Leave it to a country like New Zealand to implement this policy. They’re planning to levy farmers for methane emissions from their livestock. Some even suggest alternative protein sources like insects for our diets. Many people are frustrated with these climate change measures.
via YAHOO:
New Zealand has a plan to tax farmers for their livestock’s burps and farts — and it’s causing a stink ahead of Saturday’s general elections.
The economy is driven by agriculture with around 10 million cattle and 25 million sheep roaming the nation’s pastures.
So in the fight against climate change, New Zealand’s government has targeted livestock as it drives towards a target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Just under half of New Zealand’s emissions come from agriculture, and cattle are the main culprits.
Their belches and farts contain methane, which is far less abundant in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but is responsible for around 30 percent of the global rise in temperatures to date.
To help combat global warming, New Zealand was one of the first countries to announce it will start pricing agricultural emissions — in effect taxing burps and farts from livestock.
Farmers will be taxed according to farm area, livestock numbers, production and their use of nitrogen fertiliser, in an effort to cut agricultural emissions by between 24 and 47 percent by 2050.
h/t Jay3