New Zealand proposed a new plan for tackling climate change — taxing burps and pee from farm animals
"This is an important step forward in New Zealand's transition to a low emissions future," Prime Minister Jacinda Arden said in a press release.
WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images
- Half of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions come from farms.
- The country proposed taxing animal burps and pee in an effort to curb emissions, the Associated Press reported.
- The proposal is a first worldwide and is part of a plan to curb climate change.
New Zealand proposed a unique way of tackling climate change on Tuesday putting forward a bill that would tax burps and pee from farm animals, the Associated Press reported.
The tax would be the first of its kind, according to a statement from Prime Minister Jacinda Arden's office.
"No other country in the world has yet developed a system for pricing and reducing agricultural emissions, so our farmers are set to benefit from being first movers," the press release released on Tuesday said.
The initiative would be to curb the emission of greenhouse gases, with Arden's administration suggesting that farmers could recover the lost income to taxes by charging more for products, the AP reported.
"This is an important step forward in New Zealand's transition to a low emissions future and delivers on our promise to price agriculture emissions from 2025," the release said.
New Zealand's largest export is dairy and farmers are upset about the proposal. CNN reported that while the country only has 5 million people, it has around 10 million beef and dairy cattle and 26 million sheep. That has resulted in half of the country's greenhouse gas emissions coming from farms.
Cattle in particular increase greenhouse gases including methane that's released in their burps and nitrous oxide from their urine. Those two gases warm the planet.
The farming industry's leading lobbying group told the AP that the plan would force farmers to sell their farms and leave.
"Our plan was to keep farmers farming," Federated Farmers President Andrew Hoggard said in a statement. "Now they'll be selling up so fast you won't even hear the dogs barking on the back of the ute as they drive off."
Lawmakers opposed to the plan have argued that it could increase emissions in other parts of the world as new places pick up the demand.
The proposed plan would take effect in 2025 but no tax rate has been proposed yet, the AP reported.