The happiest countries in the world are looking beyond net zero

The world's happiest countries are moving forward with plans to achieve more than just net-zero emissions – even in the face of increasingly strong political backlash on both sides of the Atlantic.

Both Finland and Denmark are targeting “net negative emissions,” which scientists say can be achieved when the amount of carbon dioxide pulled from the atmosphere is greater than the amount emitted.

If this is achieved, the two Nordic countries will not only stop contributing to the climate crisis, but will actively help slow the pace of global warming.

Finland, recently crowned the happiest country in the world for the seventh year in a row, has enshrined what is considered one of the world's most ambitious climate goals into law. It aims to be the first high-income country to reach net zero emissions in 2035 and net negative emissions by 2040.

Denmark, which the World Happiness Report recognized as the second happiest country in the world, is targeting net zero by 2045 – and net negative by 2050.

Danish Climate Minister Lars Aagaard said the need for negative emissions was clear.

Speaking to CNBC by phone, he criticized critics of the country's goal. “If you're saying that, you should say the following sentence: 'Well, I don't want to use any products that emit anything, and I don't want to eat meat and so on.'

“I don't think people will accept such a future. Therefore, for us, negative emissions are needed, and we cannot meet our long-term climate commitments without them,” he added.

At the COP28 climate talks hosted by the United Arab Emirates late last year, Denmark, Finland and Panama launched the Group on Negative Emissions (GONE), a coalition of countries seeking to remove more planet-warming carbon dioxide than they produce.

The Danish-led group aims to achieve this goal by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, expanding forests and investing in new technologies. Panama, like other heavily forested “carbon sink” countries, already removes more carbon than it emits each year.

“It's time to discuss it now. We can't wait,” said Aagaard from Denmark.

He added that Denmark's ability to achieve net negative emissions will depend on the policies that are implemented over the next five to seven years.

It comes as Europe faces a green backlash – or “green backlash” – against policies designed to tackle the climate crisis and protect the environment.

Across the continent, frustrated farmers have taken to the streets in recent months to demand more exemptions from EU environmental regulations.

Nationalist and far-right parties – traditionally skeptical of climate issues – have been vocal critics of green policies. Its popularity is increasing in countries such as Germany and France ahead of the European parliamentary elections.

In the United States, too, climate policy has become something of a political flashpoint. Former US President Donald Trump, the most likely candidate to challenge US President Joe Biden in the November elections, often said in his campaign speeches that he intends to “drill, baby, drill” if he is elected president, in reference to oil production.

Trump also strongly criticized incentives for electric cars, and previously withdrew the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement, a decision that Biden later reversed.

Finnish Climate Minister Kai Mikkanen said a large parliamentary majority believes leaving fossil fuels is “the right thing to do,” adding that the government is determined to increase its so-called “climate footprint.”

“I have been emphasizing for more than a decade that, for example, if we learn how to heat the Helsinki region of about 1.5 million people without burning any significant fuel, then we are actually creating a test bed for a large number of people,” Mikanen said. “Large-scale heat pumps or excess heat storage systems that we can then scale up in other countries,” he told CNBC by phone.

He continued: “Finland is, of course, a small player in its own right. Our share of global emissions is about 0.1%, so we cannot change the trend of climate change alone.”

“But the meaning of our life comes from the fact that if we can create such an innovation, which we can then bring, for example, to Montreal and Beijing (and) hopefully one day to Moscow… then our footprint becomes many times larger than “Our hands are traces.”

Finland's four-party coalition government includes the far-right Finns Party, the country's only major parliamentary party that opposes domestic climate measures.

As a result, Mikanen said the government had to orchestrate a delicate balancing act in order to stay committed to the country's long-term climate goals.

“Basically, the balanced compromise that is already in the government's program is: yes, we are committed to moving towards climate neutrality, keeping 2035 as the target, but in ways that do not increase everyday costs for ordinary people or weaken our competitiveness,” Mikanen said. “That's the primary goal we have.”

The Finnish Climate Minister stressed that his country's efforts to reach net negative emissions should not be interpreted as a reason for other European countries to continue burning fossil fuels in a business-as-usual manner.

“It is unacceptable that we invest in, for example, biocarbon capture and storage, and then others approve their fossil factories in the 2040s. That's not the idea,” Mikkanen said.