New Zealand wants to tax cow farts to fight climate change
New Zealand on Tuesday unveiled plans to tax greenhouse gas emissions from farm animals, part of a controversial proposal to Fighting climate change. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the tax would be the first of its kind in the world.
The gases emitted naturally from 6.2 million New Zealand cows are among the country’s biggest environmental problems. Under the scheme, farmers pay for their animals’ gaseous emissions, such as methane from cows’ wind and belching, and nitrous oxide from livestock urine.
Jacinda Ardern told farmers that they should be able to get their money back, by raising prices for their climate-friendly produce.
She said the “realistic proposal” would reduce agricultural emissions while making products more environmentally friendly, thus strengthening New Zealand’s “export brand”.
Encouraging tree planting
The government hopes that its bill will be signed next year and the tax can be introduced within three years. But with elections scheduled for fifteen months in New Zealand, the scheme could cost Jacinda Ardern rural ballots, as farmers were quick to denounce the plan.
Andrew Hoggard, head of the Federal Farmers Lobby, said the scheme would “take courage from New Zealand’s small towns”.
He said the tax could incentivize farmers to plant trees in fields currently used for livestock. Beef + Lamb New Zealand, which represents the country’s sheep and cattle breeders, says the plan ignores rural measures already in place to tackle greenhouse gases.
“New Zealand farmers have more than 1.4 million hectares of primeval forest on their land that absorbs carbon,” said CEO Andrew Morrison.
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