Green Tripartite: the agreement, its targets and what it means locally

What is the Green Tripartite?

The Agreement on a Green Denmark was concluded on 24 June 2024 between the government and the parties to the Green Tripartite: Landbrug & Fødevarer (Danish Agriculture & Food Council), Danmarks Naturfredningsforening (Danish Society for Nature Conservation), Fødevareforbundet NNF (Danish Food and Allied Workers' Union), Dansk Metal (Danish Metalworkers' Union), Dansk Industri (Confederation of Danish Industry) and KL (Local Government Denmark).

The agreement sets the framework for changes in land use and in food and agricultural production. It is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve conditions for nature, biodiversity, the aquatic environment and drinking water.

The key targets

According to the government's fact sheet, the agreement includes the following elements:

• Establishing 250,000 hectares of forest.
• Taking 140,000 hectares of carbon-rich lowland soils out of agricultural production, including adjacent land.
• A target of at least 20 per cent protected nature.
• Establishing Danmarks Grønne Arealfond (Denmark's Green Land Fund), with activities worth approximately DKK 40 billion.
• A CO2e tax on livestock emissions from 2030.
• Land-use conversion as the main driver of efforts to reduce nitrogen discharges and meet the targets of the EU Water Framework Directive.

Nitrogen and water bodies

SGAV (the Danish Agency for Green Land Use Conversion and Aquatic Environment) states that the aim of the Agreement on the Implementation of a Green Denmark is to reduce nitrogen discharges by a currently specified 13,800 tonnes. The required reductions are set out in Vandplan 3-II (Water Management Plan 3-II) and allocated across 108 sub-catchments, grouped into 37 hydrological coastal water groups.

A strengthened environmental guarantee applies from 2027 onwards, and the measures also include urgent action in the areas facing the greatest challenges and a new regulatory model.

From national agreement to local projects

The work has been devolved to 23 local green tripartite bodies, each of which drew up its own land-use conversion plan in 2025. Municipalities are the authorities responsible for land use and are responsible for the part of the plan within their municipal boundaries. The projects themselves are carried out by municipalities, landowners, private-sector actors or Naturstyrelsen (the Danish Nature Agency).

Planning, screening and status tracking take place in the MARS IT system, which Danmarks Miljøportal (the Danish Environmental Portal) developed for Styrelsen for Grøn Arealomlægning og Vandmiljø (SGAV).

What progress has been made?

KL's status report from May 2026 states that all 23 land-use conversion plans had been approved in principle by the end of 2025 and that the plans contain more than 5,600 potential projects. According to a data extract from MARS dated 6 May 2026, work had begun on 87,551 ha of lowland soils against the target of 140,000 ha. The figures change continually, so consult the status module in MARS for the latest figures.

Why documentation will be important

As thousands of projects move from feasibility studies to construction, many parties need to be able to see what an area looked like before and what has happened since. This includes the municipality as the competent authority, the landowner, foundations and the local tripartite bodies. A fixed, dated baseline makes it easier to demonstrate changes later and answer questions along the way.

This is the task Freyra addresses: drone photographs, public data and professional assessment brought together in a single documentation trail that sits alongside MARS rather than replacing it.