Denmark Introduces Green Tax on Airline Passengers

Passengers at the booths of Scandinavian airline SAS in the departure hall at Copenhagen Kastrup airport, Denmark, on July 4, 2022. OLAFUR STEINAR GESTSSON / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images

Denmark’s government announced that it is introducing a green tax on air travel, to be phased in starting in 2025.

The tax will be added to plane tickets, and the country is encouraging other European Union member states to follow its lead, reported AFP.

“The transport sector is currently undertaking a rapid green transition, and with this agreement, this also concerns aviation,” said Thomas Danielsen, minister of transportation, in a statement, as AFP reported. “It will still be possible to fly, but it must be possible to do this in an environmentally friendly way.”

The tax will apply to flights leaving from Denmark but not those connecting through the country.

A statement from the Danish Ministry of Taxation said the new tax will be approximately $7.35 per passenger for flights within Europe by 2030, $45.33 for medium-distance flights and $59.95 for long flights, reported Reuters.

“I imagine that as the years go by we shall have common European regulation in this area. That would be the right way forward,” said Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard, as AFP reported.

Revenue from the new measure is expected to contribute to sustainable fuel use in domestic air transportation by the end of the decade, as well as a pensioner bonus increase of approximately $2.18 billion annually for those receiving the smallest benefits.

According to Our World in Data, transportation as a whole makes up about a quarter of the energy sector’s global carbon footprint. The website pointed out that cycling and walking were pretty much always the least carbon-intensive modes of transportation, adding that, for shorter trips, biking instead of driving a car reduces travel emissions by approximately 75 percent.

Meanwhile, domestic air travel is the most carbon-intensive way to get around.

“Flying takes a toll on the climate, which is why we need to equip our flight sector with green wings,” Aagaard said after the measure was first proposed last month, as reported by The Washington Post.

According to the International Energy Agency, two percent of all carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector came from the aviation industry in 2022.

“Many technical measures related to low-emission fuels, improvements in airframes and engines, operational optimisation and demand restraint solutions are needed to curb growth in emissions and ultimately reduce them this decade in order to get on track with the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) Scenario,” the IEA website said.

The Danish government’s goal is to have the nation’s first exclusively green-fueled domestic route operating by 2025, CNN reported.

“The aviation sector in Denmark must – just like all other industries – reduce its climate footprint and move towards a green future,” Aagaard said in November, as reported by CNN.

Subscribe to get exclusive updates in our daily newsletter!