Farmers are outraged by a tax on the gases emitted by livestock

If methane from livestock burps is less abundant and more volatile in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, it interferes more strongly with climate change. According to scientists, since the Industrial Revolution, methane has been responsible for about 30% of global warming, although it makes up only a fraction of greenhouse gases.

Eager to better control the environmental footprint of its six million cows and 26 million sheep, the New Zealand government wants to tax methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Initially, the plan provided for a tax proportional to each breeder’s animal emissions.

Breeder in order to completely abandon the tax

Faced with the anger of the agricultural sector, the government has put forward new proposals, in particular to offset animal carbon emissions through forestry, consisting in the cultivation of plantation species that promote natural regeneration, in order to benefit from a lower tax.

For now, the breeders remain in their positions. They are calling for the abandonment of this new tax which could lead to higher prices and weaken the competitiveness of the New Zealand farming sector internationally.

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