New Zealand has unveiled a plan to tax sheep and cattle burping in a bid to tackle one of the country’s biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. If the plan comes to fruition, New Zealand would be the first country to charge farmers for methane emissions from their animals.
New Zealand is home to just over five million people. And the country has about 10 million cattle and 26 million sheep.
Nearly half of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture — primarily methane.
However, agricultural emissions had not previously been included in New Zealand’s carbon trading scheme. This has been criticized by those calling for the government to do more to combat 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 how we achieve this,” said New Zealand climate change minister James Shaw.
Under the proposal, farmers will have to pay for their emissions from 2025 onwards. The plan also includes incentives for farmers to reduce emissions through food additives, and planting trees on farms can be used to offset emissions. .
Andrew Hoggard, who is a dairy farmer and national president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Federation, told the BBC that he approves of the proposals.
“We’ve been working with the government and other organizations on this for years to come up with a plan that doesn’t harm agriculture in New Zealand.”
“But you know, like all these kinds of multi-party deals, there’s always going to be some frogs you have to swallow,” he added.
Hoggard says the details of implementing the plan have yet to be agreed.
The money raised from the tax will be invested in research, development and consulting services for farmers, says the country’s Ministry of the Environment.
Last month, New Zealand’s finance minister announced 10 billion reais for climate change initiatives, which would be financed by a carbon emissions trading system that taxes polluters.
Investors managing US$14 trillion in assets have urged the United Nations to create a global plan to make the agricultural sector sustainable.
In a letter to the director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which was released by Reuters, the FAIRR Initiative says the UN agency is well positioned to lead the creation of a plan to contain one of the biggest sources of harmful emissions. to the weather.
Methane is the second most common greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2), responsible for a third of the current warming attributed to human activities. Each molecule of methane has a more powerful warming effect on the atmosphere than each molecule of CO2.
At last year’s COP26 environmental conference in Glasgow, the US and the European Union agreed to reduce gas emissions by 30% by 2030. More than 100 countries, including New Zealand, have also joined the initiative.
How is methane emitted?
About 40% of methane comes from natural sources such as swamps, but most of it comes from a range of human activities such as agriculture, livestock and even landfills.
One of its biggest sources is the production, transport and use of natural gas. Since 2008 there has been a huge increase in methane emissions, which researchers believe is linked to the boom in the activity known as hydraulic fracturing, in gas exploration in parts of the US.
In 2019, methane in the atmosphere reached record levels, about two-and-a-half times above the pre-industrial-era level.
What worries scientists is that methane greatly heats the planet. Over a period of 100 years, it has warmed the planet at a rate 28 to 34 times faster than CO2.
Over a 20-year period, it is about 84 times more powerful per unit mass than carbon dioxide. However, there is much more CO2 than methane in the atmosphere and individual CO2 molecules can remain there for hundreds of years.
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