New Zealand farmers could be taxed after burping sheep and cattle He writes BBC. With the plan, they intend to act against the emission of greenhouse gases.
If the measure were introduced, New Zealand would be the first country to charge farmers for methane emissions from their livestock. New Zealand has just over 5 million people, about 10 million cattle, and 26 million sheep.
Agriculture is responsible for nearly half of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
However, agricultural sector emissions data had not previously been included in New Zealand’s emissions trading system. This practice drew much criticism from those who called on the government to do more to stop global warming.
There is no doubt that we need to reduce the amount of methane we are putting into the atmosphere, and an effective emissions pricing system for agriculture will play a key role in achieving this.
said James Shaw, New Zealand’s Minister for Climate Change.
According to the proposal, farmers will have to pay for the gas emissions from their animals from 2025.
Photo: CARSTEN REHDER/dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP
Andrew Hoggard, the national president of Federal Farmers New Zealand, a dairy farmer, told the BBC he largely agreed with the proposals.
We have been working with government and other organizations on this issue for years to find an approach that will not shut down New Zealand agriculture
– he said, indicating that certain details of the implementation of the plan have not yet been agreed upon.
According to the concerned ministry, the funds received from the program will be used for research, development and consultancy for farmers. Last month, New Zealand’s finance minister set aside NZ$2.9 billion for climate change initiatives, which would be funded through an emissions trading scheme that would tax polluters.
Methane is the second most common greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and is responsible for a third of current human-caused warming. At last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, the USA and the European Union agreed to cut gas emissions by 30% by 2030. More than 100 countries, including New Zealand, have joined the initiative.
About 40 percent of methane emissions come from natural sources, but the bulk of them can now be linked to human activities – for example, agriculture and animal husbandry or natural gas extraction. Since 2008, methane emissions have skyrocketed, which researchers say is linked to a boom in natural gas production in parts of the United States.
The amount of methane measured in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2019,
About one and a half times the value measured in the pre-industrial era.
This is worrying because scientists say methane has real power when it comes to heating up the planet. Given a period of 100 years, its temperature rises 28-34 times more than carbon dioxide. However, there is much more carbon dioxide than methane in the atmosphere, and some of its molecules can remain there for hundreds of years.
