Denmark commits to reducing ammonia emissions from agriculture

In January, Danish Minister of the Environment, Lea Wermelin set up an expert committee to look at measures to reduce ammonia emissions. The committee is now ready with a number of measures.

Denmark has committed to reducing ammonia emissions by 24% in 2020 compared to 2005 in order to comply with the EU's NEC directive. 94 percent of ammonia emissions come from agriculture. About half comes from agricultural land, while the other half is discharged from barns and manure pits.

The so-called NEC committee consists of representatives from Agriculture & Food, the Danish Society for Nature Conservation, SEGES, the Danish Agroindustry and Aarhus University. Their professional reports include:

• Voluntary agreements on less crude protein in feed for fattening pigs and dairy cattle.
• Increased use of tent covering of manure holdings.
• One month extension of the period during which it is generally forbidden to apply liquid livestock manure.