Denmark: Governing party adopts ecocide law as official policy

Summary

At its national convention, Radikale Venstre, the Danish Social Liberal Party and a member of Denmark’s four-party coalition government, became the first Danish political party to formally adopt support for ecocide law at the national level, adopting an official resolution stating that the party will: ‘[…] work towards the international recognition of ecocide and towards criminalising ecocide under Danish criminal law’.

The resolution, which will be valid for the next three years, gives the party’s parliamentary group a clear mandate to work towards criminalising the most serious forms of environmental harm, both domestically in Denmark and internationally.

The development is particularly significant given Radikale Venstre’s role in Denmark’s government. The party is one of four members of the current governing coalition, has 10 MPs and holds three cabinet positions: Minister for Business and Competitiveness, Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities, and Minister for Culture. 

Momentum for ecocide law has been steadily growing in Denmark. Earlier this year, a group of businesses called on the Danish government to work towards an ecocide law. In 2025, local politicians expressed support for ecocide law during municipal elections, and the previous iteration of the government voted in favour of the IUCN’s Recognising the crime of ecocide to protect nature resolution.

Anne-Sofie Brødsgaard Sadolin, one of the initiators of the resolution, said:

“We cannot prompt ourselves to more nature. We cannot ask AI to remove the biodiversity crisis and give us more wild nature. It is us Danes who need to choose [...]. 

We need to have a biodiversity law that is part of the government platform, we need to ask for more room for nature and we need to dare to prioritise - and we need to have an ecocide law that ensures that we actually protect nature.”

Lars Olesen and Bart Bes, co-leads of Stop Ecocide Danmark, said:

“This is another important step towards political action to criminalise ecocide in Denmark. We send a big thank you to the initiators and members of Radikale Venstre for their work to put ecocide on the political agenda.”

You can watch Anne-Sofie Brødsgaard Sadolin’s intervention during the live-streamed Radikale national convention (Sept 19, 2026) here.