It’s an ambitious goal: the New Zealand government has stated that it intends to make the country carbon neutral by 2050. To this end, New Zealand farmers are to pay a levy on agricultural emissions from 2025 – a move that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says is a world first. In other words, farmers will in future be taxed for the farts of their cows, sheep and other livestock. Ardern said so in Wellington on Tuesday.
The government’s move affects a large industry: New Zealand’s agriculture is vital to the country’s economy. Dairy products, including those used to make infant formula in China, are the country’s largest export. Around five million inhabitants face around ten million cattle or dairy cattle and 26 million sheep – according to experts, half of all greenhouse gas emissions come from farms.
The scheme is set to come into effect by 2025 and will oblige farmers to pay a regulated price for their methane and carbon dioxide emissions. According to Ardern, this will allow the South Pacific country to meet its statutory goal of reducing methane emissions to 10 percent below 2017 levels by 2030. Taxation will also mean that New Zealand farmers are world leaders in reducing emissions, “which will give us a competitive advantage and strengthen our export brand,” said the Prime Minister. “No other country in the world has yet developed a system for pricing and reducing agricultural emissions, so our farmers will benefit from being the frontrunners.”
However, farmers are upset and concerned about the reduction in food production that will come with the taxation. The Lobby Group Federated Farmers fears some farmers will abandon their land as the costs become too high for them. Andrew Hoggard, President of Federated Farmers, said farmers had been trying for more than two years to work with the government on an emissions reduction plan that would not reduce food production, according to the report. “Our plan was to continue farming,” says Hoggard. Instead, farmers are now selling their farms “so fast you won’t even hear the dogs in the back of the pickup truck barking as they pull away.” The plan will “rip the guts out of New Zealand’s small towns and put trees in the place of farms,” Hoggard said.
The government acknowledges that emissions reductions are to be achieved through land use change, as well as through increasing agricultural efficiency and reducing emissions. The price to be paid by the farmers for the emissions from their animals is set on the basis of the recommendations of the climate commission, and the prices are set annually.
According to Ardern, any royalties derived from the taxation will be channeled back into industry to fund new technology, research and incentive payments to farmers. In this way, the costs for the farmers could ultimately be amortized again.
The idea of a “fart tax” isn’t entirely new: as early as 2003, a Labor government tried to tax New Zealand livestock for their methane emissions, but abandoned the plan after protests. Now a group called the He Waka Eke Noa Climate Partnership has come up with new proposals. Farmers associations that participated in the He Waka Eke Noa partnership, including DairyNZ and the Meat Industry Association, however, following Ardern’s statement, state that further discussion is required. After all, the government has not adopted the jointly developed recommendations in some areas. “The government has proposed alternative approaches in a number of areas that could fundamentally change the balance and have a significant impact on sheep, cattle and wildlife farmers,” says Kelly Forster. Entries can be made until November 18th. Also a acid test for Ardern’s government. Elections are due in New Zealand in 2023.