New Zealand mulls over pricing livestock burps to reduce greenhouse gases

New Zealand released a draft plan to put a price on agricultural and livestock emissions to tackle one of the nation’s most significant sources of greenhouse gases, burping cattle and sheep.

The proposal would make New Zealand, a prominent agricultural exporter, the first nation to have farmers pay for emissions from livestock, New Zealand’s Ministry for Environment said.

New Zealand has nearly 16 million sheep and 10 million cattle and a population of 5 million people.

Nearly half of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mainly methane. Still, agricultural emissions have previously been exempted from the nation’s emissions have previously been exempted from the nation’s emissions trading scheme, drawing criticism of the government’s commitment to halt global warming.

Under the nation’s draft plan, put together by the farm community and government representatives, farmers will be required to pay for their gas emissions from 2025. There will be a different price for short-and long-lived farm gas, although the government will use a single measure to calculate their volume.

The proposal includes incentives for agriculturalists who reduce emissions through feed activities, while on-farm forestry can be used to offset emissions. Revenue from the plan will be invested in research, development, and advisory services for farmers.

Susan Kirby, an agricultural economist at ANZ Bank, said the proposal would potentially be the most significant regulatory disruption to farming since the removal of agricultural subsidies in New Zealand in the 1980s.