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Environment



European Environment Agency in Copenhagen



Iceberg near Greenland coast.

Land and water pollution are two of Denmark's most significant environmental issues, although much of the country's household and industrial waste is now increasingly filtered and sometimes recycled. The country has historically taken a progressive stance on environmental preservation; in 1971 Denmark established a Ministry of Environment and was the first country in the world to implement an environmental law in 1973.^[64] To mitigate environmental degradation and global warmingthe Danish Government has signed the Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol.^[65] However, the national ecological footprint is 8.26 global hectares per person, which is very high compared to a world average of 1.7 in 2010.^[66] Contributing factors to this value are an exceptional high value for cropland but also a relatively high value for grazing land,^[67] which may be explained by the substantially high meat production in Denmark (115.8 kilograms (255 lb) meat annually per capita) and the large economic role of the meat and dairy industries.^[68] In December 2014, the Climate Change Performance Index for 2015 placed Denmark at the top of the table, explaining that although emissions are still quite high, the country was able to implement effective climate protection policies.^[69]

Denmark has an outstanding performance in the global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) with an overall ranking of 4 out of 180 countries in 2016. This recent and significant increase in ranking and performance is mostly due to remarkable achievements in energy efficiency and reductions in CO2 emission levels. A future implementation of air quality improvements are expected. The EPI was established in 2001 by the World Economic Forum as a global gauge to measure how well individual countries perform in implementing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The environmental areas where Denmark performs best (i.e. lowest ranking) are sanitation (12), water resource management (13) and health impacts of environmental issues (14), followed closely by the area of biodiversity and habitat. The latter are due to the many protection laws and protected areas of significance within the country even though the EPI is not considering how well these laws and regulations are affecting the current biodiversity and habitats in reality; one of many weaknesses in the EPI.^[70] Denmark performs worst (i.e. highest ranking) in the areas of environmental effects of fisheries (128)^[71] and forest management (96). The very poor ranking in the fisheries area are due to alarmingly low and continually rapidly declining fish stocks, placing Denmark among the worst performing countries of the world.^[72][73] Denmark's territories, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, catch approximately 650 whales per year.^[74][75] Greenland's quotas for the catch of whales are determined according to the advice of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), having quota decision-making powers.^[76]

Administrative divisions

Main articles: Regions of Denmark and Municipalities of Denmark

Also related: Municipalities of the Faroe Islands and Municipalities of Greenland



Midtjylland

Nordjylland

Syddanmark

Hovedstaden

Sjælland

Denmark, with a total area of 43,094 square kilometres (16,639 sq mi), is divided into five administrative regions (Danish: regioner). The regions are further subdivided into 98 municipalities (kommuner). The easternmost land in Denmark, the Ertholmene archipelago, with an area of 39 hectares (0.16 sq mi), is neither part of a municipality nor a region but belongs to the Ministry of Defence.^[77]

The regions were created on 1 January 2007 to replace the 16 former counties. At the same time, smaller municipalities were merged into larger units, reducing the number from 270. Most municipalities have a population of at least 20,000 to give them financial and professional sustainability, although a few exceptions were made to this rule.^[78] The administrative divisions are led by directly elected councils, elected proportionally every four years; the most recent Danish local electionswere held on 21 November 2017. Other regional structures use the municipal boundaries as a layout, including the police districts, the court districts and the electoral wards.

Regions

The governing bodies of the regions are the regional councils, each with forty-one councillors elected for four-year terms. The councils are headed by regional district chairmen (regionsrådsformanden), who are elected by the council.^[79] The areas of responsibility for the regional councils are the national health service, social services and regional development.^[79][80] Unlike the counties they replaced, the regions are not allowed to levy taxes and the health service is partly financed by a national health care contribution until 2018 (sundhedsbidrag), partly by funds from both government and municipalities.^[18] From 1 January 2019 this contribution will be abolished, as it is being replaced by higher income tax instead.

The area and populations of the regions vary widely; for example, the Capital Region, which encompasses the Copenhagen metropolitan area with the exception of the subtracted province East Zealand but includes the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, has a population three times larger than that of North Denmark Region, which covers the more sparsely populated area of northern Jutland. Under the county system certain densely populated municipalities, such as Copenhagen Municipality and Frederiksberg, had been given a status equivalent to that of counties, making them first-level administrative divisions. These sui generis municipalities were incorporated into the new regions under the 2007 reforms.

Danish name