NEW ZEALAND (Commonwealth Union)_To combat climate change, New Zealand has suggested charging the greenhouse gases that farm animals emit when they urinate and burp. Farmers will start paying for agricultural emissions under a revolutionary scheme by 2025.
About half of the nation’s emissions come from the agricultural sector. Farmers, however, have criticized the proposal as soon as it was announced, with one lobby group claiming that it would “tear the guts out of small-town New Zealand.”
The planned levy’s proceeds, according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, will be used to fund innovative technologies, research, and farmer incentive payments. “New Zealand farmers are set to be the first in the world to reduce agricultural emissions,” she told reporters. “Positioning our biggest export market for the competitive advantage that brings in a world that is increasingly discerning about the provenance of its food.”
She made the announcement from a farm in the Wairarapa. The government believes farmers should be able to cover the cost of the fee by charging more for climate-friendly produce, though the pricing has not yet been determined.
However, several farmers have criticized the ideas, claiming that they would lead to many of them selling out. According to Andrew Hoggard, national president of Federated Farmers, the proposal will “tear the guts out of small-town New Zealand,” forcing farmers to make way for trees. While considering alternate ideas, he continued, the body was “very unsatisfied” with the government’s relations with farmers. In the future, land will be sold by farmers “so quickly that you won’t even hear the dogs barking on the back of the ute (pickup truck) as they drive off,” he continued.
Some have also claimed that if food production were to shift to nations with less effective farming practices, the plans might actually result in an increase in emissions. 2019 saw record-high methane levels in the atmosphere, around 2.5 times higher than during the pre-industrial era.
