The New Zealand government has unveiled plans to introduce an environmental tax on cattle and sheep. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, of which animal husbandry is responsible for a large part.
New Zealand will impose a special tax on cattle and sheep to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farming. This would make the island nation the first country where ranchers have to pay a tax for methane emissions from their animals – Writes BBC.
The move is significant, given that New Zealand has just over 5 million people, but is home to about 10 million cattle and 26 million sheep.
Nearly half of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, primarily from methane. According to the proposal, farmers will have to pay for methane emissions from their animals from 2025.
The plan also includes incentives to help farmers reduce emissions, for example through certain feed additives. Moreover, planting trees on farms can help offset the effects of methane emissions.
The country’s Environmental Protection Ministry has announced that state revenue from the new tax will be used for research, development and advisory for farmers.
Incidentally, methane is the second most common greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, and is responsible for a third of the global warming caused by human activity. At the COP26 environmental conference last year, the United States and the European Union agreed to cut methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. More than 100 countries, including New Zealand, joined the initiative.
