by several opposition parties considering it unambitious.

The Danish Council on Climate Change has instead pointed to a higher tax on diesel as an easier way to reach the 2025 target. A tax that would primarily affect lorries in the business sector.

“I certainly agree with Lars Løkke Rasmussen that we must reach the 2025 target. There is no doubt about that. As part of a former Social Democratic government, we have set perhaps the world’s most ambitious climate goals, which must be achieved,” declared Social Democrats political spokesman Christian Rabjerg Madsen in the Danish media.

“We are currently having a discussion with the parties about which specific measures we will use,” he added, thus neither confirming nor denying the decision to adopt a diesel tax at a government level.

The parties in the Danish Parliament are currently negotiating in the Ministry of Climate on the path to reaching the 2025 target, and there, a diesel tax has also been discussed.

During the negotiations, a memo from the Ministry of Climate showed that private drivers would not be affected too much by such a tax if it was introduced together with tax cuts. On the other hand, business drivers will be affected, as a higher diesel tax is estimated to cost Danish companies DKK 900 million (€120 million).

The memo also argues that it would be far more effective in achieving the climate target to increase the tax on diesel than to increase the amount of biofuel in cars.

(Charles Szumski | EURACTIV.com)

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